Þórðr Sjáreksson
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Þórðr Sjáreksson 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...

. He composed a drápa on Þórólfr Skólmsson, four strophes of which have been 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....

. He also composed a memorial drápa on Saint Óláfr Haraldsson, called Róðadrápa (Drápa of the Rood), one strophe of which is preserved. A few disjoint strophes by Þórðr on different subjects are also 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...

. Skáldatal
Skáldatal
Skáldatal is a short prose work in Old Norse. It is preserved in two manuscripts: DG 11, or Codex Uppsaliensis, which is one of the four main manuscripts of the Prose Edda , and AM 761 a 4to , which also contains Skaldic poems...

reckons Þórðr among the court poets of both Óláfr Haraldsson and 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:...

.

In 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....

a short story is told of Þórðr. In the reign of Óláfr Haraldsson he had travelled to the Holy Land intending to visit Jerusalem. On the way he meets a mysterious tall man who converses with him in the Norse tongue and tells him to go back since the road ahead isn't safe. The stranger asks Þórðr if he knows Hjalti Skeggjason and Þórðr tells him that they are related by marriage. The stranger asks Þórðr to bring Hjalti his greeting and tells him a story to bring Hjalti so that he will recognize who he his. Þórðr does as he is bid and when he brings the stranger's greeting to Hjalti he is told that the man must have been Óláfr Tryggvason, still walking the earth long after his defeat at Svold.
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