Exploring Religious Ritual Frameworks in the Oral Performance of the Old Norse, Eddic-Style Praise Poems Hákonar­mál, Eiríksmál, and Hrafnsmál

Abstract

The idea that Old Norse poetry derives from an oral tradition is commonly accepted in contemporary research. However, more detailed considerations of the consequences of this notion for our understanding of specific poems and their context are seldomly given. In this article, three Old Norse poems that chal­lenge the genre categories of eddic and skaldic (i.e. Hákonarmál Eiríksmál, and Hrafns­mál) are analysed using performance and ritual studies in order to consider the poems possible function as orally performed poems in a presumed Viking Age context. It is argued that the performance is these poems constituted more or less religious rituals with the potential to transform both the performer(s) and the physical settings of the poems. Furthermore, is it argued that the analysed presented in the article have consequences for the understanding of the role of the poet in the Viking world; they were also individuals who potentially had religious, ritual knowledge and authority and thus an important role to play in pre-Christian Nordic religion.