ABSTRACT
In the society of the Teutons, gathered about its chieftains, room was found for one honored as the maker of song and of praises of the king, which he chanted to the accompaniment of the harp. The scald is often more the historian of his patron than the poet, having recourse to poetry only to immortalize his king. Literary talent was not a matter merely of amusement; it was a means to favor in the courts, and naturally the scald was more especially caressed by those princes who were distinguished warriors. The minstrel in his itinerant capacity is the less important in a study of patronage. The minstrel’s main business, of course, was to tell stories and amuse, but as in earlier times he often clothed in verse the deeds that fell under his eye and lauded the conduct of the patron who had been kind to him.
