Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 213

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hujus et superioris seculi, was written many decades after the poet’s death.
Guðmundur erlendsson was a well-known poet to whom numerous works
are (often spuriously) attributed, and his association with Grýlukvæði could
have arisen due to the poem’s geographical setting in his home parish of
sléttuhlíð.
this article provides a new edition of Grýlukvæði based on the earliest
manuscript witnesses preserving the poem. While these are not necessarily
closer to the archetypical Grýlukvæði than later manuscripts, they do illus-
trate the form in which the poem was transmitted in one particular cluster
of seventeenth-century manuscripts. this edition, in turn, is the basis for
a re-examination of the genesis of Grýlukvæði and its current status as one
man’s attributed contribution to the genre.
2. Grýlukvæði in Þulur og þjóðkvæði
to date, the only critical edition of Grýlukvæði is found in Þulur og
þjóðkvæði, the fourth and final volume of Íslenzkar gátur, skemtanir, viki-
vakar og þulur, edited by ólafur davíðsson (1862–1903).5 Þulur og þjóðkvæði
is certainly a pioneering work, but the book was published posthumously
and without significant revision.6 In a study of folkloric material in the
manuscript dfs 67 and its treatment in Þulur og þjóðkvæði, Aðalheiður
Guðmundsdóttir concluded that ólafur davíðsson’s methodology and
editorial practices fail to meet modern academic standards, and Þulur
og þjóðkvæði should thus not be used by those engaging in scholarly re-
search.7
Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir does not specifically discuss ólafur
davíðsson’s treatment of Grýlukvæði, as it does not fall within the scope of
5 Íslenzkar gátur, skemtanir, vikivakar og þulur, vol. 4, Þulur og þjóðkvæði, ed. ólafur davíðsson
(Copenhagen: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1898–1903). Grýlukvæði had previously been
printed in the first volume of the second edition of Andreas Peter Berggreen’s Folke-sange
og Melodier, fædrelandske og fremmede, samlede og udsatte for Pianoforte (Copenhagen: den
Gyldendalske Boghandling, 1860), 248, as Grílukvæði (“Hjer er komin Gríla á Gægis hól” /
“Grila hun til Gægis’ Høi kommen er”). Berggreen’s source was organist Pétur Guðjónsson,
who sent him the melody and text by letter in 1846–47, cf. pp. 269–70.
6 Cf. finnur jónsson’s postscript to the volume, pp. 383–4.
7 Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, “(ó)traustar heimildir: um söfnun og útgáfu þjóðkvæða,”
Skáldskaparmál 4 (1997): 210–26.
GRýLA In sLÉttuHLíÐ