Song of praise

The song of praise was originally an oral glorification of the patron saint of the skald , which most often was the king or jarl in prefeudal Scandinavia and Iceland. Also, the skalds composed laudatory songs in order to gain a patron or to receive any reward from the glorified one. The songs of praise were recited by the skalds in the presence of the patron and his entire squad. Subsequently, with the spread of writing, the skalds could, having written a song of praise, send it to a specific addressee from afar, the mandatory presence of the skald during reading was no longer required. Drottquette laudatory songs were performed by two singers or an even number of performers, therefore they were composed so that the stanza would break up into two intertwining parts ^[2] .

In writing a song of praise, the skald relied solely on facts , describing either those contemporary events to which he was an eyewitness, or those that he had learned from other eyewitnesses. Therefore, the main content of songs of praise is the name of the glorified ruler, his origin, the battles in which he participated, the names of defeated enemies ^[3] , etc., and the hero of the song, and all his actions should fully correspond to the ideal in such a song a valiant, honest and generous husband. However, the celebrated song of praise, as a rule, does not have any individual qualities.

Despite the stereotyped image and the conventions of details, every scaldic laudatory song is a dry and accurate list of individual events, which can, in principle, be determined chronologically and geographically. There is no conscious fiction in them, which is characteristic of scaldic poetry in general. Thus, the form of a laudatory song is a form in which personal data of the acclaimed person are affixed, therefore, a characteristic feature of the poetics of a laudatory song is the combination of traditional themes with factual character ^[1] . In laudatory songs there is never anything like a plot. The only sequence that can be traced is the chronology of the events described, reflected extremely non-individualized.

In accordance with the canons of writing laudatory songs are divided into two types.

Flock

Flock is a cycle of unconnected stanzas (vis) written by drottquett or (less commonly) quiduhatt .

Drapa

A drape is also a vis cycle, however, its structure must necessarily contain several plug-in sentences (Stevs) that divide the drape into parts. Drapa was considered a more solemn form of laudatory song and was valued more than flock. In addition to the drape itself, its thematic subspecies were sometimes found, for example, shield drape, “ransom of the head”. Drapes almost always made up drottvett.

The first mention of songs of praise dates back to the 9th century ^[2] . In Younger Edda , Snorri Sturluson cites large passages from Ragnardrap and ascribes them to Braga to Boddason , who is sometimes called the very first of the skalds . Bragi, according to Snorri Sturulson, created at the court of Ragnar Lodbroka, who ruled in the first half of the 9th century. The completely preserved “ Redemption of the Head ” by Egil Skallagrimsson belongs to the same period. The bulk of the works of those times and created up to the XII century were preserved only in passages and quotes that adorned the prose texts of the so-called “royal sagas” and which Snorri Sturluson used when writing the “Younger Edda”, citing them as numerous examples of haty and kenning . The later songs of the fourteenth century reached us almost completely. However, already in the 13th century, Europeanization, the transition to feudalism, the changed tastes of the Scandinavian nobility and Christian motives that penetrated into the Scaldic poetics predetermined the gradual degeneration of the laudatory song as an independent genre ^[4] .

• " Draper of Ragnar " by Braga Boddason .
• "Draper about Sigtrugge Silk Beard" Gunnlaug Snake Tongue .
• " Haustlöng " is the shield shield of Thiodolw from Hvinir .

• Younger Edda
• Scaldic poetry
• Drottquett

• M.I. Steblin-Kamensky. Historical poetics. - L .: "Science", 1978.
• M.I. Steblin-Kamensky. Old Norse literature. - M .: "Science", 1979.
• E.A. Gurevich, I.G. Matyushina. The poetry of the skalds. - M.: Publishing House of the Russian State Humanitarian University, 1999.
• ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR. Literary monuments. The poetry of the skalds. - L .: "Science", 1979.

• Ulvdalir
• E.A. Gurevich, I.G. Matyushina. The poetry of the skalds. - M.: Publishing House of the Russian State Humanitarian University, 1999. Part III. Chapter 1. Panegyric Poetry
• ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR. Literary monuments. The poetry of the skalds. - L .: "Science", 1979.
• M.I. Steblin-Kamensky. Proceedings in Philology. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House of St. Petersburg State University, 2003. Historical poetics. “Skald lyrics?”