A skald in royal service – the case Þórarinn loftunga. Part 2: Poetics and ideology of Tøgdrápa

Þórarinn loftunga, an Icelandic poet, was famous for his service for Knútr in riki, the King of England and Denmark. The skald played an important role in events he described in his poetry. It mainly refers to the taking over of Norway by Knútr in 1028 and efforts to establish Knútr’s son Sveinn in Norway in the early 1030s as a follower and heir of the king Óláfr Haraldsson whose status as saint was just about to rise1. Knútr, as other rulers of that time, was eager to use skaldic poetry as one of the main channels of royal propaganda. That’s why his court in England gathered a substantial number of skalds who were delivering their compositions praising the king and legitimising both his status and achievements2. Þórarinn loftunga belonged to this group, being its important member. The present article is the second part of the threefold study on Þórarinn’s poetry with each part devoted to a different skald’s composition. As I have already noted in the first part, the main aim of my study is to contextualise Þórarinn’s poetry as a whole and determine if it can be treated as a sophisticated insight not only into the politics of Knútr in riki (and his son Sveinn) but also the skald’s own artistic input