Eddukvæði

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Andrew McGillivray (University of Winnipeg)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

Date of occurrence 300-600

Places

Iceland (Location)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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Eddukvæði

[eddic poetry] is a form of Old Norse-Icelandic poetry. Composed in eddic meters, eddic poems are about the Old Norse gods and the Germanic heroes from the age of great migrations in Europe, from c. 300 to c. 600. The other main type of poetry in medieval Iceland,

dróttkvæði

[skaldic poetry], includes poems that describe human subjects, especially kings, but it draws extensively on the contents of eddic poetry to do so. Another primary difference between the two forms is that eddic poems are all of anonymous authorship, whereas skaldic poems are attributed to named poets.

There are two main eddic meters. In fornyrðislag [old story meter], each stanza usually has eight lines, with each line composed of four or five syllables. Ljóðaháttr [song meter], considered to be a

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1582 words

Citation: McGillivray, Andrew. "Eddukvæði". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 September 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19672, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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