Þorbjörn dísarskáld

Þorbjörn dísarskáld is a late-10th century Icelandic skald (poet). Only one and a half stanzas of his poetry have been preserved in Skáldskaparmál (The Language of Poetry).{{sfn|Orchard|1997|p=164}}

Name

Dísarskáld means "poet of the dísir", which implies that he composed verses of the female deities (dísir).{{sfn|Orchard|1997|p=164}}

It has also been interpreted as an allusion to a now lost poem about Freyja,{{sfn|Faulkes|1998|p=257}} whom Snorri Sturluson in Skáldskaparmál calls Vanadís ("lady of the Vanir" or "dís of the Vanir") or one of the dísir.{{sfn|Simek|1996}}

His name is sometimes anglicized as Thorbjörn dísarskáld or Thorbiorn disarskald.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Poetry

One and a half stanzas are found in Skáldskaparmál as a preserved part of a longer poem about the thunder-god Thor, celebrating his victories on a number of named gýgjar.{{sfn|Orchard|1997|p=164}}

{{Poem quote|text=[Mjöllnir] struck on Keila’s skull,

Kjallandi you battered in full;

Lút and Leida you’d already killed,

Búseyra’s blood you let flow;

Hengjankjapta you finished off,

Hyrrokkin died at an earlier stage,

and similarly Svívör, earlier still,

was likewise deprived of her life.|char=|sign=|title=Skáldskaparmál|source=4, trans. A. Orchard, 1997.}}

Another fragment, dealing with the christening of an unknown person, is sometimes attributed to Þorbjörn, although the attribution remains uncertain. According to Anthony Faulkes, if both poems were written by the same author, it could mean that Þorbjörn became Christian.{{sfn|Faulkes|1987|p=255}}

{{Poem quote|text=The Freighter of Wave-Crests' Sea-Wain

Was in the font of christening,

Hoard-Scatterer, who was given

The White Christ's highest favor.|char=|sign=|title=Skáldskaparmál|source=52, trans. A. G. Brodeur, 1916.}}

Notes

References

Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.). 1916. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ls2F5i6_LeYC Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda]. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
{{Cite book|last=Faulkes|first=Anthony|title=Edda|publisher=Everyman|year=1987|isbn=0-460-87616-3|edition=1995|author-mask=Faulkes, Anthony, trans.}}
{{Cite book|editor-last=Faulkes |editor-first=Anthony |year=1998 |title=Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Skáldskaparmál |volume=2, Glossary and Index of Names |location=London |publisher=Viking Society for Northern Research |isbn=0-903521-38-5}}.
{{Cite book|last=Orchard|first=Andy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uIujQgAACAAJ|title=Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend|date=1997|publisher=Cassell|isbn=978-0-304-34520-5|language=en|author-link=Andy Orchard}}
{{Cite book|last=Simek|first=Rudolf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZ24QgAACAAJ|title=Dictionary of Northern Mythology|date=1996|publisher=D.S. Brewer|isbn=978-0-85991-513-7|language=en|author-link=Rudolf Simek}}

External links

[http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/thdis.html Þorbjörn's poetry in the original language.]

Category:10th-century Icelandic poets