Þjóðólfr Arnórsson

Þjóðólfr Arnórsson was an 11th-century Icelandic skáld, who spent his career as a court poet to the Norwegian kings Magnus the Good and Harald Hardrada and is thought to have died with the latter at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.

Þjóðólfr was born in approximately 1010 in Svarfaðardalur, where his father was a poor farmer. A rival skáld, Sneglu-Halli, told a coarse story about his father at court; in one report of this, he is called Þorljót rather than Arnórr.

He was in Norway between 1031 and 1035, when he composed a poem about Harald Þorkelson of Denmark, who was there at that time. By 1045 he had become a court poet, and after the death of Magnus the Good in 1047, was closely associated with his successor, Harald Hardrada. A story told in both the Heimskringla and Flateyjarbók sagas of Harald Hardrada tells how the king and Þjóðólfr were walking in Trondheim one day and heard a tanner and a smith having a dispute; the king challenged the skáld to make a verse about the incident, but Þjóðólfr at first declined, since it would be inappropriate to his station, "seeing that I am called your Chief Skald". The king then specified that he was to make the verses with the combatants being Sigurðr and Fafnir and then Thor and Geirröðr, but using kennings suited to the men's actual professions, both of which Þjóðólfr did, in a "playful tour de force".

His last verse was composed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, so he is often believed to have died there with Harald. According to the saga, the wounded king called to him, "Come here and support my head ...—long have I held up your head [i.e., supported and favored you]."

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