Anonymous, Alvíssmál [The Song of All-wise]

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

First circulation or publication c. 1150

Places

Iceland (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Alvíssmál

[All-wise’s sayings] is an Old Norse-Icelandic mythological poem, composed in the eddic meter

ljóðaháttr

[song meter] and divided into 35 stanzas. Its form is dialogic, all stanzas representing the direct speech of the characters. The oldest version of

Alvíssmál

survives in a vellum manuscript from c. 1270, Konungsbók eddukvæða (Codex Regius of Eddic Poetry; GKS 2365 4to). Two verses (stanzas 20 and 30) are also found in manuscripts of

Snorra Edda

[Snorri’s Edda], in the

Skáldskaparmál

[Poetic diction] section, a work which, like

Alvíssmál

, concerns the naming of things. The poem appears in many paper manuscripts composed in post-Reformation Iceland.

The poem has two speaking characters, Þórr of the Æsir and the dwarf Alvíss [All-wise], who trade stanzas of

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1428 words

Citation: McGillivray, Andrew. "Alvíssmál". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 September 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40734, accessed 10 May 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Anonymous, Alvíssmál [The Song of All-wise]

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback