Waugh, Robin. Literacy, Royal Power, and King-Poet Relations in Old English and Old Norse Compositions

• Author: Waugh, Robin
• Title: Literacy, Royal Power, and King-Poet Relations in Old English and Old Norse Compositions
• Published in: Comparative Literature 49/4
• Year: 1997
• Pages: 289-315
• E-text:
• Reference: Waugh, Robin. "Literacy, Royal Power, and King-Poet Relations in Old English and Old Norse Compositions." Comparative Literature 49/4 (1997): 289-315.'

---

• Key words: social reality, oral tradition, literacy (ritöld, munnleg hefð, samfélagsmynd)

Annotation

The relationship between king and poet in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian societies before and after the introduction of writing. The king-poet relationship passes through three developmental stages in the transition from orality to full literacy, which Waugh terms orality, object literacy (i.e., connecting power to objects) and content literacy (i.e., connecting power to written texts). Waugh argues that the tradition is at its heart a competitive one and that the king "steals" acts of praise from his poets. With the arrival of Christianity and written records, the king's political power increases and he has less need for praise-poets; the commissioned book arguably assumes the role of the traditional court poet.

Lýsing

Samband konungs og skálds í engilsaxnesku og skandinavísku samfélagi fyrir og eftir tilkomu ritmáls. Sambandið konungur-skáld fer í gegnum þrjú stig þróunar frá munnlegu samfélagi til samfélags þar sem ritmál er ríkjandi. Waugh nefnir þessi stig 'orality' (munnleg hefð), 'object literacy' (þegar vald er tengt hlutum) og 'content literacy' (þegar vald er tengt skrifuðum textum). Hann færir rök fyrir því að hin gamla hefð byggist í raun á samkeppni og að konungurinn „ræni“ lofgjörð um sig frá skáldum sínum. Með tilkomu kristni og ritaðra heimilda styrkist pólitískt vald konungsins og hann hefur ekki eins mikla þörf fyrir lof skálda; segja má að bókin sem rituð er að beiðni konungs taki við hefðbundnu hlutverki hirðskáldsins.

References

Chapter 55: fylgdi skikkja dýr: "Rewarded poets become part of a relationship of service and payment for helping royal reputations. Egill composes a verse in praise of his new armband and produces another stanza iin praise of Aðalsteinn himself. The king further rewards him with gold and skikkja dýr, er konungr sjálfr hafði áðr borit... This kind of gift absorbs a poet and makes him into what the sovereign wants him to be: dressed for court; visibly in the king's debt; obviously a member of an individual lord's retinue" (s. 301).

Chapter 63: besta er kvæðið fram flutt: "The irony is that the head-saving poem (despite its content) gives Egill more glory than [Eiríkr]. The skill of this poet in spite of the situation outweighs the king's reputation, which pales in significance; the composition even hints at this subversive agenda with its references to the art of verse-making, and with its requests for silence" (p. 296).

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason