Bragi Boddason
Encyclopedia
In his Edda Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...

 quotes many stanzas attributed to Bragi Boddason the old (Bragi Boddason inn gamli), a court poet who served several Swedish kings, Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...

, Östen Beli and Björn at Hauge who reigned in the first half of the ninth century
9th century in poetry
Years link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" articles.-Births of Arabic world poets:* 742 – Ibrahim Al-Mausili * 805 – Abu Tammam * 820 – al-Buhturi * 861 – Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz...

. This Bragi was reckoned as the first skaldic poet, and was certainly the earliest skaldic poet then remembered by name whose verse survived in memory.

Snorri especially quotes passages from Bragi's Ragnarsdrápa
Ragnarsdrápa
Ragnarsdrápa is a skaldic poem composed in honour of the Scandinavian hero Ragnar Lodbrok. It is attributed to the oldest known skald Bragi Boddason who lived in the 9th century, and composed for the Swedish king Björn at Haugi. Bragi describes the images on a decorated shield which Ragnar had...

, a poem supposedly composed in honor of the famous legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrók
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...

 ('Hairy-breeches') describing the images on a decorated shield which Ragnar had given to Bragi. The images included Thor's fishing for Jörmungandr
Jörmungandr
In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr , mostly known as Jormungand, orJörmungand , or Midgard Serpent , or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki...

, Gefjun's ploughing of Zealand from the soil of Sweden, the attack of Hamdir and Sorli against King Jörmunrekk
Ermanaric
Ermanaric was a Greuthungian Gothic King who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled an enormous area north of the Black Sea. Contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus recounts him as a "most warlike man" who "ruled over extensively wide and fertile regions"...

, and the never-ending battle between Hedin and Högni
Hedin and Högni
Hjaðningavíg , the legend of Heðinn and Hǫgni or the Saga of Hild is a Scandinavian legend from Norse mythology about a never-ending battle which is documented in Sörla þáttr, Ragnarsdrápa, Gesta Danorum, Skíðaríma and in Skáldskaparmál. It is also held to appear on the image stone at Stora Hammar...

.

Landnámabók
Landnámabók
Landnámabók , often shortened to Landnáma, is a medieval Icelandic written work describing in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.-Landnáma:...

says that Bragi was married to Lopthœna the daughter of Erpr lútandi
Erpr lútandi
Erpr lútandi was according to Skáldatal the court skald of the Swedish kings Eysteinn Beli and Björn at Haugi. There are no extant poems by Erpr.Skáldatal tells that Erpr committed the crime of killing in a sanctuary...

, another skald who served the Swedish king Eysteinn Beli. They were among the ancestors of the later skald Gunnlaugr ormstunga
Gunnlaugr ormstunga
Gunnlaugr Ormstunga was an Icelandic poet, born ca. 983. His life is described in Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, where several of his poems are preserved....

http://runeberg.org/anf/1890/0147.html.

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