Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Page 77

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Hroarstunga, thought to be from about 1336 (cf. Diplomatarium
Islandicum, II, p. 708), and pottar are frequently mentioned in late
fourteenth-century måldagar. Ad skafa potta was probably not a
familiar operation until late in the fourteentb oentury.
The following offices and social ranks are listed in the poem:
abbadis (52v, 1. 20) hirSstjori (52v, 1. 17)
åboti ( » 1. 18) jarl ( » 1. 20)
baron ( » 1. 19) konungr ( » 1. 19)
bondasynir ( » 1. 16) patrlarki ( » 1. 23)
buandi ( » 1. 16) påfi ( » 1. 22)
byskup ( » 1. 18) prestr ( » 1. 14)
djåkni ( » 1. 23) profastr ( » 1. 17)
greifi ( » 1. 20) riddari ( » 1. 20)
hertogi ( » 1. 19) systir (i.e. nun) (52v, 1. 21)
hirftmaør ( » 1. 17) syslumabr (52v, 11. 14, 26)
This list clearly shows that Grettisfærsla was composed in the
Christian period, but it is not possible to use the list as a basis for
any more precise dating. All the ranks listed have long been known
in Iceland. Hirdstjorar, for example, were known to Icelanders
from before 1200, although the title must have become more pre-
sent to their minds when the name was given to the king’s ehief
representative in Iceland. Something similar applies to sijslumenn,
a title which was used in Norway long before it was introduced in
Iceland with the new laws in 1281 (Jonsbok). Greifar are first
mentioned in poetry in Sighvatr ]>6rSarson’s Bersgglisvisur (stanza
14), but the word baron does not seem to occur in poetry earlier
than here, if the dictionaries are to be trusted; in prose both greifar
and baronar are mentioned in the thirteenth century, e.g. in Snorra
Edda. King Magnus Håkonarson instituted these two titles in
Norway in 1277, and Håkon hdleggr abolished that of baron in 1308.
The titles were never bestowed on anyone in Iceland, but they
doubtless became more familiar there when the use of them spread
in Norway.
We have now considered a few of the details which are the most
important for judging the age of Grettisfærsla. It should be re-
membered that conclusions have been drawn only from the part of
the poem where whole lines can be read (the rhymed section), and
that when we speak of its age we mean the age of the entire poem
as preserved in AM 556 a, 4to.