Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Síða 78

70
If it were necessary to judge the age of the pula printed above,
witbout knowing that it preserves relics of Grettisfærsla, it would
be possible to say no more than that some versions are older than
1850. It has now been shown that elements of the pula have been kept
in the memory of the people for several hundred years. The same is
probably true of Grettisfærsla as preserved in AM 556 a, 4to: some
of it may be very old indeed, even though some is no older than the
fourteenth century. The passage from Gridamdl at least (53 recto,
11. 13-15) has its roots in heathendom, and we can easily imagine
that some lines of Ljuflingsmdl also have their origin in the distant
past. Grettisfærsla has very much the appearance of not having all
been composed at the same time: a part of it is rhymed, another
part is unrhymed; and the connection between the different sec-
tions is obscure (though this may of course be because so much is
illegible). Everything seems, however, to concern Grettir in some
way: but who was this Grettir ?
IY
The poem we are discussing is called Grettisfærsla both in chapter
fifty-two of Grettis saga and in the short introduction to the poem
in AM 556 a, 4to. This name does not wholly suit the account given
in Grettis saga: the name indicates that the poem was written about
the ‘handing-over’ or ‘conveying’ of Grettir, either between people
or between places, and this agrees well with the poem’s: ‘jovi færi
ek Jaér Gretti’ (52 v, 1. 27). But from what the saga says it is clear
that the farmers who captured Grettir did not ‘hånd bim over’
among themselves, but held their discussion over him while he was
lying bound in the place where they had captured him: ‘S9fnu3usk
Jaå bændr saman ok hpfftu Jarjå tigu manna; leyndusk Jaeir i
skoginum, svå at Grettir vissi ekki til ... ’ The saga goes on to
describe how the farmers caught Grettir, and, after telling of their
discussion, it continues: ‘En er Jaeir h9f&u Jaetta talat lengi, jaå kom
Jaat åsamt me5 Jaeim, at Jaeir mundu eigi gera happ sitt at ohappi,
ok foru til ok reistu gålga {oar Jaegar i skoginum ...,’ i.e. Grettir was
captured in the wood, it was in the same place that the farmers
held the conversation on which Grettisfærsla is said to be based,
and there too that they were going to hang him. The passage in