Editing Bragi (section)

==Skalds named Bragi==

===Bragi Boddason===
{{main|Bragi Boddason}}
In the ''Prose Edda'' Snorri Sturluson quotes many stanzas attributed to '''Bragi Boddason''' the old (''Bragi Boddason inn gamli''), a Norwegian court poet who served several Swedish kings, [[Ragnar Lodbrok]], [[Östen Beli]] and [[Björn at Hauge]] who reigned in the first half of the 9th century. This Bragi was reckoned as the first skaldic poet, and was certainly the earliest skaldic poet then remembered by name whose verse survived in memory.

Snorri especially quotes passages from Bragi's ''[[Ragnarsdrápa]]'', a poem supposedly composed in honor of the famous legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok ('Hairy-breeches') describing the images on a decorated shield which Ragnar had given to Bragi. The images included Thor's fishing for [[Jörmungandr]], [[Gefjun]]'s ploughing of [[Zealand (Denmark)|Zealand]] from the soil of Sweden, the attack of [[Hamdir and Sorli]] against King [[Ermanaric|Jörmunrekk]], and the never-ending battle between [[Hedin and Högni]].

===Bragi son of Hálfdan the Old===
'''Bragi son of Hálfdan the Old''' is mentioned only in the ''Skjáldskaparmál''. This Bragi is the sixth of the second of two groups of nine sons fathered by King Hálfdan the Old on Alvig the Wise, daughter of King Eymund of [[Novgorod|Hólmgard]]. This second group of sons are all eponymous ancestors of legendary families of the north. Snorri says:
<blockquote>
Bragi, from whom the Bragnings are sprung (that is the race of Hálfdan the Generous).
</blockquote>
Of the Bragnings as a race and of Hálfdan the Generous nothing else is known. However, ''Bragning'' is often, like some others of these dynastic names, used in poetry as a general word for 'king' or 'ruler'.

===Bragi Högnason===
In the eddic poem ''[[Helgakviða Hundingsbana II]]'', '''Bragi Högnason''', his brother Dag, and his sister Sigrún were children of [[Högne]], the king of [[East Götaland]]. The poem relates how [[Sigmund]]'s son [[Helgi Hundingsbane]] agreed to take Sigrún daughter of Högni as his wife against her unwilling betrothal to Hodbrodd son of [[Granmar]] the king of [[Södermanland]]. In the subsequent battle of Frekastein (probably one of the 300 [[hill fort]]s of Södermanland, as ''stein'' meant "hill fort") against Högni and Granmar, all the chieftains on Granmar's side are slain, including Bragi, except for Bragi's brother Dag.