Bragi is the skaldic god of poetry in Norse mythology.

The first part of Snorri Sturluson's Skáldskaparmál is a dialogue between Ægir and Bragi about the nature of poetry, particularly skaldic poetry.

Its purpose was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the mythological allusions behind the many kennings that were used in skaldic poetry.

Sometimes " folklore " is religious in nature, like the tales of the Welsh Mabinogion or those found in Icelandic skaldic poetry.

John Lindow states that most details about Hel, as a figure, are not found outside of Snorri's writing in Gylfaginning, and says that when older skaldic poetry " says that people are ' in ' rather than ' with ' Hel, we are clearly dealing with a place rather than a person, and this is assumed to be the older conception ," that the noun and place Hel likely originally simply meant " grave ," and that " the personification came later.

Even if it can be found in the works of ancient poets, we no longer tolerate it .” The longest kenning found in skaldic poetry occurs in Hafgerðingadrápa by Þórður Sjáreksson and reads nausta blakks hlé-mána gífrs drífu gim-slöngvir “ fire-brandisher of blizzard of ogress of protection-moon of steed of boat-shed ”, which simply means " warrior ".

Assonance, where the use of similar vowel sounds within a word rather than similar sounds at the beginning or end of a word, was widely used in skaldic poetry, but goes back to the Homeric epic.

The related Old Norse masculine noun víkingr appears in Viking Age skaldic poetry and on several rune stones found in Scandinavia, where it refers to a seaman or warrior who takes part in an expedition overseas.

The reliability of these medieval prose narratives about the Scandinavian past is often doubtful, but some elements remain worthy of consideration, such as the great quantity of skaldic poetry attributed to court poets of the tenth and 11th centuries that was included in these writings.

In the 9th century the first instances of skaldic poetry also appear with the skalds Bragi Boddason, Þjóðólfr of Hvinir and the court poets of Harald Fairhair.

Contemporary or near-contemporary sources include different recensions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Eric's coinage, the Life of St Cathróe and possibly skaldic poetry.

Fulla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources ; the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson ; and in skaldic poetry.

Hlín appears in a poem in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in kennings found in skaldic poetry.

In skaldic poetry, the name Hlín is frequent in kennings for women.

The name is already used frequently in this way by the 10th-century poet Kormákr Ögmundarson and remains current in skaldic poetry through the following centuries, employed by poets such as Þórðr Kolbeinsson, Gizurr Þorvaldsson and Einarr Gilsson.

Andy Orchard says that in Völuspá, Hlín appears to be just another name for Frigg, and adds that " the numerous occurrences of the name in skaldic poetry in poetic periphrases or kennings for women do nothing to dispel the confusion.

" Rudolf Simek agrees that Hlín seems to appear as another name for Frigg in Völuspá, and that in skaldic poetry Hlín was a well known mythological figure by the 10th century.

Eir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources ; the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson ; and in skaldic poetry, including a runic inscription from Bergen, Norway from around 1300.

Vör is attested in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson ; and twice in kennings employed in skaldic poetry.

While kennings are often employed they do not rise to the frequency or complexity found in skaldic poetry.

References to valkyries appear throughout the book Skáldskaparmál, which provides information about skaldic poetry.

The purpose of the collection was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the meaning behind the many kenningar ( compounds ) that were used in skaldic poetry.

The section is written in prose interspersed with quotes from skaldic poetry, including material collected in the Poetic Edda.

These verse forms were elaborated even more into the skaldic poetic form called the dróttkvætt, meaning " lordly verse ", which added internal rhymes and other forms of assonance that go well beyond the requirements of Germanic alliterative verse.

The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is dróttkvætt.

Kennings are devices ready to supply a standard image to form an alliterating half-line to fit the requirements of dróttkvætt ; but the substantially greater technical demands of skaldic verse required that these devices be multiplied and compounded in order to meet its demands for skill and wordplay.

Although classified here as skaldic since it deals with a historical figure the poem is actually anonymous and in the simple fornyrðislag meter, rather than ornate dróttkvætt.

