Skáldskaparmál

Near a wood, the goddess Sif rests her head on a stump while the half-deity Loki lurks behind, blade in hand. Loki intends to cut Sif's hair per a myth recounted in Skáldskaparmál.

The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál (Old Norse pronunciation: [ˈskaldskaparˌmɒːl], Icelandic pronunciation: ​[ˈskaultskaparˌmauːl], "language of poetry"; c. 50,000 words) is effectively a dialogue between Ægir, the Norse god of the sea, and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined. The origin of a number of kennings is given; then Bragi delivers a systematic list of kennings for various people, places and things. He then goes on to discuss poetic language in some detail, in particular heiti, the concept of poetical words which are non-periphrastic (like steed for horse), and again systematises these. This in a way forms an early form of poetic thesaurus.

References

• Anthony Faulkes, "The sources of Skáldskaparmál: Snorri’s intellectual background", in: Alois Wolf (ed.), Snorri Sturluson, Volume 51 of ScriptOralia, Gunter Narr Verlag (1993), 59–76.

Editions

• Sveinbjörn Egilsson (ed.) Edda Snorra Sturlusonar:: eða Gylfaginníng, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal (1848), 45–143.
• Guðni Jónsson (ed.), Eddukvaeði,Íslendingasagnaútgáfan (1954) (heimskringla.no)
• Anthony Faulkes (ed.), Edda; Skáldskaparmál, 2 volumes: vol. 1: Introduction, Text and Notes, vol. 2: Glossary and Index of Names, London (1998; 2007).

Translations

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Skáldskaparmál (trans. Anderson 1916)

• Rasmus Björn Anderson (trans.) (1872) (germanicmythology.com)
• Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (trans.) (1916) (germanicmythology.com)