Gripla - 2021, Side 273

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It is clear from the comparison above that the saga-writer of 19HsG had
access to some version of the story in which Hrókur was a dog, and Griplur
are the only known manifestation of the story that contains this informa-
tion. Moreover, in Griplur Hrókur is “bæði snarpr og klókr,” and in the
saga he is “vel viti borinn, sem maþr, oc skjótr sem ör,” so the message that
Hrókur was a great dog is clearly delivered in both adaptations – regard-
less of the fact that 19HsG is substantially more verbose and descriptive
than Griplur. The omitted part in the citation from B11109, indicated by
“[…]”, describes the hunting trips that Ólafur organized and the qualities of
Hrókur as an outstanding hunting dog. It is unknown where this descrip-
tion came from, but it is certain that neither Griplur nor 17HsG could be its
direct source, as they do not mention any hunting trips.
Even though 19HsG presents Hrókur as a dog, there are also discrepan-
cies between Griplur and the saga when it comes to the value of the dog. In
Griplur stanza IV:5, Hrómundur gives a man named Grundi – from whom
he received the dog – a golden ring which weighs one mark – double the
dog’s price (“eyrir vegr og aðra sjau, er það meir en verðin tvau”) – but in
19HsG the golden ring weighs two marks of silver (“hríng af betsta gulli,
oc var talat at hann væri or haugi Þráins, oc vóg vit ij mercr sylfors”). This
may be the result of a misunderstanding of the poetic language of the rím-
ur, as in 17HsG the value of the ring is also corrupted: here the golden
ring weighs only one ounce (“gullhring gódann er vó eýri”). If we assume
that both 17HsG and 19HsG had access to the same version of Griplur, this
case can indicate that the poetic language of the rímur was sometimes dif-
ficult to understand for the seventeenth- and nineteenth-century scribes.
At the same time, we cannot exclude the possibility that the source text of
19HsG, or the tradition on which 19HsG is based, had already introduced
HRÓ MUNDUR IN PROSE AND VERSE
máli vit Bíld félaga sinn, oc
segist vilja drepa hund þann
[…]
Þeir Vole oc Bíldr, höfþo
gát á hundinom Hrók, oc þá
menn voro sofandi, gengo
þeir at hönom oc stúngo til
bana, því hann lá sofandi oc
var þreyttr (114v:3–115r:2)