Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 97

ÞÝSKT GYLLINISTAFRÓF
95
sa skrude fegur skyn a þier
skarte veralldar trudu mier.
P inum af aude gott þu giór
Gudz þacka mónnum afftur þier
Drottin/; umwbunar dome j
dyrt er verdkaupid giættu ad þvj.
Æ lifer so i heime hier
heilager Drottinz einglarner
þina sal bere þa til si'n
þetta skam/?zvin/7a lifed dvin.
SUMMARY
One sub-category of the literary genre known since Greek times as ‘acrostics’
(in Icelandic ‘griplur’) is what might be termed, in English, the ‘alphabet po-
em’ (in Icelandic ‘gyllinistafróf’ or ‘stafrófssálmur’). Its principal characteristic
is that the first letters or words at the beginning of a line, or the first lines in
each stanza make up a name, word or sentence. In gyllinistafróf the initial let-
ters of stanzas form the alphabet from A to Z. There is an extant acrostic po-
em attributed to Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614-1674) and preserved in 21 manu-
scripts. In some of these manuscrips it is stated that Hallgrímur translated the
poem from German and Danish. The present article shows that there was a
Danish translation of the poem printed in Dcinske viser fra Adelsviseb0ger og
Flyveblade 1530-1630; and this work is traced back to a German original, print-
ed in High German in Greifswalder Gesangbuch 1597 and in small print in Low
German in 1612. It is conceivable that Bartholomeus Ringwaldt (1532-1599)
was the author of this German poem, though his role may rather have been
that of translating the piece into High German. The poem is preserved in a
manuscript written in 1588 by Catherine Tirs, a nun in the Niesing nunnery in
Miinster. The article notes that Hallgrímur Pétursson is not the only Icelander
to have translated the poem; there are three different manuscript translations
extant. One of them, in all likelihood the oldest, is by Ólafur Jónsson from
Sandar in Dýrafjörður (1560-1627). It is not clear who the author of the third
translated version is, but the present writer has identified two manuscripts
containing the piece, ÍB 242 8vo and JS 235 8vo. The article examines the
three Icelandic translations, comparing them with the German original and the
Danish translation. A considerable number of differences are noted between