If this helps anybody navigate: 0:41 General Characteristics of Norse Poetry (Alliteration, etc.) 7:23 Eddic Style: Fornyrðislag 11:12 Fornyrðislag in English 11:54 Eddic Style: Ljóðaháttr 14:19 Ljóðaháttr in English 15:50 Eddic Style: Galdralag 18:55 Galdralag in English 21:51 Skaldic Style: Dróttkvætt (Overview) 25:26 Heiti 28:23 Kennings 33:25 Dróttkvætt: Old Norse Example with Walk-Through 42:31 Dróttkvætt in English Update 10/11/2018: Looking back at this video at 12:52 more than a year later, I’m not sure why I didn’t see the alliterating words of Hávamál 9, l. 4-5, as “ill” and “opt,” which they clearly are.

@ashtarbalynestjar8000

6 жыл бұрын

Do other /s/-clusters like /sp/ or /sn/ alliterate with /s/, or is it only /st/ and /sk/?

@kaguth

6 жыл бұрын

Hey Jackson. I have a question that I can't find an answer to anywhere. I understand the basic differences between Skaldic and Eddic poetry. I also understand that Eddic was typically authored by anonymous sources while Skaldic was composed and recited by Skalds for Jarls or other rulers. But, did Skalds also recite the Eddic poems that ended up in the Poetic Edda? And if not, who did? Was there a different class of poet other than a skald? Thanks for all the great videos!

@Jay-pj5tg

4 жыл бұрын

super useful thank you!!!

@faramund9865

3 жыл бұрын

I hope you know how good the work is you're doing.

I cannot get over how straight a face you can keep. The hummingbirds, being dead inside, its amazing. I would not dare to call any raise of yours.

"The lusty Colt, the trusty Colt, the weapon democratic, whose vicious might makes men one height, the Army automatic."

@thedarkmaster4747

6 жыл бұрын

i like it. XD

@Dick_Kickem69

6 жыл бұрын

Gun of the Fudd Against Glocks she's a dud Single stack means no real capacity Compared to wondernines with myriad features and accessories To choose the old Colt would be a catastrophe

The dry dropping of that poem-joke after a minute of serious dead-eyed staring at the camera, absolute comedic genius. Man, oldschool dry wit is OP, I gotta say.

There rode a wrangler Raven black his hair Seeking from storms a haven The fleas and the flies Feast on the hide Of his hank rid’ ragged He prayed to his patron Knees on the prairie Beseeching grace of god “Merciful almighty Master of mankind See me safely from strife Speed me swiftly from storms and Stow me softly to sleep!” At the edge of death And eyes to heaven Only crows heard his call But house and hearthstone Hot bread and water He was fated to find In Hell’s high desert Home of the giants Fiends are always friendly

@Helvetorment

6 жыл бұрын

Sorry but this was quite bad.

"Aint much use to the elk raised". A true skald for our times. Well done.

Thanks so much. It was driving me crazy listening to modern Icelandic singers and song-writers. Now I see the pattern behind all that music and lyrics. We cast them as "new age," but looks like their rhyming traditions are at least 500 years from before Shakespeare.

This explains a lot more about old English poetry as well.

Dr. Crawford, thank you for this gift! You did something really unique and important with this video; you managed to convey to English speakers, the beauty and art of skaldic poetry in Drottkvaett no less! This was damnear magical. It hurt just a little to keep track of everything at first, but by the time you get to Drottkvaett, I am fully spell bound and invested. Your hummingbird poem in that meter is truly amazing. I love reading and writing poetry and am one to agonize for days over how to fit a really highly nuanced narrative into a naturally flowing haiku as part of a competition or some such fun social exercise. I am thinking I need to learn this. I am wondering if there are any Skaldic workshops like the common poetry/creative writing workshops.

Wow, such complex art! I have never appreciated poetry so much!

@hiptydiptateejack8712

4 жыл бұрын

Doge: Woow, such art.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, inside I'm dead, and so are you" Being around universities tends to cause that.

