Dating and Authenticity of Skaldic Verse in some Sagas of Icelanders

Icelandic sagas featuring a poet (Old Norse skáld) as the protagonist contain large amounts of poetry, which at times seems to be a source used by the saga author and at other times seems to simply embellish the narrative. Thus, there has been debate whether this poetry is old enough to have actually been composed by the tenth- or eleventh-century protagonists, or if the poetry is perhaps as late as the thirteenth-century prose of the sagas. In this paper, I examine features of the poetry in six sagas (Egils saga, Gísla saga, Hallfreðar saga, Gunnlaugs saga, Fóstbrœðra saga, and Njáls saga) and a comparison set of poetry that is dated with more certainty. The features are the decline of the particle of (the only remnant in early Old Norse of the Proto-Germanic verbal prefixes), the replacement of clitic negation with an innovative negative adverb eigi, the rise of a new relative pronoun sá, and the increase in the metrical pattern known as Type A. I create a statistical model of these criteria in the set of dated poetry, and then I apply that model to the poetry from the sagas in question. The result is that most of the poetry attested in Egils, Gísla, Hallfreðar, and Fóstbrœðra saga is contemporaneous with the lives of Egill, Gísli, Hallfreðr, and Þormóðr, while the poetry transmitted in Gunnlaugs saga and Njáls saga is recent enough to have been fabricated by a thirteenth-century saga author. I conclude with some broader implications for using the naïve Bayes classifier in historical linguistics.A hallmark of the style of (certain) Old Icelandic sagas is the use of verse embedded in the prose. As argued by Bjarni Einarsson, in the kings’ sagas, poetry is often cited as an attestation of a historical event's veracity, while in the sagas of Icelanders, skaldic verse is literary adornment, “an integral part of the artistic fabric of the text.”1 More recently, Whaley terms this dichotomy the “authenticating” vs. “situational” use of poetry in the sagas.2 However, in certain of the sagas of Icelanders with a poet (Old Icelandic skáld) as the protagonist, poetry seems to have both functions: some poems seem to be the saga writer's main source for particular episodes of the poet's life, while at other times the poetry simply serves to entertain the reader.3 Thus there has been great scholarly debate whether this poetry is old enough to have actually been composed by the hero of the saga, or if the poetry is perhaps as late as the prose of the saga.4 Much of this debate has been based on scholars’ subjective intuitions about the ages of the poetry, but over the last twenty years, scholars have increasingly turned to metrical and linguistic criteria in attempts to date skaldic poetry more objectively. In this paper, I employ four such features as criteria for dating the poetry in six sagas: Hallfreðar saga, Gunnlaugs saga, Egils saga, Fóstbrœðra saga, Gísla saga, and Njáls saga. This study demonstrates that metrical and linguistic criteria, when evaluated using the appropriate statistical methods, can add quantitative support to more traditional philological methods for dating texts.These sagas were chosen for the current study because each contains a considerable amount of skaldic poetry composed by one of its protagonists, and because the poetry in these sagas is (or soon will be) available in electronic form through the Skaldic Project (SkP) website, the digital version of the collection Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.5Hallfreðar saga vandræðaskálds (“The saga of Hallfreðr, the troublesome poet”) and Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (“The saga of Gunnlaugr serpent-tongue”) are among the core skald sagas, which feature an Icelander who becomes a renowned court poet in mainland Europe and share themes such as tragic love and conflict with Christianity.6Egils saga Skallagrímssonar (“The saga of Egill Skallagrímsson”), Fóstbrœðra saga (“The saga of the sworn brothers”), and Gísla saga Súrssonar (“The saga of Gísli Súrsson”) are considered by some scholars to be outlier skald sagas: the stories are more complex, and each lacks some element of the core skald sagas such as unrequited love.7 Finally, although not a skald saga in any sense, Brennu-Njáls saga (“The saga of burned Njáll”) is included as a control on the methodology, because it contains poetry that has been shown to be as late as the thirteenth or fourteenth century.8While much of the poetry in these sagas is attributed (correctly or not) to 10th- and 11th- century skalds, the prose of these works is mostly thirteenth century: Hallfreðar saga and probably also Egils saga and Fóstbrœðra saga are among the oldest sagas, dating to 1200–1230, while Gunnlaugs saga may be a bit later.9 Although there is some encomiastic poetry included in the sagas, the focus of the sagas is less on life at court and more on the personal lives of the skalds, and much of the poetry consists of lausavísur (“loose verses”), often single stanzas that express love or exchange insults.10 The narrative relationship between the prose saga and these verses is not always straightforward. Poole notes that “sometimes the verses inset in a saga acted as a source for the prose” while in other instances “they represent an alternative version of the story which the prose may only partially take account of.”11 In cases the verse and prose it is to the version as an that the saga author to narrative. because of the of the style in these early sagas, the of some sagas composed lausavísur as a literary there is a of for the of poetry attested in the skald sagas, from the or composed by the to the thirteenth composed by the saga is also that some of the poetry is the prose saga but not composed by the protagonist skald of an about the saga hero that as a source for the saga are with as as of one there be a and a thirteenth-century saga it that the poetry attributed to the and scholars such as considered these to be and The debate in the has to or the