Sigvatr Þórðarson

He was a court poet to King Olaf II of Norway, as well as Canute the Great, Magnus the Good and Anund Jacob, by whose reigns his floruit can be dated to the earlier eleventh century.

[1] Sigvatr was the best known of the court skalds of King Olaf and also served as his marshal (stallare), even baptizing his son Magnus.

The style of Sigvat's poems is simpler and clearer than that which generally characterises older compositions.

Although his verse is still dense, he uses fewer complex poetic circumlocutions than many of his predecessors, and as a Christian poet, he by and large avoids allusions to pagan mythology.

[4] The poem tallies King Olaf's battles on his Viking expeditions until 1015, when he returned to Norway to carve out a kingdom for himself.