Rímur

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir (University of Iceland)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1300- c.1899

Places

Iceland (Location)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Rímur (sing. ríma), or “metrical romances”, were specifically Icelandic, and formed the dominating poetic genre in Iceland from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. The rímur were based on written sagas, and most of them follow the plot of the prose texts closely. They are therefore long and detailed. Many of them deal with chivalric and heroic matters and are based upon the translated and original Icelandic romances (riddarasögur), the mythical-heroic sagas (legendary sagas, cf. fornaldarsögur) and other kinds of saga literature. But even if the rímur poets usually composed …

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1411 words

Citation: Guðmundsdóttir, Aðalheiður. "Rímur". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 November 2022 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19657, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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Rímur

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

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