Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Page 63

55
Gu&brandur Vigfusson concluded from what he read that Grettis-
færsla was the same sort of poem as Kotludraumur, Vglsapdttr,
Snjaskvædi, Hyndluljoå nyju, Kringilnefjukvcedi and others of this
kind. But it is now clear that Grettisfærsla cannot be grouped with
these poems. Grettisfærsla appears to be without stanza divisions,
and is to that extent most closely related to the Icelandic pula
(cf. the definition of this word in the Lexicon Poéticum of 1860:
‘carmen longum et inconditum, nullis versibus intercalaribus
distinctum’). Common to the whole poem are short lines with two
stresses in each, but apart from this the metre is not always the
same. On 52 verso the lines are mainly rhymed, sometimes with
alliteration: ‘låsu at luka / ok at lita duka’, sometimes without:
‘hann kann at slå / ok at raka ljå’. The rhymes are mainly feminine,
as in the first of these examples. The root syllable of the rhyming
word is sometimes short: ‘bæta bukhlaup guma / ok å bækur
skruma’, ‘hvers manns konu / ok alla bonda sonu’. The rhyme
links usually two lines, but sometimes more: a clear example of
this is 52 verso, lines 10-11, where six lines have the same rhyme.
In between are unrhymed lines: ‘margt kann Grettir vel at vinna’,
‘myklu kann Grettir fleira’. In the latter part of the poem, on page
53 redo, rhyme appears to be entirely absent, but there seems
generally to be alliteration according to the usual rules: ‘sem frost
å brebum / ebur fjuk yfir heibum, / sem orn å bjorgum / ebur ålft
at duni’.
To return to Grettis saga. When the farmers have taken Grettir
and bound him, they are in difficulty as to what should be done
with him until the chief man of the district comes home from the
Althing. They ask one farmer after another to take him and look
after him, but each makes an excuse.
In the section of the poem where reading becomes possible, on
page 52 verso, the meaning of the first two lines is not clear. In the
third line types of work which Grettir can do are being listed:
‘hann kann er ja / ok korn.... at [berja]’, and the poem goes on de-
scribing his achievements as a workman as far as line 14. If it was
written to fit the situation described in the saga, this enumeration
must be aimed at making the farmers eager to take Grettir: he is
a man who can do every conceivable kind of work. With the words:
‘ok moga kellingu sjuka’ in line 11 we have the first reference to