Ragnarsdrápa (Old Norse: ‘Drápa about Ragnarr’)^[1] is askaldic poem attributed to the oldest knownskald,Bragi inn gamli (‘the old’) Boddason, who lived in the 9th century. Bragi describes the myths depicted on a decorated shield given to him by a certain Ragnar.

The poem is often compared with other early Skaldic examples ofekphrasis, especiallyHaustlöng andHúsdrápa, which also describe artworks depicting mythological scenes. Like Haustlöng, it uses archaic and complex kennings in a manner that strains the syntax.^[2]

The poem is entitled Ragnar’s drápa, but the identity of Ragnar is unclear. According to the refrain,

‘Ragnarr gave me a moon of the chariot of Rær <sea-king> [SHIP > SHIELD] and a multitude of stories.’^[3]

The poem affords a single clue about his identity; in stanza 2 we learn that he was the son of Sigurðr.^[4]Snorri Sturluson considered him to be the Scandinavian kingRagnar Lodbrok (whose father wasSigurd Ring), and even calls the poemRagnars drápa loðbrókar (‘thedrápa of Ragnar Lodbrok’),^[5] but Vésteinn Ólason argues that it was likely addressed to a later Ragnar.^[6] Some earlier scholars thought that it was instead composed for the Swedish kingBjörn at Haugi,^[7] at whose court Bragi was a skald.^[8]

The poem describes two myths depicted on the shield,

• the attack ofHamdir and Sorli against kingJörmunrekkr, and
• the never-ending battle betweenHeðinn and Hǫgni.

Additional fragments of Bragi’s poetry sometimes thought to belong to theRagnarsdrápa include

• Thor's fishing forJörmungandr (The Midgard Serpent)
• Gefjun's ploughing ofZealand from the soil of Sweden

The extant fragments ofRagnarsdrápa are preserved inSnorri Sturluson'sProse Edda.^[9] The episodes of Hamdir and Sorli and Heðinn and Hǫgni are explicitly ascribed toRagnarsdrápa while the other parts have traditionally been inferred by scholars to belong to the same poem. In its complete state the poem would then have described four quarters of the shield, in four stanzas each with, presumably, a lost refrain.^[9][1]

Although thedróttkvætt metre violates some of the rules developed later, it is well executed; this and the complexity of language demonstrate that there had already been considerable development of skaldic verse.^[10] More specifically, the consistent system ofhendingar (rhymes between syllables) seen in laterdróttkvætt poetry was not fully established in Bragi’s time. In later dróttkvætt odd lines generally haveskothending, and even lines always haveaðalhending, but in theRagnarsdrápa odd lines frequently have no hending at all, while many even lines merely have askothending. These rare features are, to a lesser extent, present inHaustlöng, another archaicdróttkvætt poem.^[11]

• Ekphrasis

• Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason,Ragnarsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds),Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 27–46.
• Myrvoll, K. J., et al. (2016).The constitutive features of the dróttkvætt meter. In K. Árnason (Ed.), Approaches to Nordic and Germanic poetry (pp. 229–256). Institute of Iceland Press.
• Vésteinn Ólason, "Old Icelandic Poetry", inA History of Icelandic Literature, ed. Daisy Neijmann, Histories of Scandinavian Literature 5,The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska, 2006,ISBN 9780803233461, pp. 1–63.

• Males, Mikael 2023,The Dating of Bragi's Poetry. Medioevo Europeo, pp. 63–77.

• Ragnarsdrápa in Old Norse inFinnur Jónsson's edition, at Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad, Norway.
• Two editions of the original text (copy onWayback Machine)
• The first two half-stanzas read aloud
• Translation and discussion of six half-stanzas

• Cultural depictions of Ragnar Lodbrok
• Skaldic poems
• Works based on art
• Prose Edda

• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata