Þorvaldr (inn) veili ("the Ailing") was an Icelandic skald who lived in the last part of the 10th century.
The Brennu-Njáls saga relates the circumstances of his death. Þorvaldr was pagan and opposed the conversion to Christianity. According especially to Snorri Sturluson's Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar, he had composed defamatory verses ( níð) about Þangbrandr, a missionary sent to Iceland by Óláfr Tryggvason. [1] When Þangbrandr arrived in his area, in Grímsnes, Þorvaldr gathered a troop to slay him and his companion Guðleifr Arason. But the priest was forewarned and Þorvaldr was eventually killed:
- Thangbrand shot a spear through Thorwald, but Gudleif smote him on the shoulder and hewed his arm off, and that was his death.
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- —The Story of Burnt Njal (98), Dasent's translation [2]
As he was setting his trap, Þorvaldr had asked the skald Úlfr Uggason to lend him assistance against the "effeminate/sodomitic wolf to the [pagan] gods" [3] (argr goðvargr), but Úlfr refused to be involved. This request, which takes the form of a lausavísa, is all that survives of his work. But according to Snorri's Háttatal, he was also the author of a drápa about the story of Sigurðr. This drápa was remarkable for being refrainless (steflaus) and composed in a variant of skjálfhent.
Notes
- ^ So did another skald, Vetrliði Sumarliðason.
- ^ Dasent, George Webbe (trans.). The Story of Burnt Njal. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1861.
- ^ Sayers, William. Onomastic Paronomasia in Old Norse: Technique, Context, and Parallels. Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek. 2006 (27).
External links
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