Gripla - 2021, Page 280

GRIPLA278
version of the story (e.g. Gröndal’s lost rímur) influenced the story at some
earlier stage and that this may be reflected in the younger saga.
The Relationship between Rímur af Hrómundi Greipssyni
and the Rest of the Tradition
Even though at the time of the composition of Rímur af Hrómundi
Greipssyni (RHG) the younger Hrómundar saga (19HsG) was already in cir-
culation, there are strong indications that the rímur were based on 17HsG,
not 19HsG. None of the additional episodes that are present in 19HsG
and absent from 17HsG have their counterparts in RHG. This is strong
evidence that 19HsG could not have been used as the basis for RHG. If that
had been the case, at least some of the episodes would probably have made
their way through to the rímur, even if the rímur-poet was determined to
abridge the narrative. There is also no evidence for RHG using Griplur to
any extent, even in instances where Griplur clearly preserve a more logical
version of the story. In light of the lack of evidence for any direct relation-
ship between RHG and Griplur or 19HsG, the last pair of texts that need
to be discussed here is 17HsG and RHG as well as the relationship between
them.
As previously mentioned, RHG have never been edited. By being
preserved in a single manuscript (Lbs 825 8vo), they have also remained
mainly outside the scope of existing scholarship. Davíð Erlingsson (1987,
391) suggested, however, rather intuitively, that “a poet retold the story in
rímur, perhaps using as his source the prose tale printed by Rafn which
had as its basis the early rímur, though I cannot prove this.” The evidence
presented in this section confirms Davíð Erlingsson’s assumption regard-
ing the relationship between 17HsG and RHG. Moreover, this section not
only presents the evidence for the general relationship between these two
adaptations but also determines which particular branch of the saga tradi-
tion was the basis of the rímur.
There are multiple passages that strongly suggest that the rímur-poet
relied exclusively on 17HsG, as for example in the case of the misunder-
standing regarding Hrókur, who is Hrómundur’s dog but who in 17HsG
is a man. RHG reads as follows: