Gripla

						THE NEGLECTED GENRE OF RÍMUR-DERIVED PROSE             199

og ier med þad til skola Sijns   11,50.4

og fór hann enn til þeB Stadar sem adur hafde hann vered

166,5-6

vt j heimsins ysta part 11,55.3

út a odda þe6 lands, sem ýtst er i ver0lldu 166,16-17

The fact that there was indeed a conscious attempt on the part of

the author to disguise the poetic heritage of Jónatas saga would ac-

count for the fact that the archaic vocabulary and numerous turgid

kennings so typical of the rímur are not carried over to the prose re-

daction. Likewise the plethora of alliterating phrases, which play an

important part in the production of pre-Reformation poetry, is not co-

pied in the prose paraphrase. Even such a suspect saga passage as the

following:

kom mödur hans honumm i skoola, og fieck honumm hrýngenn,

hvorn hanrc bar daglega a synumm Arme, hann var hlýdenn og

högvær vid hvorn manrc, og unnu honumm aller hugástumm, so

huor eirn þottest gödu bættur, sem mest gat lid synt honumm,

hafde hann þad úr huörs man/is hende 162,16-23

corresponds to stanzas which do not use initial h as an alliterating

stave. At 167,14-15 there is a suspiciously alliterative line (hann hugde

helst til bigda hörfa), but although the corresponding passage contains

the same word (bygda 111,11.1), the alliterating stave in the poetic line

is a v, not h.

Looking at the saga from a larger, compositional perspective, it can

be established that the saga writer devoted more effort and space to

the final ríma than to the others. The same amount of text is devoted

to the third ríma alone as to the first two rímur combined. Several pos-

sible reasons for this come to mind, including increased proficiency at

translating the poetic text, but the most plausible explanation, at least

in this instance, is that the final ríma, with its eventful trek through the

woods, the visit to the castle, and the reacquisition of the magic ob-

jects, provided more interesting narrative material on which to con-

centrate.

It is hoped the preceding discussion has demonstrated that it is pos-

sible to study the art of the post-Reformation saga writers, not only

with regard to structure, themes and emphasis, but also on a stylistic