Thanks Haukur!

Some interesting mythological references there, like

Ægisdættur hafsbrún hjá.
draga bláar dísirnar

And 014 "hér er ekkert hrafnaþing" has a rather sinister ending...
Aside from recording disasters though, I wonder what it means – an
assembly of ravens? Anything like the English "Parliament of
Rooks"? There´s a variety of styles, some quite hymnlike, and even
one to the tune of "Oh My Darling Clementine" (374)! But also many
where it actually says "X kveður..." (so-and-so chants, intones...)
508-515 have multiple performers. I wonder if alliterative verse
was ever done in this way? From the little I know, I can´t remember
any examples from the sagas of more than one person saying a verse
together, except maybe in the context of seið – but I don´t know if
the word "kveða" is used of the backing singers, or just the völva.

Maybe an aquired taste for modern ears, but it can be rather
evocative hearing all these strange fragments. I shall look at Old
Norse poetry in a new light now. I could well imagine some of those
grand doom-laden lays sounding a bit like this.

Just checked in the Textasafn Orðabókar Háskolans:
http://www.lexis.hi.is --searching just Fornrit, and I only came up
with one example of _kváðu vísu(na)_, as opposed to _kvað_, this
from Mána þáttur skálds. I don´t know the story, but the context
seems to be that retainers in the hall are repeating a verse chanted
by one man, which they´ve found very amusing – so maybe not a formal
recitation. But then it could just be that the dramatic demands of
the stories that make it more likely for one person to chant on
their own.

Llama Nom



--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Haukur Thorgeirsson"
<haukurth@...> wrote:

> > From Cleasby-Vigfusson:
> >
> > "in mod. usage kveða is used of the rhapsodic delivery of a

ballad

> > (ríma), half reciting half singing, thus Icel. say, kveða rímur,

to

> > recite a ballad, as also kveða vel, to recite, sing well; hann er
> > góðr kvæða-maðr, he is a good ballad-singer, but never of a hymn

or

> > full melody"
> >
> > My question:
> >
> > Is there anywhere on the internet where I could hear such a

thing?

>
> There's plenty of it here: http://ismus.musik.is/
>
> There's even an English version of the web page :)
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur