Title: Skáldskaparmál

Tags: Old Norse-Icelandic

Description:

Skáldskaparmál, "the language of poetry," is a section of the Prose Edda, Younger Edda, or Snorri's Edda (LINK). The section begins as a dialogue similar to Gylfaginning(LINK), but this is not maintained all the way through. Skáldskaparmál contains more mythological stories, including the story of the origin of the Mead of Poetry as the inspiration for all poetry. Skáldskaparmál is split roughly into two sections, the first dealing with kennings, periphrastic phrases used to restate things (for example, a ship can be called "horse/steed of the sea"), and they can be quite winding and complex in their references; the second section is about heiti, meaning "names," which are synonyms, other ways to call the same thing so as not to be repetitive in one's poetry. This section is explicitly given as an instructional manual for young poets. The given kennings and heiti are also supplemented with frequent quotation of stanzas of actual poems, many of which do not survive in other sources outside of Skáldskaparmál. This makes it the main source for a large percentage of all surviving skaldic poetry.