Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1964, Page 114

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ANTHONY FAULKES
MS a note by Árni Magnússon also attributes them to the same poet, but his
grounds are unknown. The question is discussed in Kvœðasa/n (1922—1927),
260—261. See also Jón Þorkelsson, Om Digtningen pá lsland (1888), 277—
303, especially p. 281.
The following quotation from Þórður Magnússon’s Rollants Rímur
is included in SLR without any mention of the name of author of the
poem. It is merely preceded by the abbreviation “Rhyt.”
91 Nid: Rhyt: Minst er frid su mærdar Smid,
margann tid ad yrkia nid. —
This is from the third stanza of the 16th Ríma of Rollant. These rímur,
which have never been published in their entirety, were composed by Þórður
Magnússon of Strjúgur, who flourished in the second half of the 16th century.
In normalised spelling the whole verse reads:
Skáldin þýð í skilnings hlíð
skyldu blíð, en ekki stríð,
minst er fríð sú mærðar smíð
margan tíð að yrkja níð.
Most MSS seem to have virtually the same readings for this verse, except
that some of the later ones (e. g. Lbs 192 fol.) replace margan by marga. The
oldest MSS are from the second quarter of the 17th century, and so, probably,
none of the surviving MSS could have been used by Magnús. See further Om
digtningen pa Island, 344—346.70
Lastly, there is a quotation which seems to belong to Tristrams
Kvæði:
*53 Heya: Rolland háde Bardagann. — LI 101, s. v. Hcidr: “Sic vetus Carmen-
culum: Rollant háde Bardagann / vid Londuna Bru.” Clearly Guðmundur is
responsible for the insertion of the quotation into SLR, for it is not in DG 55
(see above p. 40). He has evidently confused the names of Rolland and Trist-
ram, cf. Tristrams Kvæði C 1 (íslenzk FornkvœSi 1 (1854), 198):
Tristram háði bardagann
við Lundúnabrú.
70 There are four verses from Rollants Rímur quoted in Worm’s Monumenta
Danica (1643), 380—381, but from a very corrupt MS, or else from memory. It
is not known who provided him with these, and there is no evidence that there
is any connection with the quotation in SLR.