(10) On the subject, see Julian Meldon D'Arcy, Scottish
Skalds and Sagamen.
This is a moving article in demonstrating Morris's protracted and indeed brilliant efforts to recreate the intricate forms employed by Norse
skalds within another, alternative, tongue.
John Lindow's contribution deals with memory techniques (narrative, objects, sites, and ritual) embedded in the Poetic Edda, as a means for examining aspects of Old Norse mythology, while Margaret Clunies Ross and Kate Heslop both write about the poet's role in cultural memory; the former looking at the
skalds work as authentication, while the latter is concerned explicitly with the rhetoric and vocabulary for remembering.
A similar brief mention is provided in another article by the same author, "Borges' Icelandic Subtext: The Saga Model" (385-86) while Sigmn's article on Borges and kennings, '"El verso incorruptible': Jorge Luis Borges and the Poetic Art of the Icelandic
Skalds," outlines the basics of kenning-lore and the strong influence that these may have had on Borges' oeuvre, perhaps the most noteworthy example being 'Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." La alucinacion de Gylfi does not come into the latter and is merely named in Margret Jonsdottir's "Borges y la literatura islandesa medieval" (124) and Vladimir Brljak's fascinating article, "Borges and the North" (110), in which the path of northern influence is traced through Borges's life.
Frequent 'Who's Who' paragraphs clarify the relationship between the gods and highlight significant poets or
skalds. Further information bites show mythical links between different cultures and may be useful in sparking interest in which myths and legends have influenced our own traditional stories.
The first is "St Olaf and the
Skalds" by John Lindow.
The arrangement of named
skalds is chronological; a small final section treats anonymous poetry and anonymous lausavisur.
When he first steps onto the pages of the pulps, he studies with a singing
skald, which explains his unusually high voice: The singing ones, he claims, "are the true
skalds, not the roaring ones who use deep tones" (16, 14).
There is also a Christian/pagan opposition in the narrative itself: Snorri is a Christian who tells his story from a Christian perspective, but the verses that he uses as sources and quotes from to illustrate his narrative are presumably by pagan
skalds. Hence we have the provocative image of a Christian king who is carried off to Valhalla upon his death.
The Icelandic landscape, the seasons, wildlife, rivers, glaciers, and streams of an ancient land, and the
skalds and poets of the past, all figure importantly in Stigar.
45-56, and Formation of the Medieval West, passim, attempt to see performers described as scurri or mimi in the sources as professional performers of oral poetry on the line of the Scandinavian
skalds, but in Notker (e.g., I:13, 17; II:21, 92) they look rather more like court jesters.