Ormr Steinþórsson

Ormr Steinþórsson was a skald about whom little is known. Seven fragments of poetry by him are quoted in the Skáldskaparmál section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. One of those fragments is also quoted in the Third Grammatical Treatise by Óláfr Þórðarson while an additional fragment is quoted in Laufás-Edda.^[1] Most of the fragments are in the hálfhnept meter.

Finnur Jónsson grouped Ormr with Icelandic poets from ca. 900 to ca. 1050 on the basis of the character of his verse. He described Ormr as "apparently a capable poet" and the contents of his verses as "erotic-ironic".^[2] More recent scholars have suggested that Ormr was a 12th century poet and that five or six of his fragments belong together with a fragment of Snæfríðardrápa attributed to Haraldr hárfagri in Flateyjarbók. Ormr may have based the poem on a fairy-tale about Haraldr's love for Snæfríðr.^[3]

Notes

1. ^ Eysteinn Björnsson.
2. ^ Finnur Jónsson 1920:520, "Til alle de nævnte skjalde skal der föjes enkelte, som kun anføres enkelte gange og hvis liv og lævned er ubekendt, men som dog på grund af beskaffenheden af deres vers må henføres til dette tidsrum. ... Ormr Steinþórsson. af ham anfører Snorra-Edda nogle brudstykker, hvoraf de fleste er digtede i halfnept versemål; indholdet er af erotisk-ironisk art. Ormr synes at have været en dygtig skjald." Finnr has a footnote to the word erotisk-ironisk stating: "Netop dette indhold forbyder at antage (G. Þorláksson: Udsigt 54), at et halfhnept vers af Björn breiðvíkingakappe (se ovf. s. 501) hører herhen."
3. ^ Faulkes 1998:161.

References

• Eysteinn Björnsson. Ormr Steinþórsson, http://www3.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/ormr.html
• Faulkes, Anthony (1998). Snorri Sturluson : Edda : Skáldskaparmál. 1. Introduction, Text and Notes. Viking Society for Northern Research, London. ISBN 978-0-903521-36-9
• Finnur Jónsson (1920). Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. Anden udgave. Første bind. G. E. C. Gads forlag, København.