Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 230

GRIPLA230
In other regions of the north Atlantic, Grýla and her kin are associated
with mumming and disguise traditions, and terry Gunnell has speculated
that Grýla in Iceland was likewise once a masked or costumed figure who
travelled between farms in mid-winter, demanding hospitality (or offerings
in the form of meat) from those she encountered, a tradition that possibly
moved indoors due to a worsening climate.48 Grýlukvæði describes just
such a trip through Höfðaströnd and sléttuhlíð, set during the Christmas
season, and the poem would certainly lend itself to dramatisation, though
Gissur sveinsson’s version describes her physical appearance in rather
sparse terms. Conversely, Grýlukvæði could actually represent a deliber-
ate step away from older traditions surrounding Grýla and other yuletide
visitors (such as the Þóra of Þóruljóð); if there were indeed ritual elements
to Grýla’s character, as Gunnell believes, these would hardly have been en-
couraged in post-Reformation Iceland — and certainly not in the sléttuhlíð
of Guðmundur erlendsson’s day. Whether or not he had a direct hand in
Grýlukvæði’s composition, Guðmundur erlendsson belonged to a genera-
tion of clergyman-poets influenced by Guðbrandur Þorláksson’s vision of
a cleaner, more spiritual poetic landscape. In his preface to Vísnabók from
1612, Guðbrandur exhorted his fellow Icelanders to purge their repertoires
of amoral works and amuse themselves with more edifying material —
such as rímur based on stories from the Bible.49 Guðmundur erlendsson’s
own rímur are very much in keeping with this emphasis on “profitable”
entertainment, as are his numerous verse adaptations of fables by Aesop
and others, in which the moral of the story forms the refrain.
there is an unmistakeable emphasis on the merits of obeying one’s
parents throughout Grýlukvæði and Leppalúðakvæði, and although Grýla’s
interest in wilful children who neglect their religious studies (syngja ekki sín
fræði) could predate her arrival in sléttuhlíð, it is perhaps not a coincidence
that two very similar narrative poems emerge within a decade of each other
in which the monstrous visitor encounters (and is repelled by) a man of
the cloth. even if bringing Grýla from farm to farm could have been an
annual tradition from time immemorial, the narrative grýlukvæði need not
have been an established genre in the mid-seventeenth century. Instead,
48 Gunnell, “Grýla, Grýlur, ‘Grøleks’ and skeklers,” 48.
49 Vísnabók Guðbrands, ed. jón torfason et al. (Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla
íslands, 2000), 3.