Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/61

Rh phoric garments of that age. , nicknamed (the troublesome poet), who sang at the court of the Norwegian ruler Jarl Hakon and of King Olaf Trygvason (toward the end of the tenth century), is of particular interest on account of the struggle between heathendom and Christianity, which continues through his whole life, and is reflected in many of his poems. At the request of Olaf he was baptized, and his acceptance of the Christian religion seems to have been a serious matter with him, and yet he frequently returns in his memory to the old heathen gods in whose faith he was really happy and content. His last poem is, however, the genuine Christian prayer of a dying man, and his "Uppreistardrápa" (Poem of Resurrection), which is now wholly lost, became widely celebrated.

Of St. Olaf's skalds, deserves special mention. The king preferred him to all others, and in consequence the poet was attached to him with a tender love and devotion, which are frequently expressed in a dignified manner in his poems. His poems are also written in the usual style of the skalds, still they are less loaded down with artificial metaphors than the most of the skaldic lays, and hence they contain more genuine poetic sentiment. There is nothing strikingly original to be found in his poetry, but he possessed a decided talent for grasping the poetic thought in an act or scene, and for expressing it in a vivid and descriptive manner, though he did not always succeed in rising above a certain common, dull style. His technical skill was so great, that it is said of him that he could express his thoughts in verse more readily than in prose, and we have from his muse a very considerable number of poems. He served King Olaf fifteen years, and took part in nearly all his expeditions and battles. In Olaf's last decisive struggle, the battle of Stiklestad, in the year 1030, where the king found his death, Sighvat was, however, not present, as he was then on a pilgrimage to Rome. Among the finest and most original of Sighvat's lays belong the songs in which he gives utterance to