Skaldic poetry

The term skald or skáld (Icelandic: [ˈskault]), meaning ‘poet’, is generally used for poets who composed at the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. Skaldic poetry forms one of two main groupings of Old Norse poetry, the other being the anonymous Eddic poetry.

The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is dróttkvætt. The subject is usually historical and encomiastic, detailing the deeds of the skald's patron. There is no evidence that the skalds employed musical instruments, but some speculate that they may have accompanied their verses with the harp or lyre.

The technical demands of the skaldic form were equal to the complicated verse forms mastered by the Welsh bards and Gaelic (in both Scotland and Ireland) ollaves. Like those poets, much skaldic verse consisted of panegyrics to kings and aristocrats or memorials and testimonials to their battles.

The word skald is perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *skalliz "sound, voice, shout" (Old High German skal "sound"). Old High German has skalsang "song of praise, psalm", and skellan means "ring, clang, resound". The Old High German variant stem skeltan etymologically identical to the skald- stem (Proto-Germanic *skeldan) means "to scold, blame, accuse, insult". The person doing the insulting is a skelto or skeltāri.

This bears striking similarities to the Dutch verb "schelden" and the southern German "schelten", which mean "shouting abuse" or "calling names."

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