sæfarðarljóð
Sæfarðarljóð, literally “sea-journey poems,” is a term used in modern Icelandic and Norse philology to categorize a subset of medieval Norse poetry that centers on sea travel and maritime life. The designation covers skaldic verses—often embedded in kings’ sagas or quoted within prose—that use a voyage by sea as the frame or occasion for praise, reflection, or narrative development. The exact boundaries of the genre are not uniformly fixed, and some scholars apply the label more narrowly than others.
Typical features of sæfarðarljóð include strong maritime imagery, references to ships, winds, storms, currents, and navigational
The manuscript evidence for sæfarðarljóð is fragmentary, and the genre overlaps with broader strands of skaldic