By Nancy Jasper
These poems are based on stories from Egil’s Saga, an Icelandic saga from the thirteenth century. Egil was a tenth century warrior and poet. He is a complex and contradictory figure, violent even by the standards of his time, and also capable of sensitive, introspective poetry. I have taken liberties with these stories and tossed in some sci fi and fairy tales.
This Origami micro-chapbook (see below for PDF link) will be distributed in Iceland in the summer of 2014 by Professor Christina von Nolcken of the University of Chicago. She is leading an alumni tour of Iceland that will visit sites associated with Egil. You can find her article, Egil Skallagrimsson and the Viking Ideal, in the Fathom Archive of the University of Chicago Library, Digital Collections.
•
Visit Nancy Jasper's OPP bio page and additional work Here.
|
Origami Micro-chapbook |
Selected Poem(s) |
|
Photo from the Web •
|
{mooblock=Egil}
Not all poets are sensitive and solitary.
Consider Egil Skallagrimsson,
Icelandic, tenth century.
The old sociopath was known
for the disproportions of his violence,
the strategic deployment of his kennings,
his capacity for lament.
When necessary,
he could turn himself into metaphors.
A good poem
almost saved his life.
He stayed up all night,
made a better poem.
His enemy, the queen,
sat on a branch outside his window.
Her birdy,
judicious ear
caught
the technical innovation,
the Continental end rhymes,
and the praise,
and she knew her husband would fall for it.
•
Nancy Jasper © 2014 {/mooblock} |
|
|
|
|
The Origami Poems Project is a non-profit which promotes poetry and the arts through
publishing
free micro-chapbooks of poetry.
|
|
