Literacy, royal power, and king-poet relations in Old English and Old Norse compositions

From: Comparative Literature | Date: October 1, 1997| Author: | Copyright information

IN OLD NORSE WORKS, kings often steal acts of praise from the poets who normally offer these judgements. The motivation for these thefts comes from a tradition of competitiveness within Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian societies: most characters in sagas and heroic poems, especially in compositions t hat seem to come from an oral tradition, compete constantly with one another and with characters from the past.1 The verbal combat between political leaders and poets in Old Norse works provides a useful case study of this general competition. This king-poet competition appears to have three ...

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