@aenorist2431

6 жыл бұрын

Love the self-irony. 10 / 10 would not play poker with.

@MissKellyBean

6 жыл бұрын

Tresixteen I LOST it when I heard that poem, haha, Dr. C is hilarious!

@tresixteen

6 жыл бұрын

Kelly Fishbeck I probably wouldn't mind actually taking one of his classes so much

@Odothuigon

6 жыл бұрын

Dr. Cowboy Viking is dark AF.

@jzaar7483

6 жыл бұрын

emo...

I studied Old English poetry so I am glad to see this.

I like to have things like this in front of me rather than scrolling back and forth in a video for reference. So I took some bullet-point notes which others might find useful. Alliteration: Norse poetry alliterates. Based on sound, not spelling. On a stressed syllable, whether or not it starts a word. Only the first consonant of a cluster is important, except ST or SK. Vowels, Y and W all alliterate. Rhymes and final consonants: Final 's' sounds don't really count. You can also carry over consonants from the start of the next syllable if you need them. Stanza: Norse poetry is stanzaic. Each stanza (and ideally half-stanza) is a self-contained thought. EDDIC Fornyrđislag: Narrative metre. Eight lines (sometimes translated as four to match Old English). Lines have two stressed syllables. In each couplet, a (stressed) syllable in the first line alliterates with one in the second. In some couplets, both stressed syllables of the first line will also alliterate. Often two or three unstressed syllables per line. (Can be anywhere less than five.) Lyóđaháttr: Didactic or proverbial metre. Stanzas are two tercets. The first two lines of each tercet are like a fornyrđislag couplet. The other line of each tercet has three stressed syllables, two of which alliterate with each other. Galdralag: Metre talking about magic. Modified from lyóđaháttr; parts of larger poems might be written in it. Lines 3 and 6 may have only two stressed syllables, more commonly than lyóđaháttr. Has one or more extra lines where tercets would normally end. An extra line has three stressed syllables, two of which alliterate. SKALDIC Dróttkvæt: Court metre for praise. Four couplets per stanza, with six syllables per line. Each syllable ends in a trochee (stressed-unstressed). Two syllables from the first line of each couplet alliterate with the first syllable of the second. Thus the second line of a couplet starts with a stressed syllable. The last stressed syllable of the first line of a couplet ends in the same consonants as another stressed one in the line. The same goes for the second line, except those two stressed syllables must rhyme instead. Fortunately, kennings and heiti can be used. Another boon is that word order is free (although usually confined to a half stanza). Heiti: An allusive alternative name. For instance, night is traditionally a mask. Kenning: A concise metaphor. Often of form "the x of y" or the compound word "y-x". Includes mythological allusions. "Wolf tooth-prop" is a sword, because a sword holds Fenrir's mouth open. Can switch one thing in a category for another. "Wound-swan" = raven, because ravens are carrion birds. Stock images, like people as trees or as weapon gods, axes as monsters, battles as storms and wind as a tree torturer. Shape or appearance analogies. "Jewel of snowstorm" = sword, because it's shiny, and a snowstorm is a battle. Kennings can contain other kennings.

How am I not paying for this knowledge? Truly a gift.

Dr. Crawford! It would be incredibly cool to see more Drottkvaett in English from you. Just as an idea, a series of Drottkvaett on the historical west as theme. You obviously love Colorado. It would be a great setting for this theme and could perhaps help in getting through the last bit of time you have to do where you're at, while using your hard won mastery of your field in a really emotionally positive way. Plus, we your loyal fandents (*cough*) would get a lot out of it. Just an idea! :-D

@woden__

6 жыл бұрын

me personally i hate the great majority of colorado, seriously way to hot and southern, can't wait until i can move to seattle

Cool to see Amerikans intressted in norse poems! Greetings from Norway

This was fantastic, and walking through everything really helped me understand what's going on in these meters. Gotta say, though, from the perspective of a modern English poet, dróttkvætt is an absolute disaster xD

That was amazing! What a reward, after completing your Old Norse language course, to be able to appreciate the fundamentals of the poetry - you have inspired me greatly; þǫkk, Fornnorrænumaðr!

