Guthormr Sindri is a 10th century 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...

 skald

Skald

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...

. He was a court-poet of king Haraldr Fairhair (hárfagri) and his sons, Hálfdan the Black (svarti) and Hákon the Good

Haakon I of Norway

Haakon I , , given the byname the Good, was the third king of Norway and the youngest son of Harald Fairhair and Thora Mosterstang.-Early life:...

 (góði), for whom he composed the Hákonardrápa

Hákonardrápa

Hákonardrápa is the name of several skaldic poems. Hákon may refer to:-King Hákon the Good:Guthormr sindri's Hákonardrápa was composed in the 10th century in the honour of the king of Norway Hákon the Good....

.

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...

 relates how Guthormr intervened between Haraldr and Hálfdan and succeeded in putting an end to their conflict:

When Halfdan the Black heard this he levied ships and men, so that he had a great force, and proceeded with it to Stad, within Thorsbjerg. King Harald lay with his men at Reinsletta. Now people went between them, and among others a clever man called Guthorm Sindre, who was then in Halfdan the Black's army, but had been formerly in the service of King Harald, and was a great friend of both. Guthorm was a great skald, and had once composed a song both about the father and the son, for which they had offered him a reward. But he would take nothing; but only asked that, some day or other, they should grant him any request he should make, which they promised to do. Now he presented himself to King Harald, brought words of peace between them, and made the request to them both that they should be reconciled. So highly did the king esteem him, that in consequence of his request they were reconciled. —Harald Harfager's Saga (39), Laing's translation

The Hákonardrápa is Guthormr's only known work, since the poems about Haraldr Fairhair and Hálfdan the Black mentioned by Snorri were lost. Six stanzas and two half stanzas of the Hákonardrápa are preserved in Snorri's Hákonar saga góða and in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta

Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta

Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta or The Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvasonis one of the kings' sagas, an extended biography of King Óláfr Tryggvason....

. The poem recounts the battles won by Hákon the Good against the Danes (1-2), his raids in Zealand, Scania

Scania

Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...

 and Götaland

Götaland

Götaland , Gothia, Gothland, Gothenland, Gautland or Geatland is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises provinces...

 (3-4) and his victories over the sons of his brother Eric Bloodaxe

Eric Bloodaxe

Eric Haraldsson , nicknamed ‘Bloodaxe’ , was a 10th-century Scandinavian ruler. He is thought to have had short-lived terms as the second king of Norway and possibly as the last independent ruler of the kingdom of Northumbria Eric Haraldsson (Eric, anglicised form of ; died 954), nicknamed...

(6-8).

External links

• Guthormr's Hákonardrápa in the original language