Although the dróttkvætt metre violates some of the rules developed later, it is well executed ; this and the complexity of language demonstrate that there had already been considerable development of skaldic verse.

The metrical position of Lóðurr's name in the skaldic poem Íslendingadrápa, composed in the strict dróttkvætt metre, indicates that it contains the sound value / ó / rather than / o /.

The possibility that Harald had married a Danish princess may find some support in a skaldic stanza which is usually assigned to Þorbjörn Hornklofi's Hrafnsmál, a eulogy on Harald's deeds in the form of a conversation between a raven and valkyrie.

In the skaldic poem Hákonarmál ( stanza 14 ) Hermóðr and Bragi appear in Valhalla receiving Hákon the Good.

By the late 10th century the tradition of skaldic verse had increasingly moved to Iceland and Norwegian rulers such as Eiríkr Hákonarson and St. Olaf employed mostly Icelandic poets.

Thor further cursed Starkad never to feel that he had enough property, always to receive dangerous wounds in battle, never to remember his skaldic poems and ever to be hated by commoners.

Ragnvald is mentioned in the skaldic poem Austrfaravísur, ascribed to Sigvatr Þórðarson, skald of King Olaf Haraldsson of Norway ( Olaf the Holy ), who had been on a diplomatic mission to Sweden.

While the various sagas name anywhere from 11 to 20 sons of Harald in various contexts, the contemporary skaldic poem Hákonarmál says that Harald's son Haakon only would meet " eight brothers " when arriving to Valhalla.

Only three gods, Thor, Baldur, and Váli / Bous, are explicitly identified as sons of Odin in the Eddic poems, in the skaldic poems, in Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum, and in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.

Sjöfn is attested in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson ; and in three kennings employed in skaldic poetry.

Only about the following five names of sons can be confirmed from contemporary skaldic poems ( with saga claims in parenthesis ), while the full number of sons remains unknown:

The history of Norwegian literature starts with the pagan Eddaic poems and skaldic verse of the 9th and 10th centuries with poets such as Bragi Boddason and Eyvindr Skáldaspillir.

Skáldskaparmál ( Old Icelandic " the language of poetry ") is the third section of the Prose Edda, and consists of a dialogue between Ægir, a god associated with the sea, and Bragi, a skaldic god, in which both Nordic mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined.

Although he has his own saga in Heimskringla, it lacks any skaldic verse, which is normally used by Snorri as supporting evidence and this, combined with its rather legendary character, leads historians to be wary of seeing much veracity in it.

It is often referenced in skaldic texts that the giants married or formed relationships with many of the Æsir and Vanir.

Rudolf Simek theorizes that Snorri used skaldic kennings to produce his Gylfaginning commentary about the goddess, while combining several etymologies with the Old Norse personal name Lofn.

Álfröðull also occurs as a kenning for the sun in skaldic verse ; the simplex, röðull, is used with the same meaning and Alaric Hall therefore suggests in his book on the elves that the choice of " álfröðull " depended on alliteration, but that the existence of the kenning suggests that the concepts of the sun and the elves were " semantically congruent "; he considers the álfr ( elf ) in " álfröðull " possibly a heiti for Freyr.

Unlike many other literary forms of the time, much skaldic poetry is attributable to an author ( called a skald ), and these attributions may be relied on with a reasonable degree of confidence.

The term appears in skaldic poetry and in place names in Scandinavia ( with the exception of Iceland ), often in connection with a Norse deity or a geographic feature.

The earliest rímur date from the fourteenth century, evolving from eddaic poetry and skaldic poetry with influences from Continental epic poems.

As with many figures in the sagas, doubts have been cast on his existence, but he is mentioned in a roughly contemporary skaldic poem about the battle.

In skaldic poetry gold was often referred to with the kenning the seed of the Fyris Wolds.

He is also credited with another skaldic poem, Haustlöng.

For example, the late-9th-century skaldic poem, Ragnarsdrapa, describes some shields painted with mythological scenes.

Among his ranks was an Icelandic skald named Þórvaldr Hjaltason, who immediately composed a skaldic poem about the victory, for which the king rewarded him with a golden bracelet.