Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld
Hallfreðr Óttarsson or Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld (Troublesome Poet) (c. 965 – c. 1007) was an Icelandic skald. He is the protagonist of Hallfreðar saga according to which he was the court poet first of Hákon Sigurðarson, then of Óláfr Tryggvason and finally of Eiríkr Hákonarson. A significant amount of poetry by Hallfreðr has been preserved, primarily in Hallfreðar saga and the kings' sagas but a few fragments are also quoted in Skáldskaparmál.
In his lausavísur Hallfreðr was an unusually personal skald, offering insight into his emotional life and, especially, his troubled and reluctant conversion from paganism to Christianity under the tutelage of king Óláfr. The following is an example.
Ǫll hefr ætt til hylli |
|
—Lausavísur 10, Whaley's edition | —Lausavísur 10, Whaley's translation |
The Bergsbók manuscript attributes an Óláfsdrápa Tryggvasonar to Hallfreðr, but this attribution is rejected by modern scholars.
External links
- page at the Skaldic Project
- Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld All extant poetry
- Hallfreðar saga vandræðaskálds in the Möðruvallabók version
- Myth and Religion in the Poetry of a Reluctant Convert Article by Diana Whaley
- Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar Text of Erfidrápa with short notes on the poet in Norwegian
- Articles containing Old Norse-language text
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Articles with FAST identifiers
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- 10th-century Icelandic poets
- 960s births
- 1000s deaths
- Year of birth uncertain
- Year of death uncertain
- 11th-century Icelandic poets
- Icelandic male poets
- Converts to Christianity from Germanic paganism