A New English Translation of Bo Almqvist's "Concerning the Icelandic Spell–Poets"

Bo Almqvist (1931–2013) was a Swedish folklorist who published a prodigious body of work covering both Celtic and Scandinavian folklore. This contribution offers the first translation into English of his early article, published in 1961, "Um ákvæðaskáld" or "Concerning the Icelandic Spell-poets." Found in sixteenth- to twentieth-century Icelandic folktales, the "spell-poet" (ákvæðaskáld) or "power-poet" (kraftaskáld) was reputed to perform magic by means of extemporaneous poetic verses uttered in a particular state of mind. Almqvist seems to have planned to make kraftaskáld the topic of his doctoral dissertation, but his focus shifted to medieval níð ("insult poetry") which he saw as one of the roots of the later kraftaskáld phenomenon. His dissertation, together with this article, still remain important resources for the study of these historic cultural traditions.