Tools of Literacy

Nordal (Arni Magnusson Institute, Reykjavik) examines an Icelandic verse form that required a command of complicated metrical rules and a thorough knowledge of pagan myth and metaphorical language. She makes links between skaldic verse and the formal study of grammar in schools, between Icelandic authors and the intellectual currents in Europe at the time, and between the leading families of the period and ecclesiastical and secular learning. She also constructs a database of some 1,900 kennings, or conventional metaphors. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)