Gripla - 01.01.1990, Qupperneq 196

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 rímur-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fagra (ff. 26vl-58rll) that partially stems from the unpublished rímur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
28 Jón Þorkelsson, Om Digtningen pá Island i det 15. og 16. Árhundrede (Kóben-
havn, 1888), p. 143. Rudolf Simek and Hermann Pálsson, pp. 44, 264-265.
29 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, Riddarasögur, 6
vols. (Reykjavík, 1949-51), III, pp. 345-401.