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On the functional characteristics of genres in Skaldic poetry
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2024-1-77-109
Abstract
The article analyses the functional characteristics of the main genres of skaldic poetry: panegyric verse, memorial poems (erfidrápur), shield poems (skjaldardrápur), head-ransom verse (höfuðlausn), love poetry (mansöngr) and libellous poems (níð). Olga Freidenberg’s conception of the salvational and chthonic functions of the word is applied to the genres of skaldic poetry which are discussed in the paper. Skaldic libellous verse (níð), rooted in rune magic, is endowed with a chthonic function, whereas head-ransoms characterised by autonominative, equitemporal semantics, acquire a salvational role. The salvational role of head-ransoms (höfuðlausn) is ensured by the use of auto-referential semantics (when the speech act is directed not at the addressee but at the creator of the poem himself), of performative formulas and of a hyper-structuralised form – runhent meter with final rhyme overloaded with sound devices. The pragmatic function of love poems (mansöngr) is determined by their intended influence on the addressee: they serve to manipulate the addressee’s mentality and behaviour, ensuring the performance of a particular action (granting favour to a skald). Erfidrápur are endowed not only with a memorial function but also with a life-affirming role, conditioned by the idea of familial renewal and vitality. The function of skaldic shield poems (skjaldardrápur) is dissociated in the article from descriptive visual imagery of material objects. It is argued in the paper that shield poems function as thesauri of mythological kennings: their poetic form facilitates the process of memorising kennings, and their prose context provides explanations and motivates their usage. Ragnarsdrápa, which alludes to, rather than describes, mythological scenes of Þorr’s fishing for Jǫrmungandr, Hamðir and Sǫrli, taking revenge on Jǫrmunrekkr, and the never-ending battle between Heðin and Hǫgni, is not descriptive, or narrative, or intentionally communicative. The marginality of the communicative function of skaldic poetry is conditioned by violation of direct word-order, the use of parataxis, which obscures the syntactic structure of a stanza, of kennings with their informative deficiency, of inserted and interlaced clauses, breaking the semantic organisation of a half-stanza, and of increased significance of sound repetitions, which is characteristic of magic and ritual.
About the Author
I. G. MatyushinaRussian Federation
Inna G. Matyushina, Dr. of Sci. (Philology)
6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
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Supplementary files
For citation: Matyushina I.G. On the functional characteristics of genres in Skaldic poetry. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2024;(1):77-109. https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2024-1-77-109
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