By Baroness Þorfinna gráfeldr and Baron Colyne Stewart,
Bardic Army of Ealdormere, East-Atlantia Alliance
Praise/Chivalric Poem for Scribal Relay Event at the first Bardic War, May 2021
Draugrs’ dusk-cloak | drap’d ‘cross Jörð’s form
And Höðr he bound | her handsome face
Hate-full Hati | howl’d Loki’s lies
While scratched cruel Sköll | the sullen sky
Drepsótt dreadly | death-fear grows, yet
In Skaði’s depths | the darkness quails
Sol’s breath kindles | stirs bane of wood
And lights the hearth | of hall’s bright wolf
Hammer-wielder | Wayland’s offspring
Strikes the earth-heart | steel of sky-shield
Flecks of Fár-light | flash in furnace
Valdr, reaching | rough hand gentle
Hope’s seed cradled | harnessed fire
Boar’s mane burning | Bursts from kind heart
Flame-song fanning | Faces upturn
Burns bright fearless | Baldr’s blessing
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in North America, Baron Valdr Jarnsmithr began lighting a candle each night to give light to those that needed “a little bit of light to make it through one more night.” He posted photographs of these candles to social media, with captions that usually included the benediction of “Until we are together again.” This seemingly small act has been incredibly meaningful to many who draw strength and resolve from the hope-seeds of Valdr’s lights.
Written in fornyrðislag, an Eddic verse form consisting of a 4-line stanza, each line divided by a caesura into two half-lines, which in turn have two accented syllables and two or three unaccented ones. There are six variations of half-lines that could be used. The half-lines are linked together by alliteration, which in case of the first line could fall on one or the other of the stressed syllables, but in the second half-line had to fall on the first stressed syllables. The alliteration of the first half-line was called stuðlar (props), the one in the second half-line höfuðstafr (head-stave). The alliteration is actually an initial rhyme consisting of consonants alliterating with the same consonants, except sk, sp and st, which could be alliterated with themselves, and of a vowel alliterating with any other vowel, as well as with j.
As Valdr is known for his blacksmithing skill, and as a nurturer/teacher, we elected to focus on imagery related both to the forge and to the growth of living things.
Kennings that have been taken from or inspired by period examples are noted in the footnotes. All other kennings are created by the authors.
Annotated version follows:
Draugrs[1]’ dusk-cloak[2] | drap’d ‘cross Jörð[3]’s form[4]
And Höðr[5] he bound | her handsome face[6]
Hate-full Hati[7] | howl’d Loki[8]’s lies[9]
While scratched cruel Sköll[10] | the sullen sky
Drepsótt[11] dreadly | death-fear grows, yet
In Skaði[12]’s depths | the darkness quails
Sol’s breath[13] kindles | stirs bane of wood[14]
And lights the hearth | of hall’s bright wolf[15]
Hammer-wielder[16] | Wayland’s offspring[17]
Strikes the earth-heart[18] | steel of sky-shield[19]
Flecks of Fár[20]-light | flash in furnace
Valdr, reaching | rough hand gentle
Hope’s seed[21] cradled | harnessed fire[22]
Boar’s mane burning[23] | Bursts from kind heart
Flame-song fanning[24] | Faces upturn
Burns bright fearless | Baldr[25]’s blessing
[1] An undead creature; a Norse zombie. Pronounced ‘draw-ger’.
[2] Dusk-cloak is a kenning for darkness, both literal and figurative.
[3] Goddess of the earth. Pronounced ‘Jord’.
[4] The world.
[5] A blind god. Pronounced ‘Hod’.
[6] The world is blinded by the dark.
[7] A wolf that chases the moon and causes lunar eclipses. Pronounced ‘Hah-tee’.
[8] God of mischief. Pronounced ‘low-key’.
[9] Loki’s lies are a kenning for despair.
[10] A wolf that chases the sun and causes lunar eclipses. Both wolves are children of Fenrir. Pronounced ‘skol’.
[11] drepsótt (noun f.) (mortal) disease, plague, pest'
[12] An Old Norse name meaning ‘shadow.’ Pronounced ‘ska-dee’. Also the name of a jotun (giant) of winter.
[13] Sol is god of the sun. Sol’s breath is a kenning for a bellows.
