Þórðr Kolbeinsson was an 11th century 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...

, or poet. He was the court poet of Eiríkr Hákonarson

Eiríkr Hákonarson

Eiríkr Hákonarson or Eric of Norway or Eric of Hlathir was earl of Lade, ruler of Norway and earl of Northumbria.-Background:...

 and some 17 stanzas of his poetry on the earl are 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....

. The following example is from Eiríkr's campaign in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 with Canute the Great

Canute the Great

Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...

.

Gollkennir lét gunni fyr vestan Lundún saman bundit ; fekk regnþorinn Rökkva rann, of þingamönnum, ýglig högg, þars eggjar Ulfkell, bláar skulfu. Eiríksdrápa 11, Finnur Jónsson Finnur Jónsson 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... 's edition

West of London the warrior went out to war, the famed sea, farer fought for land; sharp cuts had Ufkel Ulfcytel Snillingr Ulfcytel was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman. He was apparently the ealdorman of East Anglia from 1004 to his death at the battle of Assandun, although he is not called an ealdorman in any of the charters he witnessed... when clashing over the carles steel-blue swords shone: so smoothly my stanzas, flow. Hermann Pálsson's translation

West of London town we passed, And our ocean-steeds made fast, And a bloody fight begin, England's lands to lose or win. Blue sword and shining spear Laid Ulfkel's Ulfcytel Snillingr Ulfcytel was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman. He was apparently the ealdorman of East Anglia from 1004 to his death at the battle of Assandun, although he is not called an ealdorman in any of the charters he witnessed...  dead corpse there, Our Thingmen hear the war-shower sounding Our grey arrows from their shields rebounding. Samuel Laing's translation

Þórðr is one of the two main characters of Bjarnar saga, where many lausavísur

Lausavísa

In Old Norse poetry and later Icelandic poetry, a lausavísa is a single stanza composition, or a set of stanzas unconnected by narrative or thematic continuity....

are attributed to him. Þórðr's son, Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld

Arnórr jarlaskáld

Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld was an Icelandic skald, son of Þórðr Kolbeinsson. Arnórr travelled as a merchant and often visited the Orkney Islands where he composed poems for the Earls, receiving his byname. For king Magnus the Good he composed Hrynhenda. He also composed memorial poems for Magnus...

, also became a prestigious poet.