and of particular that of the verse in the sagas is considered been in the century to embellish and about Icelanders of an have been of used to date particular and notes instances in which a tenth- or eleventh-century skald that not use the or thirteenth century or to that In other a of skaldic verse by the saga that the poetry by the the prose is about dating on linguistic because are early features that not have been in As a of the skaldic that it to between and are more of the of linguistic that if poems be attributed to a particular in be by linguistic to be much the prose in which are is certain that linguistic methods of a from one composed in the thirteenth for the that poems in the were to one that are can be on metrical there are a of skaldic poems in which the can be by that not the is that the features often not a will not to date the poetry of the skald sagas is study of verses in in the core skald sagas saga, Hallfreðar saga, saga, and Gunnlaugs saga. is to whether of the poetry the skald sagas is early as it a of Norse love or thirteenth-century by saga on four the use of the particle of the although it to be used in or in it metrical there in the century a in which the is in but has poems in the skald sagas set to the century not contain such certain not as the of the and instances of this in the verses of the skald sagas. Finally, the in the and there are from the skald sagas that contain the that the poetry in the skald sagas of the features with the poetry of is that most of the stanzas in saga and Hallfreðar saga were composed the which can be by of the particle However, poetry in the other skald sagas to be to the of and it is that the stanzas in Gunnlaugs saga and a stanzas in saga are of is an more traditional criteria and methods to date a of skaldic not that of the sagas. the traditional the poems date to the to by and that of the features which to historical that have been for to that some criteria are the are the use of the and certain criteria are the of the use of and the particle of is a dating but not always as poems the the criteria are and some of Finally, demonstrates the criteria can date using the lausavísur in Egils saga as an that of lausavísur attributed to the Egill that contain at one of the dating criteria, twenty have features to the only four have features a date of while the six have a of tenth- and a more recent the of poetry attributed to Gísli in Gísla saga. Egill, Gísli in the but scholars have to date this poetry to the or thirteenth each the dating criteria from the late eigi, that most of the stanzas have features and are stanzas have is the only one in a of are a that at and are the last stanzas in the saga and that these stanzas with late features were probably by the thirteenth-century saga author for narrative study a for dating Old Icelandic poetry that used by to date the of a in by its linguistic features to a of poetry of are More the current study the as study of the of using a statistical the naïve Bayes I create a model of the of four linguistic features in dated skaldic poems (the and apply that model to the poetry in the six sagas (the The naïve Bayes classifier then each (or of in the to a skaldic poetry in the is that used in study of poetry, chosen based on the only poems that are in the Skaldic Project (SkP) as composed by a known skald are the skaldic poems have been I have only poems that in and of Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle are the poems attested in historical from the kings’ contains cited in and the metrical and consists of poetry on In I and are as are by the thirteenth-century Gunnlaugr in the in only poems by who are in by or more have been included (the used by study of the skaldic because with attested not enough of the linguistic that I use for and poems that the for statistical model are in The of a skald to a is based on the century in which the of stanzas were early and late have been as as the late thirteenth and early in to with only one from the skald sagas Njáls saga) are in The are as in these to the traditional which that the stanzas are to the poet an outlier skald saga, Egils saga contains poems by poems and and the stanzas of poems are mostly attested in Egils saga, with in and much of is known about life is from the saga and these in to and and as a in to be considered of the poetry attributed to Egill in the saga to be for lausavísur that composed as a while has been the is that a of the poetry in Egils saga is from the recent is by who that certain of stanzas in Egils saga were composed by the thirteenth-century saga based on to each use of of and between the poetry and is known both from the saga and from historical such as in in for for and probably The poetry attributed to of transmitted only in the some scholars have argued that these verses are from the or thirteenth that most of are from the century as is one of the who is the protagonist of a core skald saga. in in the a of the and in the are lausavísur in Hallfreðar saga of life, but the of these stanzas has been the of much scholarly Whaley the between some of these with metrical the stanzas were composed in the if not by I have also one attributed to that is not in the the stanzas of which are attested in historical the saga saga of this to is one can whether the poetry attributed to in the skald saga features with a of Hallfreðr, is in a of saga, Egils saga, and the saga is to be Gunnlaugr in and in a some The poetry attributed to is attested in Gunnlaugs saga, from one in The poetry in this study lausavísur and a of but not lausavísur by the Gunnlaugr or the of the of lausavísur the composed from the but most recent has been Poole the with these and that from 10th- and such as is one of the main in Fóstbrœðra saga, with sworn As with some of the skald sagas, of the of the saga seem to be based on the poetry attributed to Þormóðr, but at the of in is by historical saga The poems attributed to lausavísur in the kings’ sagas of which also in or in part in Fóstbrœðra lausavísur attested only