[14] Snorri Sturluson Skáldskaparmál 36
[15] Kenning based on “skæriligr gandr hallar” meaning ‘the bright wolf of the hall ’ a kenning for fire
(2. Sturla Þórðarson, 1. Hrynhenda, 10 [Vol. 2, 686-7], kenning 1). The wolf is also a symbol of Ealdormere.
[16] Kenning for a blacksmith; Valdr is a smith.
[17] Wayland is the Old Germanic version of Völundr or Velent, a blacksmith hero figure. Pronounced ‘way-lend’. Another kenning for blacksmith.
[18] Literally “Hnegg folder” meaning ‘The heart of the earth’ or stone (3. 54. Hallar-Steinn (biog. vol. 1), Fragments, 7 [Vol. 3, 209], kenning 1). Here used to refer to the smith’s anvil.
[19] A kenning for the flame of the sun. From “fríðrar himintǫrgu” meaning ‘of the splendid sky-shield; [he]’ or sun
(3. Eilífr Goðrúnarson, 1. Þórsdrápa, 5 [Vol. 3, 85], kenning 3)
[20] A dwarf in Skáldskaparmál whose name means ‘caretaker’, ‘defender’, and ‘shining’,
[21] A kenning for a spark.
[22] A reference for a lantern.
[23] Gullinbursti the boar, whose mane contained bristles that glowed in the dark. Gullinbursti was created in a smithy by dwarves.
[24] Each night Valdr lights a candle of hope, the small flames bringing hope to many.
[25] The Norse god of light. Pronounced ‘bal-durr’.
Stresses are as follows:
Draugrs’ dusk-cloak | drap’d ‘cross Jörð’s form
And Höðr he bound |
her handsome face
Hate-full Hati | howl’d Loki’s lies
While scratched cruel Sköll
| the sullen sky
Drepsótt dreadly | death-fear grows, yet
In Skaði’s depths | the darkness quails
Sol’s breath kindles | stirs bane of wood
And lights the hearth |
of hall’s bright wolf
Hammer-wielder | Wayland’s offspring
Strikes the earth-heart | steel of sky-shield
Flecks of Fár-light | flash in furnace
Valdr, reaching | rough hand gentle
Hope’s seed cradled | harnessed fire
Boar’s mane burning | Bursts from kind heart
Flame-song fanning | Faces upturn
Burns bright fearless | Baldr’s blessing
Sources
Anon., "Drepsótt," WordSense Online Dictionary, May 9, 2021. https://www.wordsense.eu/drepsótt/ Accessed May 9, 2021.
Anon., "Grettir's Saga", Icelandic Saga Database, William Morris & Eirikr Magnusson, trans., Sveinbjorn Thordarson, ed., http://www.sagadb.org/grettis_saga.en Accessed May 9, 2021.
Bray, Olive, ed. (1908), "Part 1 - The Mythological Poems", The Elder or Poetic Edda: Commonly known as Saemund's Edda, Viking Club Translation Series, Viking Society for Northern Research, 1908. https://archive.org/details/elderorpoeticedd01brayuoft Accessed May 9, 2021.
Chadwick, N. K. “Norse Ghosts (A Study in the Draugr and the Haugbúi).” Folklore, vol. 57, no. 2, 1946, pp. 50–65. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1256952. Accessed 9 May 2021.
Fischer, Todd H. C., Ossa poetices: A Cyclopedia of Early, Medieval and Renaissance Poetic Forms, Devices and Genres, Stonebunny Press, 2017.
N.B. Todd H. C. Fischer is Colyne Stewart’s modern name.
McKinnell, John. Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend. NED - New edition ed., Boydell & Brewer, 2005. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt169wdxp. Accessed 9 May 2021.
Ross, Margaret Clunies, et al, eds., “Kennings,” Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, Skaldic Project Academic Body, no date. https://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/db.php?id=3&if=default&table=volumes&val=WAVES&view=kennings Accessed May 7-9, 2021
Munkholm, Brigón and Adam Busch, “Norse Gods,” Ýdalir, no date. http://ydalir.ca/norsegods/ Accessed May 7-9, 2021.
Sturluson, Snorri, “Skáldskaparmál,” Völuspá - Norse and Germanic Lore site with Old Norse / English translations of the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, trans., Völuspá.org, 2008. http://www.voluspa.org/ Accessed May 9, 2021.
