the blog of author E S Moxon: Using Skaldic Verse to Develop Characters

Axe on bench of Viking longship

Written by Vikings, about Vikings, Skaldic verse is an insight into how they viewed themselves and others, but not necessarily a precise description of what they did or looked like in outward appearance. These sources are more appropriately valuable to garner how Vikings viewed life and their actions or those of others within that life - also how they viewed death. The Hávamál poems are an intriguing source of socio-economic and emotional scenarios that fill daily Viking life: from noble kings down to the poor traveller, we can peer into all aspects and levels of Scandinavian life from the 9^th to 12^th Centuries.

Hávamál… ‘The words of the High One’ [is a collection of verses that] form one of the most important, and baffling, of the Eddic poems. It survives as a group of separate and very different poems.’ …(R.I. Page)

Interior of Viking Longhouse

I find these verse an intrinsic part of my research, alongside what some may class as the mundane (but I find thrilling) world of archaeology. While archaeology forms an important role in fact-gathering for flora/fauna, climate, tools/weapons, structures, cooking and farming, clothing and bedding, I want to know how the people ‘thought’. Knowing the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of a group of people, enables me to add subtle layers to my fictional characters. I can learn how my characters may react when presented with a particular scenario. This I cannot learn from archaeological reference books in enough detail.

Section of design from the Havamal

Furthermore, it is the ‘kennings’ that can be the most revealing; delightful, alarming and incredibly descriptive metaphors that illuminate the Vikings’ love of language and painting a vivid image for whomever heard the poems. Battles were the ‘Storm of the Valkyrie’ or ‘Odin’s Storm’. Spilt blood became the ‘current of the spear’ or a ‘battle sea’. Armour was ‘Odin’s Clothing’ and swords were ‘wound-fires’. Carrion that came after the battle to claim the flesh of the dead are called ‘tasters of blood’ and their prey were ‘fodder for Hugin’, named after one of Odin’s two ravens – Hugin and Munin.

Pair of perched crows

It was a time when ships were ‘ocean steeds’ or ‘surge-beasts’ and a man of above-average height would be ‘elm-tall’. ‘Mood-acorns’ represented the heart, inside these tree-men who believed:

‘Cattle die, kin die,

The man dies too.

But good fame never dies

For the man who earns it.

Cattle die, kin die,

The man dies too.

One thing I know that never dies,

The good name of the dead.’

Hávamál… pp.139-140

Keel of a longship

These colourful kennings provide glimpses of lives many of us are far removed from. Of another time, these metaphorical paintings illuminate the lives of warring Vikings. When building my characters and a specific group of people, I can draw on the imagery formed by this evocative literature. When combined with individual personalities sculpted for purposes of my story arcs, it hopefully creates characters with depth and at least a hint of authenticity.

Runic Stone

‘The Eddi poems preserve the indirect evidence of the nature of the Viking Age. They do not tell of Vikings as such, but relate religious myths and traditional ways of thinking, and tales of ancient heroes’ …(R.I. Page)

Developing characters is a process of layering. You begin with the outer layer of an onion, its hard skin; as you peel each layer away you reach deeper and deeper into the onion, until finally you find the heart. Building fictional characters involves finding material for those layers from a multitude of sources. The Skaldic verse are, for me, only one of these sources, but a rich one. And a pleasant one, to be reading poetry as a way of researching!