Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Page 57

Grettisfærsla.
By Olafur Halldorsson.
I
In chapter fifty-two of Grettis saga there is mentioned a poem
called Grettisfærsla. The occasion of its composition is described as
follows: Grettir Åsmundarson set out from Reykjaholar, where he
had stayed the winter, and proceeded (north-)westwards over the
mountains into Langadalr, near the head of IsafjarSardjup. There
he piUaged the property of the small farmers, taking from each just
what he wanted. He continued in this way, robbing and plundering,
into Vatnsfjarbardalr. Here the farmers came upon him while he
was asleep, took him and bound him, and were going to hang him.
The saga records their words as they canvassed what to do with
Grettir, and says that ‘on this conversation of theirs jovial persons
have based the piece of lore called Grettisfærsla, and inserted into
it joking words for the amusement of men.’ (Ok eptir Jjessu viStali
Jjeira hafa kåtir menn sett fræbi Joat er Grettisfærsla hét, ok aukit
]aar i kåtligum orSum til gamans monnum.)
This remark about Grettisfærsla is in all the extant manuscripts
of Grettis saga (AM 556a, 4to, mentioned below, has a lacuna here).
It is perhaps conceivable that it is an interpolation (cf. Altnordische
Saga-Bibliothelc, VIII, p. 189), but if such be the case, then all the
manuscripts of the saga which have been preserved derive from
a text interpolated in this way.
In two manuscripts of Fostbrædra saga — Modruvallabok (AM
132, fol.; written not earlier than c. 1320, nor later than 1350, cf.
Heidersskrift til Gustav Indrebø, 1939, pp. 95-6) and Codex Begius
(known only from copies, but thought to have been from the four-
teenth century) — there is related the same happening as is described
in chapter fifty-two of Grettis saga, but Grettisfærsla is not men-
tioned.
Opuscula. — 4