Þorbjörn dísarskáld
Þorbjörn dísarskáld[1] is a 10th or 11th century Icelandic skald. His nickname means "poet of the lady" or "poet of the dís".[2] It could be an allusion to a now lost poem about Freyja[3] (whom Snorri Sturluson in the Skáldskaparmál calls Vanadís, "lady of the Vanir" or "dís of the Vanir") or one of the dísir.[4]
But only one or two fragments of his poetry have been preserved, in Skáldskaparmál. The first one (two verses and one stanza) comes from a poem about Thor. The stanza consists of a list of giants and giantesses killed by the god:
- Thou didst smite the head of Keila,
- Smash Kjallandi altogether,
- Ere thou slewest Lútr and Leidi,
- Didst spill the blood of Búseyra;
- Didst hold back Hengjankjapta,
- Hyrrokkin died before;
- Yet sooner in like fashion
- Svívör from life was taken.
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- —Skáldskaparmál (4), Brodeur's translation
The other fragment deals with the christening of an unknown person:
- The Freighter of Wave-Crests' Sea-Wain
- Was in the font of christening,
- Hoard-Scatterer, who was given
- The White Christ's highest favor.
-
- —Skáldskaparmál (52), Brodeur's translation
Þorbjörn's authorship of this passage is not certain. If both texts have the same author, then it means, as Anthony Faulkes states,[5] that Þorbjörn became Christian.
Notes
References
- Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.). 1916. Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
- Faulkes, Anthony (trans.). 1995. Snorri Sturluson: Edda. First published in 1987. London: Everyman. ISBN 0-460-87616-3.
- Faulkes, Anthony (ed.). 1998. Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Skáldskaparmál. Vol. 2, Glossary and Index of Names. London: Viking Society for Northern Research. ISBN 0-903521-38-5.
- Simek, Rudolf. 1996. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall. First published by Alfred Kröner Verlag in 1984. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1.