in Fóstbrœðra saga, and in of sworn Although the stanzas of in the saga as stanzas by prose the of the saga the stanzas as if a in and it is as such by is debate on the to which the stanzas of were composed on a single and whether are by the poet as the features of these poems that are with in the However, because lausavísur at these stanzas perhaps the poetry attributed to may have been by as a whether can early poetry from I have included much of the poetry transmitted in Njáls saga. is among scholars that most of the lausavísur in are as as the prose of the in some stanzas were the The stanzas included in the study of by by and one to six stanzas by other in the saga. In the saga in the attested only in this saga. is with the of the of although it is whether the composed to that notes the other stanzas in Njáls saga, there is in the of the that a late date of dating feature that I is the particle one of the oldest linguistic criteria for dating Old Norse poetry, and one of the only criteria that for dating that for the known the of one of the last verbal with a of much and that the particle in but as part of as an used when an while that the particle and other for use over and by the thirteenth use it only in a such as a more of the use of this particle as a dating for a between a and its of the However, the is not and be used to date an but it can as a of control for a more on the of the or large part of also whether the particle be used by as part of a a old or a is an is there to be other of as when thirteenth-century employ in a a of that instances of the particle in the are and in of of of and of study of lausavísur in the skald sagas, the use of the particle in becomes the only in certain and certain of and then only in or as of the other poetry, poetry, new of the particle that have been considered metrical in the as a that most the particle in at of of late use of the not only a but also its use in and perhaps also innovative to the I the of by to and As in the of the particle of by the of by the of attested for a particular and of the particle in the attested the sagas of are in at the that the oldest have the of the particle while have much for a model there is a and in the particle over and of the in the poems of the skald sagas and Njáls saga are in that I lausavísur attributed to in the saga, and only the more attributed that the stanzas by to be late and some are in this the poems attributed to Egill have among the of the which is as is the oldest of the and the lausavísur in this study have of the have composed the poetry by in Njáls saga has much of the particle in the and in the poetry of the skald sagas. However, it is that these be evaluated the of in each one not conclude from the of of for is while lausavísur are to with these of to this as one of criteria that can date these as in this can the in a poet's as a is is is is and the lausavísur of Njáls saga have a of The in is a bit for poetry composed and the in the lausavísur attributed to the in may be a bit if these were composed in the fourteenth century but on with some thirteenth-century skaldic poetry such as the of Bjarni whether the are used or in a but this is as of the use the particle both and Egill instances with a in the lausavísur Gísli of of of Gunnlaugr and of in the verses in Njáls saga, stanzas have of a of and of with the only poet to of a in of Icelandic a of negation which in and in The oldest is the which is to as a clitic but of this is I is an in early poetry and not at in or which only in is also a clitic on for This can also be with the and there seems to be between negation in and that in Finally, there is an innovative negative adverb or as in the will not In early poetry, is used to in while as as in are by In is argued to have such as the to the fourteenth its use to and to the is the study to use the for the negation as a dating to date the use of with other negative in such as but the the rise of as a clitic I this in poetry, the to examine the clitic vs. a recent to use this feature to date some skaldic the lausavísur in Gísla skaldic in the for the in the for the four negation are in is only one of as negation in these the a of the for with at attested of from the thirteenth and fourteenth of some of these of may be one be about using instances of as for a However, the of the other over that it is increasingly used as a of negation with may an and Although these are a model a and increase in the of with each to negation in the poems of the skald sagas and Njáls saga, the are shown in as by but a may be the of in is in the verses by that is in certain stanzas as in both and there are of eigi, which is with the attestation of this poetry to the Finally, if take as the of in skaldic poetry as in the only poems with are the and the lausavísur from Njáls while the poems have of negation to take these the that is the most negation in poems attributed to and is with the scholarly that most of the poetry attributed to the in is the of by some and the of the these can be when in with other which will be at the of this in Old Icelandic prose are by the or which are relative Old and may be by the pronoun sá, which has been considered the pronoun in this not as a but as a relative of the pronoun can be in an which is in which its and is not to the relative new as a relative pronoun can be in an an in each who the because in the form is to the relative particle but from the the relative are four with with pronoun (the or or with is part of the not a relative and with of who of the who that the which I relative in the poems are in of the relative are by the pronoun sá, and are by of relative are by the or to less of the relative the and more are some with relative as as some such as and of However, a model that there is a increase in the use of relative over the shown in relative is less in the both of poetry attributed to have of the that is a early as with the other criteria, this is with the that the of also composed the lausavísur in Hallfreðar saga. other poetry, this