Gripla

						192                                                       GRIPLA

ample of a derivative work for which the rímur source was almost lost,

since the vellum AM 603, 4to now contains only a fragment of the

sixth canto, but fortunately a copy was made by Markús Magnússon in

the second half of the eighteenth century when the vellum was still

complete.28 While the rímur, also known as Ölvis rímur Hákonarsonar

or Ölvis rímur sterka, probably dates from the beginning of the six-

teenth century, the derivative prose version stems from the end of that

same century.

To date there has been no thorough catalog of the members of the

genre of n/nur-derived prose, and the ease with which it has been pos-

sible to find examples of such works indicates that there might exist

scores of such "sagas." A cursory reading of JS 46, 8vo, for example,

(referred to below as 46) turned up a deviant version of Samsons saga

fagra (ff. 26vl-58rll) that partially stems from the unpublished rímur

composed by Guðmundur Bergþórsson in 1683. The poem is rather

lengthy, containing 16 cantos in all, and must have enjoyed some

amount of popularity, since it is known to exist in eight manuscripts.29

What is of special interest in the derived saga is that it unabashedly be-

gins with the initial mansöngr or amorous preamble found in the rímur

manuscripts, before launching into a prose refashioning of the poetic

text. The alliteration of the original is even occasionally preserved, as

when it is said about Samson in the rímur that he: stundadi mest á

skart og skraut (Lbs. 1889, 8vo, p. 3,12), while 46 writes: hann stund-

ade mi0g a skraut og skart, (f. 28rl - note that the rímur version in

Lbs. 2468, 4to also uses skart).

Language in the derived saga similar to that in the rímur is also to

be found:

1889, p.3,1 Budlung öl vid brudi þar

46, f.27vl7-18 kongur ol vid drottnijngu sinne

1889, p.3,5-6 vinsæll fram til elli

46, f.27v22 vinsæll fram til elli

Jón Þorkelsson, Om Digtningen pá Island i det 15. og 16. Árhundrede (K0ben-

havn, 1888), p. 143. Rudolf Simek and Hermann Pálsson, pp. 44, 264-265.

Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, I, 412-413. For comparison with the rímur, ms.

version Lbs. 1889, 8vo (referred to here as 1889) was used, while the original saga text

employed (i.e. Samsons saga fagra) is found in Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, Riddarasógur, 6

vols. (Reykjavík, 1949-51), III, pp. 345-401.