Poetry
Olvir is quoted by Snorri Sturluson in the Skaldskaparmal as having composed the following stave about the god Thor: "Æstisk allra landa umbgjörð ok sonr Jarðar." ("The encircler of all lands and Iord's son became violent.") Another poetic fragment attributed to him in the Skaldatal reads: "Maðr skyldi þó molda megja hverr of þegja kenni-seiðs þó at kynni klepp-dæg Hárrs lægvar." ("Yet every man should know how to hold his peace even though -").
William Pencak compared Olvir's poetic career unfavorably with that of his grandnephew Egil: "A tyrant needs insincere poets to praise him, and Olvir's career illustrates the problem of artists and thinkers serving political ends ... the saga does not quote any of his poems. First Olvir is the slave of a woman, then of a king. The difference between his poetry and Egil's will demonstrate the opportunities for talent a free society opens up."
Read more about this topic: Olvir Hnufa
Famous quotes containing the word poetry:
“The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“Painting gives the object itself; poetry what it implies. Painting embodies what a thing contains in itself; poetry suggests what exists out of it, in any manner connected with it.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“Poetry is the most direct and simple means of expressing oneself in words: the most primitive nations have poetry, but only quite well developed civilizations can produce good prose. So don’t think of poetry as a perverse and unnatural way of distorting ordinary prose statements: prose is a much less natural way of speaking than poetry is. If you listen to small children, and to the amount of chanting and singsong in their speech, you’ll see what I mean.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)