Senna is a form of Eddic poetry consisting of an exchange of insults between participants, ranging from the use of expletives to accusing an opponent of moral or sexual impropriety. It traditionally existed in an oral form, with the famous skald

Skald

The 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...

 Þórarinn Stuttfeldr once describing the poetry of his opponent as being like leirr ens gamla ara or 'the mud of the eagle'; literally claiming that his poetry was like dung.

There are also numerous written examples of senna in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, including the Ölkofra Þáttr (The Tale of the Ale-Hood) in which a carpenter is accused of setting fire to the wood of six powerful chieftains while burning charcoal, and the eddic poem Lokasenna

Lokasenna

Lokasenna is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki....

, which consists of a duel of words between Loki

Loki

In Norse mythology, Loki or Loke is a god or jötunn . Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Nari or Narfi...

 and several other Norse gods, and in which Loki accuses the other gods of sexual misdeeds.

External links

• Lokasenna (translation)