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GRIPLA
well as several manuscripts of a young version of Haralds saga Hrings-
bana, probably composed in the seventeenth century.6
Evidently a much later, nineteenth-century phenomenon is Perseus
saga sterka, refashioned from the Persíus rímur of Guðmundur Andr-
ésson, who died in 1654.7 On at least one occasion a ri/nwr-derived
saga served as the source for even younger rímur. Andra saga jarls,
possibly dating from the eighteenth century, is based on the fifteenth-
century Andra rímur (hinar fornu). Another set of rímur, by Hannes
Bjarnason and Gísli Konráðsson (printed 1834 and 1905), were in turn
independently produced from the ri'mwr-derived saga.8 In at least one
instance the rímur appeared in print a year after the composition of
the poem, but the derivative saga is only preserved in much younger
manuscripts. Agnars rímur Hróarssonar was written by Árni Böðvars-
son in 1776, published in Hrappsey in 1777, and is extant in three
manuscripts in the Landsbókasafn, all postdating the year 1880.9 The
practice of writing sagas from rímur evidently continued right up to
the beginning of the twentieth century. Sagan afPontus konungssyni is
extant in only one manuscript, Lbs. 1509, 4to, and seems to have been
written by Magnús hreppstjóri Jónsson from Tjaldanes (1835-1922).10
In some instances it did not take very long after the composition of
the poetic version for a prose recension to be fashioned. From the
popular Randvers rímur og Ermingerðar, composed in 1794 by Einar
Bjarnason and extant in a dozen manuscripts, a prose reworking was
apparently made. The Saga af Randveri fagra is known from one nine-
teenth-century manuscript, Lbs. 1504, 4to.u Evidently the record for
prompt “sagatization” of rímur belongs to Hraknings saga Magnúsar
Hrólfssonar, composed in the year 1813 and attributed to Gísli Sigurðs-
son, for a prose version derived from the rímur appears in the nine-
6 Ólafur Halldórsson, Haralds rímur Hringsbana in íslenzkar miðaldarímur, vol. 1
(Reykjavík, 1973), p. 17.
7 Rudolf Simek and Hermann Pálsson, Lexikon der altnordischen Literatur (Stutt-
gart, 1987), p. 279.
8 Halldór Hermannsson, Bibliography of the Mythical-Heroic Sagas, in Islandica,
vol. 5 (New York, 1912), p. 72.
9 Bjöm K. Þórólfsson, Brávallarímur eftir Árna Böðvarsson, in Rit Rímnafélagsins,
vol. 8 (Reykjavík, 1965), p. clxxi.
10 Grímur M. Helgason, Pontus rímur in Rit Rímnafélagsins, vol. 10 (Reykjavík,
1961), p. xlvii.
11 Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, 2 vols. (Reykjavík, 1966), I, 392.