Dec 1, 2009
Viking … Poets?
Were the warring Vikings—and not the effete, wandering troubadours—the first of the romantic poets? Quite possibly.
Young Icelandic warrior-poets (or “skalds,” as they were known) such as Gunnlaug Snaketongue, Kormak Ogmundarson, and Hallfred the Troublesome Poet, were documenting the ecstasies and despairs of romantic love as early as the late 10th century, some 200 years before the medieval troubadours we typically credit as being the world’s first true Romantic poets.
Of the notable 13th-century sagas that describe the lives of the three great Viking warrior-poets, Kormak’s is unique in that his story centers on his love for a woman named Steingerd (the sagas devoted to his contemporaries tend to dwell on their conflicted relationships with their kings and patrons). It is Kormak’s first sighting of Steingerd’s ankles that marks the beginning of a fascination that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Robert Ferguson explains more in the Wall Street Journal and in his book The Vikings: A History.