Gripla - 20.12.2017, Page 202

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(22/3), and it ends with the poet directly addressing the virtuous woman
listening, asking her to consider these examples (22/11–15).
Manuscripts and authorship
the oldest manuscript preserving “Sprundahrós” is ÍB 815 8vo, the first
in a two-volume collection of poetry called Hvarfsbók (ÍB 815–16 8vo).
Hvarfsbók comprises 150 poems and poetic fragments from ca. 1600–1900
by various authors on a variety of subjects, which were assembled in
1890 by Þorsteinn Þorkelsson (1831–1907), who lived at Syðra-Hvarf in
Svarfaðardalur and who provided brief introductions and tables of contents
to both volumes.19 the works included in the two manuscripts include
poems on religious and secular subjects, poems about the weather, epitha-
lamia, elegies, epistolary poems, psalms, and rímur. “Sprundahrós” is the
35th poem in ÍB 815 8vo; it begins on fol. 131r and ends on 135r and was
copied ca. 1800. the poem’s heading reads: “Kvædi er kallast Sprundahrös.
Sr JJS” (a poem called Sprundahrós. rev. JJS).
“Sprundahrós” is also extant in two other manuscripts, both copied by
the farmer and scribe Gunnlaugur Jónsson á Skuggabjörgum (1786–1866).
the first of these is JS 255 4to (1841), which belongs to a five-volume col-
lection of poetry (kvæðasafn) copied between 1840–45 by Gunnlaugur.20 In
JS 255 4to, which is paginated, “Sprundahrós” is the second poem; it begins
on p. 10 and ends on p. 15. the third manuscript in which “Sprundahrós”
is found is JS 589 4to (1841), the second in another five-volume kvæðasafn
compiled between 1840–54; the first four volumes are in Gunnlaugur á
Skuggabjörgum’s hand.21 In JS 589 4to, “Sprundahrós” is the 26th poem
and is on pp. 140–45. according to Silvia Hufnagel, both JS 254–58 4to
and JS 588–91 4to “...contain poems and verses from both the most famous
poets of Iceland and some rather unknown local poets that were in several
cases Gunnlaugur’s neighbours or relatives. to name but two examples,
19 Páll Eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins, 3 vols. (reykjavík: Lands-
bókasafn Íslands, 1918–37), 2: 537–38.
20 Páll Eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins, 2: 537–38.
21 Páll Eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins, 2: 602–3.