Eiríksmál is a skaldic poem composed sometime in 954

954

Year 954 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* King Máel Coluim I of Scotland is killed in battle against the Highlanders...

 or later on the behest of the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 queen Gunnhild in honour of her slain consort Erik Bloodaxe. Only the beginning of the poem is extant.

Although classified here as skaldic since it deals with a historical figure the poem is actually anonymous and in the simple fornyrðislag meter, rather than ornate dróttkvætt. It thus has much in common with the Eddaic poems

Poetic Edda

The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...

.

The later Hákonarmál

Hákonarmál

Hákonarmál is a skaldic poem which the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed about the fall of the Norwegian king Hákon the Good at the battle of Fitjar and his reception in Valhalla. This poem emulates Eiríksmál and is intended to depict the Christian Hákon as a friend to the pagan gods...

appears to be modelled on Eiríksmál.

External links

• Eiríksmál in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
• Two editions of the original text