Cotirt Poetry 119 



the best care he could not to let his vates sacer run too 

 crreat risks, lest he himself should cjo down to his 

 long night unsung. We read, for example, of St. Olaf 

 appointing a special guard (shield-burg) for his court- 

 poet. The custom of having a poet at court was 

 adopted by the northern kings fi'om the Irish or the 

 Highlanders, — it was a Celtic custom. We have a long 

 series of poems of the historic era by the 67ia/f7s('i.f. bards), 

 as they were called, whose names, and something of 

 whose character have been handed down to us. In 

 its metre most of this court poetry differs in certain 

 respects from the older mythological and heroic poetry. 

 Before it had come into vogue, moreover, the literary 

 centre of the north had moved from the Western 

 Islands to Iceland, so that most of these court poets are 

 spoken of as Icelanders. But still the skalds were very 

 often Irishmen by descent ; as we have said, the descrip- 

 tions of them represent them as dark-haired, dark-eyed 

 men, for the most part, of a turbulent, adventurous, 

 Celtic character. Almost the earliest of the encomite 

 is the piece which was composed in memory of Erik 

 Blodox, the son of Harald Fairhair, a personage of 

 whom we shall have hereafter to speak. And this is 

 the most beautiful of them all. It begins by describ- 

 ing how Odin awakes from sleep, having dreamt that a 

 host of dead heroes were on their way to Yalholl, and 

 orders the benches and the mead-cups to be got ready 

 for them. Presently they are heard approaching — 



'What tlmmler is it, as if a thousand men were tramping, 



Or a mighty host drew near ? 

 The walls are breaking, — as though 'twere Balder come 

 Again to Odin's hall. ' 



