Vellekla is a partially preserved drápa composed in the late 10th century by the Icelandic skald

Skald

The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...

 Einarr Helgason skálaglamm. It is one of the two drápas he made for Hákon jarl

Haakon Sigurdsson

Haakon Sigurdarsson was the de facto ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995.-Background:Haakon was the son of Sigurd Haakonsson, Jarl of Lade and ruler of Trøndelag and Hålogaland. His mother was Bergljot Toresdatter, daughter of Tore Ragnvaldsson, Earl of Møre...

. It speaks of the battle of Hjörungavágr

Battle of Hjörungavágr

The Battle of Hjörungavágr is a semi-legendary naval battle that took place in the late 10th century between the Jarls of Lade and a Danish invasion fleet led by the fabled Jomsvikings...

 and Hákon's campaign in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, among other things.

Structure and preservation

Vellekla is not preserved as a complete poem in any manuscript but individual verses and sequences of verses are preserved as
quotations in several prose works. Various verses attributed to Einarr Skálaglamm but not ascribed to a particular poem have also
been taken by scholars to be a part of Vellekla.

As reconstructed by Finnur Jónsson

Finnur Jónsson (philologist)

Finnur Jónsson was an Icelandic philologist who made extensive contributions to the study of Old Norse literature.Finnur graduated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 1878 and went to Denmark for further studies at the University of Copenhagen. He received a doctorate in philology in 1884 with a...

, most of the central narrative content of the poem is preserved in the kings' sagas

Kings' sagas

The kings' sagas are Norse sagas which tell of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries in Iceland and Norway....

; Fagrskinna

Fagrskinna

Fagrskinna is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It takes its name from one of the manuscripts in which it was preserved, Fagrskinna meaning 'Fair Leather', i.e., 'Fair Parchment'. Fagrskinna proper was destroyed by fire, but copies of it and another vellum have been preserved...

, Heimskringla

Heimskringla

Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...

, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta

Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta

Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta or The Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvasonis one of the kings' sagas, an extended biography of King Óláfr Tryggvason....

 and Flateyjarbók

Flateyjarbók

The Flatey Book, is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis.- Description :...

.
Finnur believed that verses preserved in Skáldskaparmál

Skáldskaparmál

The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...

, where Hákon is directly addressed, belong to the beginning
and end of the poem. Two lines are also preserved in the Third Grammatical Treatise. In Finnur's reconstruction, the total
number of verses is 37, of which 16 are half-verses and 21 are complete verses.

Editions

• Finnur Jónsson (ed.). Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. Vols 1A-2A (tekst efter håndskrifterne) and 1B-2B (rettet tekst). Copenhagen and Christiania [Oslo]: Gyldendal, 1912-15; rpt. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1967 (A) and 1973 (B), vol. 1A, pp. 122-31, 1B, pp. 117-24.
• Lindquist, Ivar (ed.) (1929). Norröna lovkväden från 800- och 900-talen. 1. Förslag till restituerad täxt jämte översättning, pp. 44–55. Lund: Gleeruppp.
• Kock, Ernst A. (ed.) (1946-50). Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen, vol. 1, pp. 66–9. Lund: Gleerup.

Translations

• Freudenthal, Axel Olof (1865). Einar Skålaglams Vellekla, öfversatt och förklarad. Frenckell.
• Hollander, Lee M. (trans.) (1945). The Skalds: A Selection of Their Poems. New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation; Princeton: Princeton University Press.