Overview
About Rímur
Stories shaped by metre
The tradition survives from the Middle Ages; Ólafsríma Haraldssonar, preserved in the fourteenth-century manuscript Flateyjarbók, is an early example. Poets adapted material from legendary and chivalric tales, Icelandic sagas, translated stories and religious narratives. Rhyme and alliteration organise the verse, while poetic names and circumlocutions connect it with older Icelandic poetic language. A ríma may begin with a mansöngur, an introductory passage in which the poet turns aside from the main story to personal reflections or other subjects.
Voice and shared evenings
Rímur were performed during household evening gatherings known as kvöldvökur. A long cycle could continue across several evenings, with suspense helping to retain its audience. The art of delivery involved more than reading words aloud: performers, or kvæðamenn, shaped melodies and rhythmic phrasing. Recordings made in the twentieth century preserve differences between individual performers, allowing researchers to study the relationship between written verse, remembered tunes and a living practice of storytelling.
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