Bragi Boddason

Bragi enn gamli Boddason , enn gamli = "the old one", (around 835 - around 900) is the oldest traditional skald from the first half of the 9th century at the time of the unification of the empire in western Norway . The only larger poem handed down by him is the Ragnarsdrápa ("Prize poem on Ragnarr").

Bragi's biography is only approximate; he is mentioned in the genealogical lists of the Landnámabók and in the Egils saga Skallagrímssonar for the period from 835 to 900. Snorri Sturluson states in his list of the skalds ( Skáldatal of the Prose Edda ) that Bragi worked as court poet in Sweden at the court of "Björn at Haugi" , the king "Bern von Birka", whom the missionary and bishop Ansgar im Visited year 830. Therefore it could also belong to a generation before. Gabriel Turville-Petre dated the life and work time Bragis due to the fully developed versification of Dróttkvætt-verse in his poetry in the second half of the 9th century.

literature

• Rudolf Simek , Hermann Pálsson : Lexicon of Old Norse Literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 490). Kröner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-520-49001-3 .
• Jan de Vries : Old Norse literary history. (= Outline of Germanic Philology 15/16.) De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1999, 3rd unchanged edition in one volume with a foreword by Stefanie Würth. ISBN 3-11-016330-6 .

Web links

• Bragi Boddason's texts for the Skaldic Poetry Project
• Bragi Boddason in the store norske leksikon (Norwegian)
• Biography in Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian)