Court poetry is the label given to skaldic poetry in dróttkvætt (court metre) or one of its many variations, delivered as praise of rulers by Icelandic, Norwegian and Orcadian poets. This chapter discusses its typical content, including battle, voyages, praise, self-referential allusions to poetry, and mythical and religious references, both Christian and pre-Christian. The characteristic techniques of skaldic poetry – complex metre, diction (especially kennings) and word order, including clause arrangement – are described in detail. The three main forms of skaldic poetry, the drápa, flokkr and vísur, are distinguished, and subgenres of skaldic poetry such as ekphrasis, genealogical and historical poems, and eddic-style praise poems are described. Other types of court poetry, not straightforwardly encomiastic, are also considered. The social context and purpose of court poetry is explained, and the chapter concludes with a survey of the transmission, influence and modern reconstruction of court poems. Court poetry was such a useful medium for entertaining warrior elites that it endured for four centuries, and the continued inventiveness of court poets is noted.

This chapter traces the history of Christian poetry in Old Norse-Icelandic from the tenth century to the fourteenth century. Beginning with Hallfreðr Óttarsson, it describes how poets began to incorporate Christian material into their verse during the conversion period in Norway, avoiding pagan imagery and developing new kennings for Christian concepts. It then discusses poetry composed by Icelandic skalds in praise of St Óláfr Haraldsson and his successors, including Einarr Skúlason’s twelfth-century poem Geisli. From the twelfth century onwards the body of Christian poetry is sizeable, and this chapter sets such important works as Harmsól, Sólarljóð and Lilja in the context of this developing poetic tradition. It also outlines the history of Old Norse-Icelandic poetry dealing with saints, including the Virgin Mary, apostles and virgin martyrs. It is suggested that the composition of poems on Christian subjects in praise of God, Christ and the saints was a continuation of the pre-Christian encomiastic tradition, with appropriate modifications of subjects, style and metres.

The mythology of Scandinavia as the inspiration for a significant amount of Old Norse poetry, from pre-Christian times and on into the Christian period, is the subject of this chapter. It begins with a critical analysis of the main mythological poems in the first twenty leaves of the Codex Regius: Þrymskviða, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Skírnismál, Alvíssmál, Vafþrúðnismál, Hárbárðsljóð, Grímnismál, Völundarkviða and Hávamál, before moving on to consider Völuspá, the poem which opens the collection. The discussion then considers the ways in which mythological thinking also informs some of the poems in the so-called ‘heroic’ section, the Helgi poems, the Sigurðr poems, and poems such as Helreið Brynhildar. Eddic poems from outside the Codex Regius, such as Hyndluljóð, Baldrs draumar and Grottasöngr, are also discussed. Particular attention is paid to metre, poetic language and kennings, and mythological references in skaldic poetry are also described.