The Word Hoard - Viking Poetry and Sagas

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Hugrunar - The World of the Vikings
A group for the discussion of all aspects of the culture of the Vikings - their wars, voyages, art, literature, language and legacy. Hugrunar means 'Thought Runes' and encompasses discussion of the Viking Age from the Fifth to the Eleventh Centuries.

The Mead of Poetry - Viking Literature and Art (3 threads, 66 posts)
Discussion of the Eddas, sagas, skaldic poetry and complex art which embodied the spirit and vigor of the Viking Age ...

The Word Hoard - Viking Poetry and Sagas

Historical Thread

Discussion of the rich skaldic poetic tradition of the Vikings and of the great sagas which celebrated the achievements of Viking warriors and kings.

Of all the Germanic peoples, the Scandinavians maintained the traditional Germanic alliterative verse styles the longest. Amongst the Vikings, these styles were raised to their highest levels of intricacy and sophistication, with a myriad of different kinds of verse forms, interlaced alliteration and rhyme and metrical patterns. With the use of bewilderingly complex riddling allusions or "kennings", this complexity made the interpretation of Viking poetry an art in itself.

In later centuries the Vikings and their descendants created a new literary form - the saga. These were long and complex stories in narrative prose and are considered by many critics the earliest form of the novel. Most surviving sagas were written in the later Medieval period - from the Twelfth the the Fourteenth Centuries - but they preserved an idealised and romanticised version of the history of the great age of Viking expansion and (used with care) can be a source of historical knowledge.

Their historical utility aside, several of them are also acknowleged as literary masterpieces and as some of the finest monuments of Medieval civilisation.

Created by:
* Thiudareiks Gunthigg, Sep 20, 2002 - 20:47