ABSTRACT
Even the critics thought highly of Widsith’s art! From this passage we learn, incidentally, that the scop sang his poems to the accompaniment of the harp. Whether Scilling was Widsith’s harpist or a fellow scop (in which case the performance was a duet) we cannot tell; it has even been conjectured, indeed, that Scilling was the name of Widsith’s harp.6 The author makes it clear that his hero was composer as well as performer (though he would hardly have understood the distinction we make between these offices). Widsith sings in mead-hall about his own experiences (lines 54-56), and he composes and sings a poem in praise of his patroness, Queen Ealhhild (lines 99-102). We may safely presume that an actual scop would do as much for the kings who made him welcome at their courts and gave him gifts. The relationship between a scop and his royal patron comes out in the epilogue of our poem:7
As gleemen go, guided by fortune, as they pass from place to place among men, their wants they tell, speak the word of thanks, south or north find someone always full of song-lore, free in giving, who is fain to heighten his favor with the worthy, do noble deeds, till his day is ended, life and light together; below he wins praise, he leaves under heaven a lasting fame, (lines 135-43)
The word of thanks is to be taken as a poem in honor of the prince, whose fame could hardly have been expected to last unless celebrated in song; poetry was then the only historical record. We conclude that the scop had the important function of immortalizing his patron by singing his praises. These poems of praise, handed down by word of mouth, and making part of the repertory of many a gleeman, were meant to keep the prince’s name and deeds alive in the minds of men forever.
