Gripla

						THE NEGLECTED GENRE OF RlMUR-DERIVED PROSE             193

1889, p.4,1 tytt ad bruka um tyma þann

46, f.28r5 ij þann tima tijtt ad bruka

Numerous details are common to the rímur and the derived saga.

Both state that the wife of Artus was named Philipija, but she is called

Silvía in Samsons saga fagra. In both rímur and derived saga, Artus

and his wife are said to have two children before Samson and his sister

are described in turn, while the earlier saga omits this piece of in-

formation and begins with a description of Samson. The two later re-

dactions report that the hero stayed with his foster father Salmon until

he was 13, while the original prose work states that he was with Salm-

on until the age of 11. Salmon's daughter is named Olempija in 46 and

Olemphia in 1889, but Olympia in the older saga.

In 46 the first eight divisions or chapters are unnumbered, but the

text corresponds to the first eight rímur in 1889, and each of the chap-

ters begins with the corresponding mansöngr from the rímur. There

can be no doubt that the first eight chapters in 46 have been heavily in-

fluenced by the poetic version. However, the subsequent chapter in

46, which should be number 9, is labelled XV. It has no mansöngr,

and follows the text of the older saga (called there Chapter 11) quite

closely.30 This correspondence continues to the end of the story (ch. 25

in 46, ch. 24 in the edited version of the older saga).

It should also be noted that the "sagas" discussed here do not usu-

ally exist in many copies and their manuscripts are often signed and/or

dated. There is a good possibility that patterns of geographic distribu-

tion could also be determined, at least for some of the works. Besides

the philological aspect of reconstructing sources and studying obscured

motifs, the wnur-derived sagas can be regarded as repositories of in-

formation about the Icelandic language and prose narrative style. And

just as the rímur genre has to some extent overcome the negative

biases of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, so, too, must

such saga retreads eventually become legitimized as literature.

An excellent example of how such works can be examined is provid-

ed by Jónatas saga, a tale preserved in only one paper manuscript

E.g. 46, beg. ch. "15": Eirn Tijma talar Olem. til Sams, so er nu komid, seiger

hun, ad vid skulum nu forvitnast um h0fdijngia hvad sem fram fer. Samsons sagafagra,

ch. 11: Einn morgun talar Ólympía til Samson: „Svo er nú komið", segir hún, „að vér

skulum forvitnast hvað fram fer um höfðingja."