Eysteinn Ásgrímsson
Encyclopedia
Eysteinn Ásgrímsson was an Iceland
ic poet who wrote Lilja, the most famous and in most readers' opinion the best among religious poetry in Iceland in the Middle Ages.
. In 1343 he was sent to prison for beating up his abbot in the abbey of Þykkvabær. Some scholars assume that this was the occasion he composed 'Lilja', which is marked by a deep concern with sinfulness.
He was sent to Norway
in 1355 and returned in 1357 as an inspector of churches.
On the way back to Norway in 1360 the voyage turned out to be too rough for him, and the poet died just after landing.
ar and borrowings as far he could.
This is especially noteworthy as the poetic tradition he was a member of (skaldic poetry) draws for a great part upon most complex formal aspects, among them alteration and interweaving of word and phrase positions, a highly elaborated metaphorical system and strict metrical rules.
Only the metrical regulations are still held up by Eysteinn in his poem, although he does not use the traditional Dróttkvætt metre, but the Hrynhent whose main difference is a syllable count of eight in contrast to the six-syllabic dróttkvætt. The metre has also been seen to relate, in its slower, broader word-flow, to the sermon tradition.
The syntactic and semantic complexities of scaldic poetry are explicitly avoided by Eysteinn, in favour of a Christian 'claritas'-ideal as stated by St. Thomas Aquinas
.
The poet is shown as a truly religious man with a deep understanding of human needs and their relationship to God, as it was understood at the time. Lilja is still read today.
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic poet who wrote Lilja, the most famous and in most readers' opinion the best among religious poetry in Iceland in the Middle Ages.
Life
Eysteinn Ásgrímsson was a member of the Icelandic clergy as well as a skaldSkald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
. In 1343 he was sent to prison for beating up his abbot in the abbey of Þykkvabær. Some scholars assume that this was the occasion he composed 'Lilja', which is marked by a deep concern with sinfulness.
He was sent to Norway
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...
in 1355 and returned in 1357 as an inspector of churches.
On the way back to Norway in 1360 the voyage turned out to be too rough for him, and the poet died just after landing.
Work
His poem Lilja ("the lily", in medieval Christian imagery the flower which symbolizes purity and thus also the Virgin Mary) still lives, however, mainly because of its extraordinarily gifted composition and the fact that Eysteinn was, for his times, a purist regarding language: he avoided both complicated kenningKenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
ar and borrowings as far he could.
This is especially noteworthy as the poetic tradition he was a member of (skaldic poetry) draws for a great part upon most complex formal aspects, among them alteration and interweaving of word and phrase positions, a highly elaborated metaphorical system and strict metrical rules.
Only the metrical regulations are still held up by Eysteinn in his poem, although he does not use the traditional Dróttkvætt metre, but the Hrynhent whose main difference is a syllable count of eight in contrast to the six-syllabic dróttkvætt. The metre has also been seen to relate, in its slower, broader word-flow, to the sermon tradition.
The syntactic and semantic complexities of scaldic poetry are explicitly avoided by Eysteinn, in favour of a Christian 'claritas'-ideal as stated by St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
.
The poet is shown as a truly religious man with a deep understanding of human needs and their relationship to God, as it was understood at the time. Lilja is still read today.