The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld. An Edition and Study (review)

Short Notices 257 contextualising these diagrams as mnemonic devices. It is surprising, given recent work on scholastic diagrams and other scholarly apparatus, including Sandler's own work on the Omnes Bonum, that these images have received little attention. It is also fascinating to trace here the development of Sandler's own scholarly interests in unusual fourteenth-century manuscripts, the encyclopedic and the diagrammatic. Another thread that is not followed through in any great detail in this book is the manuscript's social context. As Sandler points out, the focus of recent manuscript studies has changed, and it is probable that any new study would focus in more detail on the questions of context and content. It must, however, be acknowledged that the questions that concerned Sandler here, such as the possible original ordering of the pages, the dating of its production and the identification of artists and scribes, would still have to be addressed. Finally, congratulations to Harvey Miller Publishers for reissuing this book in a more accessible paperback form. Let us hope they continue to republish their significant medieval publications. Judith Collard Art History and Theory University ofOtago Whaley, Diane, The Poetry ofArnorr jarlaskdld. An Edition and Study (Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8), London, Brepols and Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, 1998; cloth; pp. xvi, 369. Diana Whaley's exemplary edition of the poetry of Arnorr jarlaskald (comprisi edited texts, translations, diplomatic texts and critical apparatus) is supplemented by her detailed introduction, appendices to the edition and bibliography. That it takes well over 300 pages to account for less than 600 lines of verse is testament to Whaley's thorough and detailed scholarship and reason for enduring gratitude on the part of students and scholars of skaldic poetry w h o now have not only the means to a fuller appreciation of this poet, but also a timely reflection on the editing of skaldic verse. For each of Arnorr's extant verses, Whaley provides a description of the manuscript sources, an explanation of its context in the work in which it is 258 Short Notices preserved, a diplomatic and edited text ofthe verse, the verse in prose word order and a prose translation ('Diplomatic Text and Commentary', pp. 137-316). Preceding this (pp. 113-35), is an edited text of each verse and an English translation 'which is designed to conveyfirstthe meaning of the original and second something of its style, as far as possible without straining the English to the point of incomprehensibility' (p. 101). Whaley's translations are brilliant, and this section of the work will no doubt be the most widely used. Her treatment of Diction and Metre (pp. 65-78 and 79-98 respectively) will also be invaluable to students of skaldic poetry, though it is something of a disappointment that despite repeated reference to calls for a thorough review of the scholarly description of skaldic metrics, Whaley chooses a rather conservative position based on Sievers' classification (p. 82). The richness of her analyses and the explicitness of her methodology, however, more than compensate for this circumspect decision. The scholarship behind this study and the execution of the edition are of the very highest standard. Casual readers may be disconcerted that the same level ofprofessional finesse has not been applied to the laying out of the book, whose pages are often clumsily full or strangely sparse (see for example pp. 326-29), a fault that is hardly the author's, and will scarcely be noticed by the engrossed student or scholar. Judy Quinn Department ofAnglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Cambridge University ...