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incidents. We thus find love-ditties, humorous verses, satires, lam-
poons, dream-songs, verses on travels and so on; but the highest le-
vel is reached in descriptions of sea-voyages. Indeed, the sea and sea-
faring have been the constant themes of Icelandic poets from the co-
lonization down to the present day, and some of these songs are
justly claimed to be among the very finest poems in our language.
Most of these poems were made in Court-metre or some variety
thereof. As an example of this kind of poetry the following verse by
Sigvatr mav here be given:
* 2 3 6 9
Kiétr vask opt, bas ati
7 8 10 11
ordigt vedr a figrdum
15 14 4 5
visa segl, 1 vdsi,
13 12 16
vindblasid skof Strinda;
17 19 18 20 21
hestr 60 kafs at kostum
22 23 24 25
(kilir ristu men Lista)
31 26 29 27
at pars eisa lérum
30 28 32 33
undan skeidr at sundi
I was often blithe e-
nough in the wet when
a stiff breeze swept the
Strinder Kings's sail in
the firths. The sea-steed
waded gallantly on. The
keels ploughed the sea.
when we made the galley
speed towards the Sound.
This stanza consists of eight lines of six syllables each. Every two
lines (each couplet) are connecled by alliteration (staverime). The al-
literative letters (here printed in blacker type) must, if consonanis, be
the same, but can, if vocals, be different. There are two riming syl-
lables in every line (here printed in Italics). The arrangement of words
and sentences is here more intricate than in daily speech, and in or-
der to understand this verse, the words must be rearranged as indi-
cated by the figures.
The poets employed a great number of synonyms (heiti) which were
never heard except in poetry, as e. g. “visi“ == king; and circum-
locutions (kenningar = lkennings), as “hestr kafs® = sea-horse, a
ship; “men Lista = the sea. These periphrases or circumlocutions
are often exiremely complex and make the poems difficult to under-
stand; but not infrequently they are genuine masterpieces of inspiration
and deep thought,
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a much greater stress than
heretofore is laid on the grouping of the different kinds of metre ac-
cording to strict rules. About 1223 Snorri Sturluson composed his
