In Icelandic literature, a rÃÂma (, literally "a rhyme", pl. rÃÂmur, ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called rÃÂmnahættir (, "rÃÂmur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. The plural, rÃÂmur, is either used as an ordinary plural, denoting any two or more rÃÂmur, but is also used for more expansive works, containing more than one rÃÂma as a whole. Thus ÃÂlafs rÃÂma Haraldssonar denotes an epic about ÃÂlafr Haraldsson in one rÃÂma, while Sigurður Breiðfjörð's ' are a multi-part epic on Numa Pompilius.
RÃÂmur, as the name suggests, rhyme, but like older Germanic alliterative verse, they also contain structural alliteration. They are stanzaic; the stanzas normally have four lines. There are hundreds of rÃÂma metres: Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson counts 450 variations in his Háttatal. But they can be grouped in approximately ten "families". The most common metre is ferskeytt.
RÃÂma-poetry inherited kennings, heiti and other ornate features of medieval Icelandic poetic diction from skaldic verse. The language of rÃÂmur is likewise influenced by the rhetorical devices associated with late medieval geblümter Stil ('flowery style').
When they are long â as they usually are â rÃÂmur usually comprise several distinct sections, each being called a rÃÂma, and each usually in a different metre. After the earliest rÃÂmur, it became conventional to begin each rÃÂma in a cycle with a mansöngr, a lyric address, traditionally to or about a woman whom the poet supposedly loves, usually in vain.
The earliest rÃÂmur date from the fourteenth century, evolving from eddaic poetry and skaldic poetry with influences from Continental epic poems. ÃÂláfs rÃÂma Haraldssonar, preserved in Flateyjarbók, is the rÃÂma attested in the oldest manuscript and is sometimes considered the oldest rÃÂma; the earliest large collection of rÃÂmur is in Kollsbók, dated by ÃÂlafur Halldórsson to 1480âÂÂ90. SkÃÂðarÃÂma, BjarkarÃÂmur, and Lokrur are other examples of early rÃÂmur. The key work on editing rÃÂmur focused on medieval examples like these and was undertaken by Finnur Jónsson. RÃÂmur were usually adapted from existing prose sagas, and occasionally comprise the only surviving evidence for those sagas; one example is the fifteenth-century Skáld-Helga rÃÂmur.
RÃÂmur were the mainstay of epic poetry in Iceland for centuries: 78 are known from before 1600, 138 from the seventeenth century, 248 from the eighteenth, 505 from the nineteenth and 75 from the twentieth. Most have never been printed and survive only in manuscripts, mostly in the National and University Library of Iceland: about one hundred and thirty popular editions of rÃÂmur were printed between 1800 and 1920, but there are more than one thousand nineteenth-century manuscripts containing rÃÂmur. Some lost sagas were recomposed based on the corresponding rÃÂmur.
In the nineteenth century the poet Jónas HallgrÃÂmsson published an influential critique on a rÃÂmur cycle by Sigurður Breiðfjörð and the genre as a whole. At the same time Jónas and other romantic poets were introducing new continental verse forms into Icelandic literature and the popularity of the rÃÂmur started to decline. Nevertheless, many of the most popular nineteenth- and twentieth-century Icelandic poets composed rÃÂmur, including Bólu-Hjálmar, Sigurður Breiðfjörð, Einar Benediktsson, Steinn Steinarr, ÃÂrn Arnarson and ÃÂórarinn Eldjárn. In the late twentieth century Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson was the best known rÃÂmur poet.
The twenty-first century has seen something of a revival of rÃÂmur in Icelandic popular music. The central figure in this revival has been Steindór Andersen, particularly noted for collaborations with Sigur Rós (leading to the 2001 EP RÃÂmur) and with Hilmar ÃÂrn Hilmarsson (leading, for example, to the 2013 album Stafnbúi).
The scholar Sigurður Nordal wrote of the rÃÂmur: