A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter S

Skaldic Poetry

Technique
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Highly intricate Old Norse court poetry characterized by strict metrical forms (like dróttkvætt), elaborate kennings, and alliteration, composed by skalds to honor rulers and heroes.

Detailed Definition
Skaldic poetry, composed by Icelandic skalds from the 9th century onward, features intricate diction, elaborate kennings (metaphorical circumlocutions), and strict dróttkvætt meter. It served as both praise for rulers and a display of poetic virtuosity, preserving myth and history through highly allusive, technically demanding verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Skaldic poetry uses complex kennings like “whale-road” for sea; Egill Skallagrímsson’s “Sonatorrek” laments his son with intricate meters; A dróttkvætt stanza features internal rhyme and alliteration: “The wound-sea welled in waves of red— / the wolf’s feast spread”; Skaldic verse often praises kings with elaborate metaphors: “The ring-giver’s hawk flew high today”; Modern imitations use dense alliteration: “Sword-songs sang where shields were split.”
Additional Notes
Skaldic poetry is a complex Old Norse courtly verse form (9th–13th c.) characterized by dróttkvætt meter (six lines with internal rhyme and alliteration), intricate kennings (e.g., “whale-road” = sea), and praise of rulers; composed by skalds for aristocratic patrons; demands high technical skill—each line has strict syllabic and consonantal rules; modern poets rarely imitate it fully, but its influence appears in alliterative revival and fantasy literature; students should appreciate its fusion of linguistic puzzle and heroic ethos.
Also Known As
Skaldic Verse Norse Court Poetry Dróttkvætt Poetry
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