That is the most badass poem about hummingbirds I have ever heard

Very interesting and clear. Thank you very much!

Wow, skaldic poems are hectic. Cheers! Finally bought your book today, can't wait.

The bolo tie benefits any butch outfit, and is also a boon to bird boffins.

I’m so glad I came across this video! One of my assignments is to create an eddic poem so this is ridiculously helpful

Wow, this became my favorite video so far. Appreciate your knowledge JC.

Immensely helpful for music nerds too. Thank you!

Thanks for taking the time to go so in depth for the video. I'm building a Norse bard character in Dungeons and Dragons and learned a lot from this.

You are very good at explaining things. Thank you this was something I was curious about for quite some time.

That was great!

Hey Jackson! If you love this stuff I reckon you would find the principle of Cynghanedd in Welsh poetry to be pretty mind-blowing. Really enjoy your work and example. From Cardiff, Wales, here I am wishing you, the very best x

I live in Estes Park. If you ever want to go on a hike, give me a shout once you're back in CO. I was also curious if there were any traditional Norse prayers? Something that you might say before a meal or when putting your children to bed.

One of the best videos on KZread

I really like this kind of wordplay...

Yikes! this is heavy. I had to rewind it a bunch to fully grasp all that's going on but I'm excited to give it a try! Thanks for taking the time to make this.

I just found this and thank you for this work! My aunt has told me that our family has some ties to Eric Bloodaxe and I always found that to be novel. As someone who always admired English poets like Robert Service and the like how we can understand poetry going so far back is beyond amazing. If you ever want a free dinner up in Estes Park let me know I would be happy to have a talk over dinner.

I'm in love

Thank you very much for this video. I'm watching, taking extensive notes and hoping for seeing your lectures on Coursera or other online free education platform as methodical and theme focused course on poetry and mythology from Scandinavian past. Such an inspiration for my own research.

My dream video!

@aenorist2431

6 жыл бұрын

That. I am actually working on a reenactment / larp character of a (proper, historical, non-horn-helmet) viking in the period, with aspirations to becoming a skald. Almost last thing i need is the means to actually craft poems.

really helpful, I know nothing of poetry and understood everything. I had read the poem of Sigurd and Gudrún by Tolkien and was wondering what was in the poem that made it sound so special, now I get it.

Thank you, again a very informative video!:) Reminds me that I should read the Edda again. It was too much of a struggle when I was a teenager and tried to read the heroic part. I gave up back then. It was a Finnish translation though. Reading epic poetry is something I've needed to get used to. It just doesn't seem to come as naturally as reading prose, which is actually why I loved the sagas, as they're in prose and thus much easier to grasp. And yes, I should also read the Kalevala again.;)

I just discovered this channel, and I really enjoy the videos I've seen so far. After quickly browsing through the titles of the videos you've made so far, it looks like you haven't covered Heimskringla. Do you plan on making any videos on that?

Bolo. Yes.

This is actually more thorough than some poetry *courses* I took... The rules sound a bit arcane... Would love to hear more samples to see if it makes sense for the sake of rhythm, etc. an extra plus for them hummingbirds too xD

Earned yourself a sub! Great analysis! I wonder, how did you become interested in old Norse? Do you have some Scandic background or just found it fascinating?

A few questions: Can there be more than two stressed syllables per line in Fornyrthislag? How does one determine whether a syllable is stressed?

If you like this kind of poetry you should definitely check out the lyrics of the band "Skálmöld". Although most probably won't like the music their lyrics are poetic gold.

@leenyy5994

6 жыл бұрын

Skálmöld is awesome!:D And I don't understand why people don't like their music. But well everyone has their own preferences ^^

@MarkCavan2

6 жыл бұрын

Janniboy lp Just had a listen, and they're good! You heard of Raubtier?

