"Tools of Literacy is a thorough, ground-breaking examination of skaldic verse or drottkvaett, Icelandic literary production in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and of the textual culture that nurtured the poets. Gudrun Nordal demonstrates the connection between skaldic verse and the formal study of grammatica in Icelandic schools, outlining how skaldic verse was treated much like a Nordic equivalent to classic texts. She also reevaluates and reemphasizes the versatility of skaldic verse, establishing the links between Icelandic authors and intellectual currents in Europe at the time. By systematically tying poets together with leading families of the time and with ecclesiastical and secular learning, Nordal shows how skaldic verse-making was one of the class symbols of the new aristocracy in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Iceland." "In giving a faithful account of Icelandic skaldic verse-making at this time, Nordal has developed a database of approximately 1900 kennings and heiti which serves as a point of reference throughout the book. The book's content is new and its overall coverage is unique. Tools of Literacy will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of comparative literature, comparative mythology, Old Norse/Icelandic literature and language, and medieval studies."--Jacket