Einarr Skúlason was an Icelandic priest and
skaldThe skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
. He was the most prominent Norse poet of the 12th century.
He was descended from the family of
Egill SkallagrímssonEgill Skallagrímsson was an Icelandic skald and the great anti-hero of Icelandic literature.Several accounts tell of him slaughtering as many as 20 or more armed men single-handedly and even dispatching a feared berserker with relative ease...
, the so called
Mýramenn. For most of his life he lived in Norway, with the kings Sigurðr Jórsalafari, Haraldr gilli and the sons of the latter, especially Eysteinn Haraldsson, whose marshall he became. After Eysteinn's death (1157) he composed the poem
Elfarvísur for the nobleman Gregorius Dagsson, referring to his victory over Hákon herðibreiðr at
Göta älvThe Göta älv is a river that drains lake Vänern into Kattegat at the city of Gothenburg on the western coast of Sweden. It is located in Götaland, with the river itself being a site of early Geatish settlement. The length is 93 km. Often the combination of Göta älv and Klarälven is mentioned...
.
The best known of Einarr's
drápur is
Geisli ("Ray of Light"), about St.
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Einarr Skúlason was an Icelandic priest and
skaldThe skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
. He was the most prominent Norse poet of the 12th century.
He was descended from the family of
Egill SkallagrímssonEgill Skallagrímsson was an Icelandic skald and the great anti-hero of Icelandic literature.Several accounts tell of him slaughtering as many as 20 or more armed men single-handedly and even dispatching a feared berserker with relative ease...
, the so called
Mýramenn. For most of his life he lived in Norway, with the kings Sigurðr Jórsalafari, Haraldr gilli and the sons of the latter, especially Eysteinn Haraldsson, whose marshall he became. After Eysteinn's death (1157) he composed the poem
Elfarvísur for the nobleman Gregorius Dagsson, referring to his victory over Hákon herðibreiðr at
Göta älvThe Göta älv is a river that drains lake Vänern into Kattegat at the city of Gothenburg on the western coast of Sweden. It is located in Götaland, with the river itself being a site of early Geatish settlement. The length is 93 km. Often the combination of Göta älv and Klarälven is mentioned...
.
The best known of Einarr's
drápur is
Geisli ("Ray of Light"), about St. Óláfr Haraldsson. This
drápa was recited in the Church of Christ in
NidarosNidaros was the old name of Trondheim , a city of Norway, in the Middle Ages. Nidaros was Northern Europe's most important Christian pilgrimage site during this time, the pilgrims' goal being the Christ Church, also known as the Nidaros Cathedral, established as the seat of the archdiocese of all...
in the presence of the three Norwegian kings of the time, Eysteinn, Sigurðr and
IngiInge Haraldsson, old Norse Ingi Haraldsson was king of Norway from 1136 to 1161. Inge’s reign fell within the start of the period known in Norwegian history as the civil war era. He was never the sole ruler of the country. He is often known as Inge the Hunchback , because of his physical disability...
, along with the first Norwegian archbishop, Jón Birgerson. The poem is composed in the
dróttkvætt metre and it is the earliest completely preserved
drápa with Christian content.
Einarr's poetry is primarily preserved in
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
,
FlateyjarbókThe Flatey Book, is an important medieval Icelandic manuscripts. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and Codex Flatöiensis. Sometimes anglicized as Flateyjarbok.- Description :...
,
MorkinskinnaMorkinskinna is an Old Norse kings' saga, relating the history of Norwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written in Iceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275....
,
FagrskinnaFagrskinna is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It takes its name from one of the manuscripts in which it was preserved, Fagrskinna meaning 'Fair Leather', i.e., 'Fair Parchment'. Fagrskinna proper was destroyed in fire but copies of it and another vellum have been preserved...
and
SkáldskaparmálThe second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...
.