If you get this, I lose my head.

[Xelebes]

If you don't, I'm all clear!



And Joseph So Sang!



Methuselah! Mirthful and Merry!
Whose hoar and husk so deceives your age;
Displays dear to the din and derry
And with wars of words, you wisely wage!

For in these fortnights, your fairness fights
Holding with haste this holiëst grail.
Flaunting fetters to the fawning frights,
Sinning souls sealed to a static swale.

But let not the lust for the Lord lose
And make one's mighty maw maladroit,
For fury he feared and fraught by dues
To debonnaires through the dire detroit.

Could not his cold come cambering in,
Sweeping sonorants to his song sung;
Heaving 'pon us a hallowed heaven,
Lulling the Lord to laud in full lung?

 

[Xelebes]

So for those struggling to follow, this is a thread for mansongr - a form of erotic poetry written by skalds in the time of Vikings. Mansongr was banned by law as it was seen as a dishonour to who it addressed and so it was prosecutable by the lady (usually a lady). The punishments ranged from large fines all the way to execution.

To get around this, the skalds came up with a way using kenning (entendre, metaphor and rhythm), alliteration and rimur (rhyme) to obscure the fact that it was a mansongr. The lady could then enjoy the hidden mansongr if she so choose without a nosy mother or village crone to harp on her about honour.

 

[CharleyH]

So for those struggling to follow, this is a thread for mansongr - a form of erotic poetry written by skalds in the time of Vikings. Mansongr was banned by law as it was seen as a dishonour to who it addressed and so it was prosecutable by the lady (usually a lady). The punishments ranged from large fines all the way to execution.

To get around this, the skalds came up with a way using kenning (entendre, metaphor and rhythm), alliteration and rimur (rhyme) to obscure the fact that it was a mansongr. The lady could then enjoy the hidden mansongr if she so choose without a nosy mother or village crone to harp on her about honour.

Interesting form. Could you elaborate on the specifics, though? What makes a mansongr a mansongr in layman's terms.

 

[Xelebes]

Well, mansongr is a form of Skaldic poetry. Skaldic poetry is alliterative and doesn't have to rhyme. Beowulf (the original) is very similar to Skaldic poetry, but for the most part does not have the kenning.

For example, here is something showing the alliteration.

Queens quit coping with quipping quaffs from the cup.

The beauty of alliteration is that it allows a rhythm like the iambic pentameter without the rigidity of the iambic pentameter. This is likely due to the fact that alliterative poetry is a great influence on all Germanic languages.

Rhyme is completely optional - rhyme prior to the 7th century in Ireland was all by chance. It was only applied to the mansongr in the 14th century in Iceland when the mansongr became part of Rimur (Icelandic for Rhyme).

The key to a mansongr is to dress it up as a poem lauding a king, earl (jarl) or a hero. In the example above, I used Methuselah. The subject is hidden in the words, discernible by the alliteration and the words. The key word here is "Merry". Joseph is talking to Virgin Mary.

Kenning is difficult to describe. It is both modern metaphor, homeric metaphor (stock metaphors and idioms) and double entendre (as it would be in this case.) It is also rhythm and parsing. For example, a real complex form of kenning is this:

I

He said; the sea is swift
To her; heralding heroes
with (a) gaze; to gather here
of gold; and grace with good.

The portion to the left is the tag and on the right of the semi-colon is the quote. Sometimes more complex marks are needed to parse the verse right.

II

Devils dance in dervish || and dole Death's ill-will
onto us (Henk harps), || heaving hell-borne helpings
(With welping whispers) || of wicked wishés
On them who were there || and those who then think.

The words in paranthesis is the speech tag and the words outside of them is what is spoken. The double pipes are to represent the pause (caesura) that break the lines in half.

In most Skaldic poetry and Germanic alliterative poetry, the line is divided into two, with a pause (caesura) in between. Some verses are broken into stanzas and some are not.

Here are some of the meters employed by Viking Skalds:

Fornyrthislag (Ancient Way of Words):

- 6-8 syllables long per line, with half-lines
- Enjambment avoided (lines of thought are not continued onto the next line for the most part, making each line a syntactic unit.)
- Unstressed syllables
- Broken into stanzas

The lions lay loose; the lords learn late.
Walk with wild foot; and walk foot-loose.

Malahattr (Speech Meter):

- Like Fornyrthislag, but with the addition of the occasional unstressed syllables applied only once per half-line, to make it more conversational.

The lions lay loose; the lords learn so late.
Walk with yer wild foot; and ye walk foot-loose.

Ljothahattr (Lay Meter):

- What I used in my poem.
- Looser use of pause (caesura). I used none. However the usual trick is odd line is with caesura and even line is without.
- Use of one, two, or three simultaneous alliterations.

Modern take on Freyr's lament in Skimismal

Long is the night; Long is the next.
How may I make it through three?
A month is less; It seems to me
Than these nights before the nuptials.

Drottkvaett (Lordly verse):

- Alliterates and rhymes within the line.
- Further use of assonance and consonance
- Greater use of complex kenning to fit the restrictions
- 8 lines in all, 6 syllables a line
- Lines end in trochee (he walked |FAIR-ly|)

Hrynhenda

- Drottkvaett with 8 syllables per line

Bade the lady who bears this lay;
Ask not from aft your mask; fear ought
to allay your timid wayfare.
This chalice of callous chaste here
holds wine for the wise and the bold.
The wise, misers all, will make way
for the bold, never too old, to boast
and toast to your humble hostess.

In this example, this hrynhenda-style mansongr would have got the Skald prosecuted by the lady he said this to even though no name is mentioned. The intent is clear and discernible.