Jómsvíkinga Sǫgur and Jómsvíkinga Drápur: texts, contexts and intertexts

Using theories of intertextuality the paper explores the implications of the complex transmission of Jómsvíkinga saga, with its multiple manuscripts, versions and cross-references in other texts. It then concentrates on the story-complex about the Jómsvíkings and the battle of Hjǫrungavágr, rather than the first part of the saga with its focus on Danish kings. The paper explores how this story-complex was realized in skaldic poetry, ostensibly a major source for the prose accounts. Following a survey of all the relevant poetry, the four drápur which treat the Jómsvíkings are analysed in detail. Two of these are roughly contemporary with the events, while two are retrospective, narrative accounts, and there is some evidence of influence from the earlier poems to the later ones. Overall, the analysis shows how the story of the battle of Hjǫrungavágr was narrated in both verse and prose, and reveals the complex intertextual relationships between these narratives

Earl Rögnvaldr of Orkney, a poet of the Viking diaspora

Kali Kolsson, later Rögnvaldr, Earl of Orkney, is a truly international figure who was born in Norway, travelled to England, came to power in Northern Scotland, and then made a memorable journey through Europe and the Mediterranean to the Holy Land. His poetry, composed in all of these places, survives only in Icelandic tradition and Icelandic manuscripts. This paper argues that the career and poetry of Rögnvaldr exemplifies the variation typical within a dispersed but interconnected culture, which might be termed the “Viking diaspora”. Rögnvaldr was by training a Norwegian poet, but by practice and influence an Icelandic and Orcadian—indeed a European—poet. Each of these places had its own version of the culture, some of which shared a common derivation from the Scandinavian homeland, but much of which was rather the product of the dispersion from that homeland. By examining his poetry, and his interest in runic writing, it is possible to exemplify the diasporic process in which inherited cultural traditions from the homeland are reinvigorated and even reinvented in the context of multilateral cultural encounters

Runes and words: runic lexicography in context

The paper begins by noting the lack of a comprehensive dictionary of Scandi­navian runic inscriptions, as well as the absence of the runic evidence from most dictionaries of the early Scandinavian languages, and considers possible reasons for this. Runic inscriptions may need a different kind of dictionary, because they require a different kind of reading that takes extra-linguistic as well as linguistic contexts into account (a process that has been called “inter­disciplinary semantics”). Using the examples of the words bóndi and þegn in Viking Age inscriptions, the paper shows how the variety of available contexts enables a richer definition of these and other words, which might facilitate a different type of dictionary, based on discursive definitions

Runes and words: runic lexicography in context

The paper begins by noting the lack of a comprehensive dictionary of Scandi­navian runic inscriptions, as well as the absence of the runic evidence from most dictionaries of the early Scandinavian languages, and considers possible reasons for this. Runic inscriptions may need a different kind of dictionary, because they require a different kind of reading that takes extra-linguistic as well as linguistic contexts into account (a process that has been called “inter­disciplinary semantics”). Using the examples of the words bóndi and þegn in Viking Age inscriptions, the paper shows how the variety of available contexts enables a richer definition of these and other words, which might facilitate a different type of dictionary, based on discursive definitions

The threatening wave: Norse poetry and the Scottish Isles

The poetry discussed in this paper presents a range of responses to sailing around the northern parts of the British Isles, by poets more or less familiar with these routes but also with Norway, Iceland and sea-ways much further afield. These poets use traditional forms and imagery to express the pan-Norse identity of North Britain. At the same time they also give voice to what is distinctive about this region – its communities, its rulers, its language, its landscapes and seascapes, and, most particularly, the special challenges of sailing in these waters. The Norse poetry considered here expresses the specific maritime identities of Scandinavian Scotland, using the cultural frameworks of the broader Viking diaspora

Jómsvíkinga Sǫgur and Jómsvíkinga Drápur: texts, contexts and intertexts

Using theories of intertextuality the paper explores the implications of the complex transmission of Jómsvíkinga saga, with its multiple manuscripts, versions and cross-references in other texts. It then concentrates on the story-complex about the Jómsvíkings and the battle of Hjǫrungavágr, rather than the first part of the saga with its focus on Danish kings. The paper explores how this story-complex was realized in skaldic poetry, ostensibly a major source for the prose accounts. Following a survey of all the relevant poetry, the four drápur which treat the Jómsvíkings are analysed in detail. Two of these are roughly contemporary with the events, while two are retrospective, narrative accounts, and there is some evidence of influence from the earlier poems to the later ones. Overall, the analysis shows how the story of the battle of Hjǫrungavágr was narrated in both verse and prose, and reveals the complex intertextual relationships between these narratives

Earl Rögnvaldr of Orkney, a poet of the Viking diaspora

Kali Kolsson, later Rögnvaldr, Earl of Orkney, is a truly international figure who was born in Norway, travelled to England, came to power in Northern Scotland, and then made a memorable journey through Europe and the Mediterranean to the Holy Land. His poetry, composed in all of these places, survives only in Icelandic tradition and Icelandic manuscripts. This paper argues that the career and poetry of Rögnvaldr exemplifies the variation typical within a dispersed but interconnected culture, which might be termed the “Viking diaspora”. Rögnvaldr was by training a Norwegian poet, but by practice and influence an Icelandic and Orcadian—indeed a European—poet. Each of these places had its own version of the culture, some of which shared a common derivation from the Scandinavian homeland, but much of which was rather the product of the dispersion from that homeland. By examining his poetry, and his interest in runic writing, it is possible to exemplify the diasporic process in which inherited cultural traditions from the homeland are reinvigorated and even reinvented in the context of multilateral cultural encounters

Runes and Verse: The Medialities of Early Scandinavian Poetry

The paper discusses a number of versified runic inscriptions, mainly from Scandinavia, and from ca. 400 to 1400 AD, to explore what they reveal about the forms and functions of early Scandinavian poetry outside the manuscript tradition. With a particular focus on ‘authors’ and ‘audiences’, as defined by Bredehoft in his work on Anglo-Saxon inscriptions, the paper elucidates the potential oral contexts of Scandinavian runic verse and concludes that, although runic writing is a form of literacy, the examples show that for most of its history it is associated with various kinds of oral context. Runic verse shows that inscriptions provide one of the best ways into understanding the Scandinavian oral tradition, not only before the arrival of manuscript literacy, but also during its infancy