@thuleanulven1742

6 жыл бұрын

Solstafir is good to

Hi Dr Crawford. You'll never read this, but I made this sort of Ljóðaháttr/Galdralag hybrid for you (and Sigyn) today: The Song of Sigyn The serpent's hunger is a ceaseless storm, A never-sated gnawing That daily tears at the tender roots Of the trembling World Tree. Though mighty, straight and strong its stem, Nine worlds shake and shudder. Though long and lithe its limbs stretch out, All worlds will quake and crumble; All oceans toss and tumble; All mountains writhe and rumble. The love of Urðr is a lake unsounded, A never-tiring nurture That daily bathes the battered feet Of the weary World Tree. Though war and strife are weathering its crown, Its veins pump with promise. Though beasts forever feast upon its body, From the fount of Fate it draws; In the mists of Memory claws; At the well of Wisdom paws. The snaketooth's venom is a ceaseless rain. Each ever-drilling drip Falls from on high like a hammer blow On Loki, locked in chains. In self-made bonds, blood of his blood, The Tangler lies entangled. The salmon swam into the net it knotted: Like the sea-snake, snapping witless; Like fettered Fenrir, powerless; Like Hel, both whole and lifeless. The strength of Sigyn is a sacred sword. Each world-weighted drop Falls from on high like a heart breaking And quivers in her bowl of burden. Shielding folly from its own doom, She halts the heft of vengeance. Wielding her grief like a warrior raging, She hurls it down the drain, Turns boldly back again, And sings to that searing rain: “Though wolves will swallow the sun and moon, I will not love them less. I'll bathe the feet of this falling tree, This wretched rascal liar Who filled the gods with fire, Vaulting their vision higher. The gormless snake is guiltless as the storm, A feckless force unfurling. And Loki, I have loved your chaos, Wild as the mounted mare, Free as the falcon fair, Darting where you would dare Through shifting shapes of air. Your weight of woe I'll wear, And in your shame I'll share Till your tethers at last you'll tear And flee this fetid lair; By my sacred sword I swear: Your burden is mine to bear.” * Thank you for this video, which I found in my quest to write about Sigyn in hopes of doing her justice, and now I'm hooked on your channel. The rhyming just happened, sorry; I know it doesn't really belong. I also kind of failed at the caesura in the long lines I think. Anyone's critique welcome :)

I think I'm in love

@bundleaxe1922

Жыл бұрын

With what?

Dr. Crawford, I have a question regarding Fornyrdislag. Does the first stressed syllable in an even line need to be the alliterative one? You never state this is the case, but both the Norse and English examples you give seem to be entirely this way. Thanks!

Love that roses and violets poem lol

This is awesome!! Thanks for the video :) are there any famous poets who use any of these kinds of styles today?

Got one! Sigrún skal beria(z?) Vincent muno herja Baldr er drengr Senna menns ok konars Let me know if I made some grammatical errors, I'm a total noob at poetry, especially Norse. It is supposed to mean: Sigrún shall fight Vincent may rule (Herja is a more violent, almost chaotic way of the verb rule) Baldr is a "drengr" (please check his video regarding "Drengar". The senna of men and women Also, keep in mind that the English version doesn't follow any of the Norse meters.

That was a 45min well spent. Very interesting video, thank you ! I have a question, can Kennings be used to create double meanings ? You say there can be multiple layers, how do you know when you have to stop looking for Kennings and have finally "arrived" at the original meaning intended ?

@ifcoltransg2

3 жыл бұрын

A lot of kennings look like they are made of multiple parts, and turn into a single thing when you interpret them. For instance, you look at two ideas, "raven farmer", and turn it into one, "warrior". If every time you interpret a kenning you end up with less ideas than you started with, you'll hit a point where there aren't any more things you can make a kenning with. For the hell of it, let's calculate exactly how many layers of kenning there can be. A half stanza has twenty stressed syllables at maximum (because the trochee means at least one of the six syllables per line is unstressed). Every important word will probably need a stressed syllable, so there can be twenty ideas per half stanza (and kennings don't usually span both halves of a stanza). If all the kennings turn at least two ideas into one, that means there can only be nineteen layers of kenning in a dróttkvæt.