is as a dating not any relative The are also is in poems but in will to whether this can be a dating when in with the other to are metrical This can be using the Old Icelandic in has by and or The the will be in the other for in the skaldic each consists of one of the by a has been known that the of over in The most to use this as a dating for Old Norse poetry is by who and and each in the in some are not in that Type over most in in and this this will to use the increase in Type in as a dating for the poetry in this study on The of Type in in the poems that form the are in are some early with of Type be of the Type less the of there is a increase of Type over in the of of Type in the poems of the skald sagas and Njáls saga are in poems and the of Type while most other poetry, have that are to the of Type A. the verses in Njáls saga have of Type that are to some of the eleventh-century in the is that the in is less to a over and more to the and are in of and are in but most lausavísur are in the the of Type in other will be from the in to from the for in the this will be with the other to a model of the of four features in skaldic four dating of these can date a because a feature can among of the and because it is often to As a as as the particle of can at as a of on a of a of However, by a of features that over it may be to the in which a as shown by and comparison of features in and Old can the of as there are linguistic features of an in the the of such the that the is a based on is not always because a may seem to be old on some criteria but on other In the current for poetry has a of the particle of and a of the eigi, both poetry, but a of relative much more recent an to the criteria each have only the intuitions to the relative of these this the study a statistical the naïve Bayes classifier the for in used a to date features in Old with a of dated and the to This by dating of the poems of the by linguistic and metrical features in poetry to in a of dated skaldic The is to the of study because it each it is with of with as often have in and it can not only a relative but by the in to dated poems is to an to the that an to a some in the current this is the that a from one of the skald sagas to a certain based on its linguistic and metrical the of linguistic and metrical features in poems are The model is from the skaldic poems of known date by each date and of the linguistic shown in that the of the particle of has been by that it is on a to the other and that Type only the the model is to each or of poems from the set poetry from the skald sagas Njáls The are in a between this and the source in and because some poems have or of some of the dating criteria, I the date of the poet's as a not each In the of Njáls saga, I have simply of the lausavísur in the saga the as with the in this I have the of the particle of by a of Finally, poems that are composed in other are from the of Type then the that each to each or in The that the of each or of poems is in The is considered an of the if the are not Thus the of each the in which the composed to the The in to about the ages of the poetry with Egill, who the naïve Bayes classifier poetry to the support that most of poetry is to the century and not the of the lausavísur considered by to be the saga or of not contain features that I with late skaldic dated by the to are by the model in the early century on linguistic and metrical This is the of whether the verses considered by are the classifier this to this that most of the stanzas in Gísla saga date to the when Gísli the when the saga poetry, composed the if the of are by the sagas, is by the classifier the early This that the poetry attributed to composed by a late much less the saga author. from the classifier the of the linguistic features that a single poet composed both and the lausavísur attributed to share of the early particle of the innovative eigi, of the of to is it seems that the stanzas in Hallfreðar saga are classifier when to the poetry attributed to a of The classifier poetry to the late This late date that of poetry is Gunnlaugs saga to the thirteenth the of the poetry to the century one of it is that there an Gunnlaugr in the which included late poetry that from the Egill, Gísli, and and the eleventh-century and as shown by there is the that this poetry mostly composed in the thirteenth century by the saga author but that the linguistic features of the the it seem it actually poems attributed to are to the late century by the a bit but with the metrical for an date cited by The of some of these stanzas in saga is a to that are to the if not by a between the main of poetry attested in Njáls saga. The is by the late This the scholarly that the composed not the of and is much the saga in which it is to the the classifier to the early thirteenth This the that these poems are late part of the literary that rise to the study criteria for dating (the particle of and the of Type in with criteria (the and the relative single feature can an date for a the of can the date of the naïve Bayes classifier is a in the of an for dated to when be each of this study has the poetry in each of the sagas to the that to the scholarly Egill and Gísli in the to and the in the and early composed the of the and the model the poetry attributed to in the early the classifier the lausavísur attributed to the which is with and with the by The lausavísur in Gunnlaugs saga, on the other are much the when Gunnlaugr and to the when the saga with the by and Poole that of the poetry in the saga may be the lausavísur of Njáls saga, considered to be late are dated by the classifier to the thirteenth while the is dated much In this study that much of the poetry of skald sagas is to the when the saga is for certain that the poetry composed by the of the sagas, there is linguistic the that the stanzas of Egils saga, Gísla saga, Hallfreðar saga, and Fóstbrœðra saga are of the saga eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi, eigi

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