Dróttkvæður Heimsósómi

Abstract

Heimsósómi (‘The Vices of the World’) is an anonymous dróttkvætt (skaldic) poem of 26 stanzas preserved in AM 713 4to (1540–1560) and in two younger sources. The poem does not refer to any historical event and can only be dated by internal arguments. The words bagga and pliktugur, only known from the sixteenth century onwards, suggest that the poem is not much older than the oldest manuscript. The content of the poem is quite similar to that of the Heimsósómi attributed to Skáld-Sveinn. That the poet should have chosen this traditional meter for his very contemporary subject indicates that the dróttkvætt tradition still had some vitality on the eve of the Reformation.