20:57 It is rather that English has lenthened in Middle English period stressed short syllables fara = faran > faren > fare, with a long fa. Swedish did the same, Old Swedish "skip" is either "skepp" (lengthened p, at least graphically still so) or "skep" (lengthened e instead, not the version which gave rise to standard Swedish version).

Hello, Jackson. I'm looking for your videos in which you read the poems/stories in English. I had really enjoyed them, but now I cannot find them in your playlists. Would you help me please? Thank you, dear. Hugs, Linda Lee

36:27 ek em at ... = I am at ... like in Celtic syntax (thá mí aig óibre or what "I am working/I am at work" is in Scots Gaelic)?

Amazing! I love Norse poetry so much, especially the ones in the sagas. This was incredibly helpful!

do it yourself.....yessssss

43:09 Hummingbirds are warlike? Is that a reason behind a certain character in Aztek myth?

How close or far is OE poetry to FYL? The five patterns given in On Translating Beowulf, do they still hold as analysis? Because if so, a clear "cretic" would be possible in FYL but impossible in OE poetry? I suppose for second halfline it is still clear : only first stressed syllable alliterates? (OE) And in FYL it is not so?

Presumably this goes for most early Germanic language poetry like old English like Beowulf is this correct?

Those of you who've played Skyrim, it's worth noting that Bethesda used this style rather well in one of the bard songs "Ragnar the Red". Lots of great alliteration and half-rhymes in the lyrics: There once was a hero named Ragnar the Red Came riding to Whiterun from old Rorikstead And the braggart did swagger and brandish his blade As he told of bold battles and gold he had made But then he went quiet, did Ragnar the Red When he met the shield-maiden Matilda who said "Oh you talk and you lie and you drink all our mead Now I think it's high time that you lie down and bleed!" And so then came clashing and slashing of steel As the brave lass Matilda charged in full of zeal And the braggart named Ragnar was boastful no more... When his ugly red head rolled around on the floor!

@MoonChildMajora

5 жыл бұрын

Except the whole thing is rhyming couplets, which isn’t really part of the style. Sounds good though.

Dr. Crawford, I love your videos, just discovered them recently. I was wondering how you got to where you are now and how I might follow a similar career path. I have a great love for Norse myth, I've been studying it for the past five years or so, and while I haven't delved into the Nordic languages yet, I plan to very soon. I'm going to college soon and was wondering if you had any advice on where to go from here to be like you. Thank you for your time and I hope you respond. Have a lovely day.

@queefburglar7548

6 жыл бұрын

Sophie Bradbury Thank you! I will search for them.

@queefburglar7548

6 жыл бұрын

Kate Elliott Thanks so much!

22:21 Supposing the psalms had been translated to Old Icelandic metre (didn't happen, unlike OE translation of first 50 psalms, ordered by King Alfred) - would they not have been trying sth like Dróttkvætt?

earning in yearnest .. or reverse ... this would be related to original yod sound being lost (year = år), and new yod sound coming from vowel e (jord = earth, Erde)? Similarily, can't one alliterate v- with any back vowel, since v was lost before back vowels while still pronounced w?

Will you be able to do a poem for my Icelandic vlog? a narration

Yes I am dead inside too....lol

17:46 til and frá are usually unstressed and preposed to a noun - here they are postposed to a phrase and are contrasting. Could we be dealing with : HEI-lir HIL-dar TIL HEI-lir HIL-dar FRÁ rather than with HEI-lir HIL-dar til and HEI-lir HIL-dar frá?

This is fantastic. Your final spear-swallow poem is utterly beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

32:42 As a Tolkien fan ... Gladden fields ... the flower in question is gladiolus, right? Latin for "little sword" ..

@hglundahl

6 жыл бұрын

Or wait, was gladiolus the mistranslation by Ohlmarks?

Huitzilopochtli is Dr. Jackson's sprit god *chuckles*

@lemonZzzzs

6 жыл бұрын

That is... uncannily fitting :D

what a drengr hummingbird

13:58 any vowel alliterates with any vowel ... a vowel initial word, how close is it to beginning with knacklaut? Could one say from Hebrew perspective aleph alliterates with aleph?

