Rímur

[3] Ríma-poetry inherited kennings, heiti and other ornate features of medieval Icelandic poetic diction from skaldic verse.

[3] The language of rímur is likewise influenced by the rhetorical devices associated with late medieval geblümter Stil ('flowery style').

After the earliest rímur, it became conventional to begin each ríma in a cycle with a mansöngr, a lyric address, traditionally to or about a woman whom the poet supposedly loves, usually in vain.

In the nineteenth century the poet Jónas Hallgrímsson published an influential critique on a rímur cycle by Sigurður Breiðfjörð and the genre as a whole.

[9] At the same time Jónas and other romantic poets were introducing new continental verse forms into Icelandic literature and the popularity of the rímur started to decline.

Nevertheless, many of the most popular nineteenth- and twentieth-century Icelandic poets composed rímur, including Bólu-Hjálmar, Sigurður Breiðfjörð, Einar Benediktsson, Steinn Steinarr, Örn Arnarson and Þórarinn Eldjárn.

Steindór Andersen is currently the leading rímur singer in Iceland: he often collaborates with the band Sigur Rós and has also contributed to some of Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson's works.