Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Síða 233

Words, Words, Words
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kaupstaðir, for example, during the rounding up ofsheep in the autumn, on boats
going to and from the fishing grounds, and at the fishing stations (verstöðvar)
where the men stayed during the fishing season when not at sea19 - Accessoria 22
was in fact copied at a fishing station at Óshlíð in Bolungarvík.
Another aspect of rímurwonh bearing in mind is the complexity of their form,
which derives many of its features from native (chiefly skaldic) tradition, but has
in several important respects been influenced by continental and insular poetry
(not least in the use of rhyme). There exists a wide range of rímur-metres, over
two thousand variations altogether, some of which could be very complex
indeed.20 Despite this complexity, rímur could be of considerable length. The
works known as somebody’s or something’s rímur are usually divided into cantos
or fits, each of which is called a ríma. These consist normally of between 40 and
90 stanzas, and only rarely more than 100, that presumably being the upper limit
of endurance for both kvœðamaður and audience. Skikkjurímur, with only three
fits, of 58, 44, and 85 stanzas (in 22), are relatively short. Most rímur consist
probably of eight to ten fits (even so, perhaps some 3-4000 lines), but a good
many are significantly longer.21
Although they were intended for oral delivery, the rímur must nevertheless be
regarded as written literature. Shorter rímur, especially those consisting of a single
fit, may be examples of deliberative composition, where a poem is worked out
ahead of time and then recited from memory, but certainly the vast majority of
rímur were composed in writing. In his recitation, similarly, the kvœðamaður
normally read from a book, either a manuscript, or, increasingly towards the end
of the tradition, a printed book. There were always those who relied on memory,
however,22 and it is obvious that most ‘extra-mural’ rímur recitations must of
necessity have been from memory. But even in these cases the kvœðamaður will
almost invariably have memorised a text he had read, rather than one he had
heard. Apart from individual verses (stökur) and shorter poems in rímur-metres,
rímur were never part of the oral tradition. Single stanzas could be - and still are
- improvised,23 but longer poems could not be (re-)composed in performance in
19 See the chapter ‘Ritstörf in Lúðvík Kristjánsson’s íslenzkir sjávarhættir (Reykjavík, 1980-86),
IV, pp. 238-55.
20 The most complete discussion of rimur-metres is Helgi Sigurðsson, Safn til bragfrœði íslenzkra
rímnaaðfornu ognýju (Reykjavík, 1891); see also Björn Karel Þórólfsson, Rímurjyrir 1600, pp.
51-85.
21 Olgeirs rímur danska, composed in 1680 by Guðmundur Bergþórsson (1657-1705), are, with
60 fits, the longest rimurextant; they were published in Reykjavík in 1947. There are more fits,
70 in all, in the Rímur af Bragða-Mágusi, composed in 1816 by Jón langur Jónsson (c.
1779-1828), but there are fewer verses altogether. These remain unpublished, but are preserved
in Lbs 2930 4to, the author’s autograph, from c. 1825.
22 Hallfreður Örn Eiríksson, ‘On Icelandic Rímur: An Orientation’, Arv, XXXI (1975), pp.
139-50, atp. 145.
23 These are known as lausavísur, see Ögmundur Helgason, ‘Lausavísur’, in Munnmenntir og
bókmenning, Islensk þjóðmenning, VI, pp. 356-71.