Kviðuháttr
The Kviðuháttr is a rod rhyming meter of Skaldic poetry. It is characterized by the alternation of three and four syllable half verses .
etymology
Kviða is Old Norse and means "poem" or "song". Háttr is actually a "manner", but is used in the Edda to mean "meter". The translation of Kviðuháttr as "Liedversmass" is therefore correct. But only a few songs (usually referred to as Kviða see Völundarkviða ) use the Kviðuháttr. In this case the name says nothing about the meter used.
construction
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("I know that Eystein's life ended on Lofund and it was said that Jutian men burned the king along with (other) Swedes.")
A Kviðuháttrstrophe consists of several long lines counting syllables . The anverse always has three, the abverse always exactly four syllables. The front and back of a long line are connected by the alliance . Understandably, two bars are rather rare in the three-syllable anverse (scheme 1 2 3 4 ). The bar positions 1 2 3 4 and 1 2 3 4 therefore predominate .
use
The Kviðuháttr is a Skaldic meter. So it appears only in the Skaldendie , but not in the Edda songs . Among the works in Kviðuháttr, the Ynglingatal is to be mentioned in particular , but also the Háleygjatal , the Norwegian king list ( Nóregs konungatal ) and the Hákonarkviða of the skald Sturla Þórðarson.
The meter therefore occurs mainly in works in which kings of one sex are listed one after the other (usually with a god as ancestor). Occasionally, however, a song of praise or lament can also be found in Kviðuháttr.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Translation by Finnur Jonson, "Jeg ved, at Østens liv på avsluttedes LOF, one og sagde, at jyske mænd indebrændte kongen med Sven cores."
literature
- Klaus von See: Germanic verse art ; Metzler Collection M 67; Stuttgart (1967) p. 47
- Edith Marold : Kviðuháttr . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Vol. 19. (2nd edition) Berlin, New York 2000.