By Gail Allen
Poetry in viking societies was both a highly praised art and a way to deliver deadly insults, especially since vikings also enjoyed words with double or even triple meanings immensely. They found the use of poetic rephrasings to be the height of sophistication – whole works exist which catalogue these rephrasings. In these, you will find such terms as ‘the one-eyed’ which refers to Odin, or ‘the hammer wielder’ which refers to Thor as well as several more obscure (as well as more elaborate) terms.
Because of these rephrasings (coupled with many words which could have several meanings), poetry which on the surface seemed to praise another, could in fact be cleverly hidden insults. However, they were not truly hidden as the original audience would have very easily seen through it, but there would exist just enough deniability on the side of the creator to be able to claim to have had no ill intention. From looking at laws from the viking age, it seems that this became quite a problem, as it was at some point actually made illegal in certain places to create unsolicited poems praising others. And when you look at some of the works from the time where people insult each other in poetry it becomes quite clear why these were things that would be hard to overlook. There is even a myth involving Loki, the most mischievous among the gods of the norse pantheon, insulting just about every other god and goddess quite soundly – in perfect poetic language and meter of course. This style of poetry is called flyting. Oftentimes these poetic insults would even become an ordered contest between two poets, exchanging insults in poetry which of course has to be made up on the spot since it needs to reply to the insult the other party just threw at them. So when rappers today participate in rap battles they actually participate in a tradition that goes all the way back to vikingtimes in Scandinavia.
Another style of poetry was the Dróttkvætt which was the form used for the aforementioned poems praising someone else: usually a ruler or nobleman, though it could be anyone you wished to honour. In their true forms, these poems were highly praised as they allowed the one they were written about to become known for their best qualities in a larger sphere and to be remembered, which was very important to the vikings. Back then the easy access to information we have today would have been unthinkable, and therefore having a poem about you would spread information about you in a memorable form (so it was very important what that information was). And since poets tended to travel from place to place it was also a rather effective way to spread that information. Therefore poets were also highly praised and very well paid for their works.
Sadly many poems have not survived, but if you are interested, most sagas will make some mention at some point about poets and poetry – if for no other reason than that they were often created by these same poets.