@hglundahl

6 жыл бұрын

Plus, yod alliterates with aleph ...

39:32 Sure almsíma refers to bow rather than to skis? Both are associated with Ullr ...

22:41 my surmane is Drott /Sweden

And here i am lerning old norse poetry just for a dnd character late in the night

I wonder if anyone else got the .45 acp reference.

He starts talking about skaldic poetry at: 21:47

Wait, anyone still writes Old Norse style poetry? Based in the myths? Even ones from, like, Icelandic, who are still practising the oral tradition by any chance? If yes, where the hell do I find this stuff so I can read it???

@Luka1180

3 жыл бұрын

We need a place to share serious Old Norse poetry. However, no poems about modern problems or modern things. It has to be based in things from the actual viking age!

How do you pronounce Dróttkvætt?

You gotta add some flavor to these lectures, man. Great video though!

Get the heck out of here, Dr. Crawford. I can't believe you actually wrote an English poem in Dróttkvætt. Crazy man :)

Don't think I didn't spot that sly shootbang reference.

45:12 pain of pine trees = wind? Well, there is a Swedish pop song echoing this to this day ... kzread.info/dash/bejne/q2h329iPprWofdI.html

The battle wind blew the smell of blood akross the field and cut akross the sky of lightening. I and my sword were alone in the world, I and my charging enemy. We will meet in the corpse hall one day. (no but I will keep working on it)

Kennings are metalepses and metalepses are transumptions and transumptions are synonyms and synonyms are allusions.

Loved the 1911 comment

Check out this hymn sung by the iclandic group "Árstíðir" - /watch?v=e4dT8FJ2GE0 The hymn is from the 1100. The song is of a much later date.

I wasn't in this video at all :(

4:14 I know it sounds redundant, but I’d much rather attend a School for Scholarly Skalds 😂

Did anyone else get here because you've been listening to Wardruna?

So I just read that the Aurora Borealis is the sister of the sun and moon

Your 1911 comment made me narrow my eyes, man.

@zackmartinelli4200

6 жыл бұрын

275Ranger275 ???

As great as it would be, I'm guessing you haven't been holding the original writing styles faithful in your translations of the Eddas

Once again, a certain challenge ... try something in the metre of Beowulf or of Heliand ... put either into the Proto-Norse etymological equivalents. Check out how that metre is, if it is mostly regular, even out the mistakes. THEN get that into Old Norse (kuningaz > konungr and so on), also irrespective of whether the words exist or not. Would the metre NOW involve mostly the kind of halflines you get in 1, 2, 4, 5 of Ljóðaháttr or halflines of FYL, and sometimes things like 3, 6 in Ljóðaháttr, somewhat irregularly, like in Galdralag? If so, Havamál could be inherited with slight "retouches" according to how to regularise the 3/6 longer lines from a poem in Proto-Norse - a language Odin must have spoken if ever he communicated with Swedes in such time that his stepgrandson Fjolner could died in the reign of Caesar Augustus. So, how about giving it a try, you who are the linguist in Germanic esp. Scandinavian and esp. Old Norse languages? Pretty please!

You have the same colour of my eyes.

Echoes of men sail down the l hall way. in jail in a line of many I am alone, no knife, no soap no telephone. (no?)

A kenning is like a meme. XD

@bundleaxe1922

Жыл бұрын

Lol yeah: The sea-horse with its boat-wings gallops over water-hills.

i like u

It feels like he's forcing that voice/accent. Maybe it's just me. Just doesn't seem natural at times

@SteamShinobi

5 жыл бұрын

What

@obeisms2627

5 жыл бұрын

@@SteamShinobi his voice doesn't fit his face imo

@SteamShinobi

5 жыл бұрын

@@obeisms2627 I'd disagree, but that's a fair position to hold.

@obeisms2627

5 жыл бұрын

@@SteamShinobi okay thanks for your input lmao

You should note near the beginning that old norse was meant to be rumble-chanted, so the hard sounds would roll like slow thunder.