m. ‘scaldship,’ poetry:

I. a libel in verse; eigi skal lýsa legorðs-sök um skáldskap, Grág. i. 351; ef maðr kveðr skáld-skap til háðungar manni, … ok varðar þat skóggang, skal sækja sem annan skáldskap, ii. 151, see the whole chapter in Kb. ch. 238, inscribed, um Skáldskap, of Libels; the word is therefore used synonymously with danz and flimt, níð, q. v.

II. poetry in a good sense, Edda passim; Sighvatr var ekki hrað-mæltr maðr í sundr-lausum orðum, en s. var honum svá tiltækr, at hann kvað af tungu fram svá sem hann mælti annat mál, Ó. H. 171; ok kom þar brátt talinu at þeir ræddu um skáldskap, þótti hvárum-tveggja þær ræður skemtiligar, Eg. 686; skáld-skapar grein, -háttr, poetical metre, Skálda 183, 210; skáldskapar laun = skáldfé, Eg. 152. Skáld-skapar-mál, n. pl. poetical diction, Edda 49, Skálda 195; hence the name of the second part of the Edda, the ancient Ars Poetica, containing the rules and laws of ancient poetry. ☞ Skáldskapr in old writers refers to the ‘form’ (metre, flow, diction), not to the contents; even in such phrases as, ekki var mikill skáldskapr í því kvæði, there was not much ‘scaldship’ in that poem, it was a bad composition, Fms. vii. 38.