Abstract
The short Icelandic narrative work
Bergbúa þáttr
contains a 12-stanza poem often given the modern title
Hallmundarkviða
. This poem appears to
describe volcanic phenomena from the point of view of a supernatural being that inhabits a cave in the mountains. It is
composed in the
dróttkvætt
meter,
which employs formalized internal rhyme and alliteration, and which no other scholar of our generation has been better able to
describe and analyze than the late Kari Ellen Gade. In addition to these formal features, the poem repeats the last line of
each stanza, and it contains a large amount of repetitions of phonemes and phoneme groups such as nasal consonants. Many of
these features do not fall under the extensive native poetic terminology of Old Norse, but can be demonstrated to have been
composed for deliberate poetic effect in this poem.
This paper takes as a starting point the approach of Heslop’s study of
Glymdrápa
in
Viking
Mediologies
(pp. 143–9), where it is demonstrated that both the diction and phonic system of that poem are
directed towards representing the noise of battle. In
Bergbúa þáttr
the impetus is the apparent evocation of volcanic and/or subterranean
phenomena — phenomena probably experienced primarily by medieval Icelanders in the form of the sounds and movement of
earthquakes and related activity. This paper will survey the techniques used in the poem to build a sonic environment
evocative of its subject-matter, as well as other sensory reference points related to the poem’s subject matter and
context.