So does an Icelandic skald describe the most important battle in the annals of the Norse.
A skald opportunely sang some verses with the result that now men burst out in great fits of laughter.
At that time the two foster-brothers Thorgeir Havarsson and Thormod Coalbrow-Skald were very much to the front; they kept a boat, gathering what they wanted from the country around, and had not the reputation of dealing fairly.
Odd the Needy-Skald had recovered from the hurts which he had received at the horse-fight and was of the party.
Heika laughed heartily, and said that he feared he had nothing of the spirit of the skald about him, and that his power of invention was not great.
Sing to him again," whispered Osla in the evening, and night after night the young skald sang and the hermit and his daughter listened.
In the same fight, a skald named Jhormod died an honourable death, shot with an arrow while in the act of singing.
The nithing shall silence me never, Though now for their shame they attack me, But the wit of the Skald is my weapon, And the wine of the gods will uphold me.
Never sacrifice geese for a Skald Who sings for the glory of Odin!
Now a maimed, one-footed man On rollers' steed through waters wan Out to Iceland must I go; Ah, the skald is sinking low.
Thord Kolbeinson dwelt at Hitness in those days, and a good skald he was; at that time was there great enmity betwixt him and Biorn; and Biorn was but half loth, though Grettir wrought some ill on Thord's men or his goods.
Odd the Foundling-skald fared also with them, and by then was gotten healed of the stiffness he gained at the horse-fight.
The brisk young skald should gaily go Into the fray, give blow for blow, Cheer on his men, gain inch by inch, And from the spear-point never flinch.
Sigvat the skald speaks thus of the numbers:-- "I grieve to think the king had brought Too small a force for what he sought: He held his gold too fast to bring The numbers that could make him king.
The bowl runs o'er with Odin's mead, (1) That fires the skald when mighty deed Has to be sung.
Sigvat the skald was very intimate with King Canute's messengers, and asked them many questions.
They who directed the ships were Thorarin Nefjulson, the skald Halfred Ottarson, Brand the Generous, and Thorleik, Brand's son.
The skald Ottar Black came to him there, and begged to be received among his men.
A skald maiden is she, and I misdoubt not knoweth well many songs.
The loud laughter of Dane and the song of skaldwere hushed.
Songs and sagas, mythical and heroic, were the staple of this literature of the north; and these appear to have been handed down by word of mouth from skald to skald until about the beginning of the twelfth century.
Some men e'en tell this skaldthat wounded is the King, Though from the spear-storm saved and eastwards gone.
Thorvald and Vetrlidi the skald made lampoons about Thangbrand, but he slew them both.
Of the battle aforesaid telleth Hallfrod the Troublous-skald in Olaf's lay: 'The ruler of war ships hewed and smote asunder warriors Even in Denmark to the south of Hedeby.
For rumor said that a great Skald had come from the northern lands to compete with the Irish bard.
As soon as the bard had descended the mound the Skald from the northern lands took his place, greeted by cries of welcome from a hundred thousand throats.
Now, twelve centuries later, it lived again, and the terrible event was once more enacted, just as the skaldhad sung, just as it happened nearly two thousand years ago.
The simple chant recalled an ancient Anglo-Saxon song of the cross, composed in the seventh century by the skald Caedmon, and which for more than a thousand years lay buried in the mysterious spell of the rune.
Halfred had vanquished him five times, and yet the Skaldwas a faithful loving friend to him-- "Vows have here been now vowed by many Guests of small worth.
The skald from King Harald's court has again been a guest in the monastery.
Especially since, lately, a skald from Halogaland visited the monastery, and told of the life at the court of King Harald; of his lordly royal hall, in which twenty skalds by turns play the harp.
And forthwith it became known that Halfred had armed the best of his house churls, and his followers, with good weapons, to set forth as a Viking to conquer, and as a Skald to sing.
Then comes the mighty Fimbultyr, the god who is from everlasting to everlasting; the god whom the Edda skald dared not name.
Thus sang the skald Brage: From the king I received The fire of the brook.
The latter, and not Surt, who is a giant, is the eternal god, the mighty one, whom the skald in the Lay of Hyndla dare not name.
Thjodolf of Hvin was a celebrated skald at the court of Harald Fairhair.
They mixed honey with the blood, and thus was produced such mead that whoever drinks from it becomes a skald and sage.
King Skule--Then 'tis the gift of sorrow the skaldhas need of?
King Skule--Have you never had another skald for your friend, and has he never unfolded to you a great and noble song he thought to make?
As the skald stepped down from his high position, some rich man would rush up to him and say: "Come and spend next winter at my house.
All this time a skald stood by and played on his harp and sang a song about that time when Ingolf came to Iceland.
Then some skald would take his harp and walk to a large stone or a knoll and stand on it and begin a song of some brave deed of an old Norse hero.
This Audun was the skald who sang at the drinking of King Halfdan's funeral ale.
So the skaldtook down his great harp from the wall behind him and went and stood before Harald.
When the skald was tired, some other man would come up from the crowd and sing or tell a story.
His account is taken from a mythic circumstance, mentioned by the heathen skald Kormak (seid Y ggr til Rindar--Younger Edda, i.
Brage was the son of Odin and being represented as the chief skald in Valhalla he is called the god of poetry.
That he whom the skald characterises by this epithet is a god is a matter of course.
The brave young skald should gaily go Into the fray, change blow for blow; Cheer on his men, gain inch by inch, And from the spear-point never flinch.
To alter the tale was one of the greatest of crimes: the skaldmust repeat it as it came to him; but by degrees undoubtedly the sagas did suffer alteration.
We feel as we read, that no man could have invented that story, though some great skald threw it into shape.
He was a modern blending of the heroic chieftain and the gifted skald of ancient times.
In the first half of the twelfth century an Icelandic skald of this name lived and sang at the court of King Eystein in Norway.
It is in them that the skald and chieftain so typically blend in one.
As since the skald has chanted in Ha'vama'l, So passed these sayings pithy through generations; And still from graves they whisper 'mid northern nations.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "skald" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
