Gripla - 01.01.1990, Page 193

THE NEGLECTED GENRE OF RÍMUR-DERIVED PROSE
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teenth-century annals for the same year.12 Hrakningsríma Magnúsar
Jónssonar, based on a difficult whaling expedition survived by the po-
et, probably at the end of 1812, also winds up as a prose report in the
annals of the nineteenth century.13
It is quite probable, however, that the composition of prose narra-
tives from poetic texts is a very old phenomenon and one that was not
confined to rímur sources. There is evidence, for example, that Illuga
saga Gríðarfóstra is not an original mythical-heroic saga, but rather
derived from an older ballad.14 If foreign-language sources are taken
into consideration, then one of the oldest examples of a derivative ro-
mance would be Trístrams saga ok ísöndar, evidently translated in
Norway from Thomas’ Trístan in 1226. Of course, the tradition of
prose reworking in a wider sense is also known in Iceland from around
the same time, cf. Völsunga saga and Snorri’s Prose Edda. Viewed in
this light, the nmur-derived sagas are simply part of a much larger lit-
erary tradition.
The production of a derived-prose narrative need not always be a
simple one, however, as shown by the saga of Ásmundr Flagðagæfa,
written down around 1700 by Eyjólfur Jónsson, a priest in Svarfaðar-
dalur.15 Here it has so far proved impossible to determine whether the
extant rímur stem from the prose narrative or vice versa. Other com-
plexities involve the possibility for a single saga to be indebted to more
than one rímur-\ersion and for more than one redaction of a single
“saga” to exist, as in Áns saga bogsveigis, in Hrings saga ok Tryggva
(mentioned above), and in Ormars saga (discussed below).16
It will not be a simple matter, however, to define members of the
genre of rzmur-derived prose, since they will have to be differentiated
from those sagas stemming from older Icelandic prose narratives as
Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, I, 246-247, 245. Other tales of tribulations at sea
are known to exist in both rímur and prose versions, but their relationships have yet to
be determined; Finnur Sigmundsson, I, 241, 243, 250, 251.
13 Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, I, 244-245.
14 Davíð Erlingsson, „Illuga saga og Illuga dans“, Grípla, I (Reykjavík, 1975), pp. 9-
42.
15 Judith Jesch, “Ásmundar saga Flagðagæfu”, ARV: Scandinavian Yearbook of
Folklore 1982, XXXVIII (Stockholm, 1984), p. 103.
16 Ólafur Halldórsson, Áns rímur bogsveigis in fslenzkar miðaldarímur, vol. 2
(Reykjavík, 1973), pp. 57-68. Agnete Loth, p. x.