Mansöngr

A mansǫngr (literally 'maiden-song'; plural mansǫngvar; modern Icelandic mansöngur, plural mansöngvar) is a form of Icelandic poetry. In scholarly usage it has often been applied to medieval skaldic love-poetry; and it is used of lyric openings to rímur throughout the Icelandic literary tradition.

Skaldic love-poetry and erotic poems in Old Norse-Icelandic are often characterised in modern scholarship as mansöngvar. However, Edith Marold and Bjarni Einarsson have argued that the term mansöngr has been over-used in medieval scholarship, being applied to love-poems which we have no evidence were actually viewed as mansöngvar. Many medieval references to mansöngvar are not accompanied by the poem in question, and the boundaries of the genre are thus disputed. The Icelandic Homily Book (from c. 1200) mentions mansöngr in connection with the music of David and Solomon.

In Egils saga, the poet Egill Skallagrímsson recites a poem about a woman to his friend Arinbjörn. Arinbjörn asks Egill for whom he has composed this mansöngr and Egill recites another poem before revealing that the subject of both is Arinbjörn's kinswoman Ásgerðr, the widow of Egill's brother Þórólfr (Thorolf). Egill requests Arinbjörn's help in arranging his marriage with Ásgerðr, and the mansöngvar are thus a prelude to an open declaration of love and a marriage petition.

Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld's poems to Kolfinna Ávaldadóttir are also described as mansöngvar in Hallfreðar saga, but the saga depicts Hallfreðr as resisting attempts to organise Kolfinna's marriage to both himself and other men. The saga portrays Hallfreðr's erotic poetry about Kolfinna and his libellous verses on Kolfinna's husband, Grís, as destructive in nature - objectifying Kolfinna while inciting her family to violence. Only through his relationship with his King Ólafr Tryggvason (his eventual godfather) and his spiritual poems does Hallfreðr find redemption and maturity and eventually express regret for the sorrow he has caused Kolfinna.

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