Skúli Þórsteinsson was an 11th century Icelandic poet and warrior. He was the grandson of Egill Skallagrímsson

Egill Skallagrímsson

Egill Skallagrímsson was a Viking Age warrior and skald. Egill is one of the great anti-heroes of the Icelandic sagas.-Life:...

 and a courtier of Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson

Eiríkr Hákonarson

Eiríkr Hákonarson or Eric of Norway or Eric of Hlathir was earl of Lade, ruler of Norway and earl of Northumbria.-Background:...

. A short account of his life is given at the end of Egils saga

Egils saga

Egils saga is an epic Icelandic saga. The oldest transcript dates back to 1240 AD. The saga is centered on the life of Egill Skallagrímsson, an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald...

:

Of Thorstein's sons, Thorgeir was the strongest but Skuli was the greatest. He lived at Borg after his father's day and spent a long time on Viking raids. He was at the stern of Earl Eirik's ship Iron-prow in the battle where King Olaf Tryggvason was killed. Skuli fought seven battles on his Viking raids and was considered to be outstandingly resolute and brave. He went to Iceland afterwards and farmed at Borg, where he lived until his old age, and many people are descended from him.

In Oddr Snorrason

Oddr Snorrason

The Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar of Oddr Snorrason whose name is also sometimes Anglicized as Odd Snorrason was a Latin royal biography attributed to a 12th century Icelandic Benedictine monk at the Þingeyrar monastery ....

's Saga of Olaf Tryggvason Skúli is mentioned as one of the last people to see Olaf Tryggvason, during the Battle of Svolder

Battle of Svolder

The Battle of Svolder was a naval battle fought in September 999 or 1000 in the western Baltic Sea between King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway and an alliance of his enemies...

.

Skúli Þorsteinsson said that when he boarded the king's ship, "the dead men lay so thick underfoot," he said, "that it was hardly possible to go forward." Then he saw the king on the poopdeck, but he looked away and cleared the bodies from under the jarl's feet and his own. When he looked again, he did not see the king.

Skúli also has a small role to play in Gunnlaugs saga

Gunnlaugs saga

Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu or the Saga of Gunnlaugr Serpent-Tongue is one of the Icelanders' sagas. Composed at the end of the 13th century it is preserved complete in a slightly younger manuscript. It contains 25 verses of skaldic poetry attributed to the main characters...

where he introduces 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....

 to Jarl Eiríkr. Skáldatal

Skáldatal

Skáldatal is a short prose work in Old Norse. It is preserved in two manuscripts: DG 11, or Codex Uppsaliensis, which is one of the four main manuscripts of the Prose Edda , and AM 761 a 4to , which also contains Skaldic poems...

lists both of them as court poets of the jarl.

A few fragments of Skúli's poetry have come down to us. The kings' sagas

Kings' sagas

The kings' sagas are Norse sagas which tell of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries in Iceland and Norway....

 quote a strophe by him where he recalls participating in the Battle of Svolder. Four other fragments which seem to be from the same poem are quoted in the Skáldskaparmál

Skáldskaparmál

The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...

section of Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson

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

's Prose Edda

Prose Edda

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...

. The poem was composed as Skúli was getting on in years and recalls his warlike youth.

The final fragment quoted in Skáldskaparmál is a lyrical description of a sunset, unique in the skaldic corpus.

Glens beðja veðr gyðju goðblíð í vé Vé (shrine) In Germanic paganism, a vé or wēoh is a type of shrine or sacred enclosure. The term appears in skaldic poetry and in place names in Scandinavia , often in connection with a Norse deity or a geographic feature. The name of the Norse god Vé, refers to the practice... , síðan ljós kømr gótt, með geislum, gránserks ofan Mána.

Glenr's god-blithe Bed-Mate wadeth Into the Goddess's mansion With rays; then the good light cometh Of gray-sarked Máni Mani Mani is a name or word occurring in several etymologically unrelated languages and cultures, including:* Maní - a legend of the indigenous tribe Tupi in Brazil.* Mani , the founder of Manichaeism.... downward.

God-blithe bedfellow of Glen steps to her divine sanctuary with brightness; then descends the good light of grey-clad moon.