Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 230
in medieval Icelandic literature.24 Rimur are narrative poems based pri-
marily on prose sagas, particularly the riddarasogur, both translated and
indigenous. Approximately 60 rimur cycles are extant from the Middle
Ages, most of them anonymous. Rimur are usually divided into groups of
stanzas, each division called a rima - from which the genre gets its name.
Each rima consists of four-line stanzas bound by end-rhyme and allitera-
tion. Of the Arthurian romances only Mottuls saga exists in a rimur-
version, entitled Skikkju rimur, that is, Mantie Verses, probably com-
posed in the fourteenth century. The oldest manuscript of the Skikkju
rimur, a vellum (no. 42 4to in the library at Wolfenbiittel) known as
Kollsbok, dates from around 1500.25 Rimur usually do not deviate from
their saga sources, so that in some cases a rimur version of a tale can be
used to reconstruct an original prose text if its manuscripts are defective.
That is not the case with the Skikkju rimur, however. To be sure, the
rimur preserve the essentials of Mottuls saga, but there are some addi-
tions and modifications of the tale as we know it from extant manucripts.
The author of the Skikkju rimur drew not only on Mottuls saga, but Er ex
saga and Samsons saga fagra as well. The composition of the Mantie
Verses is thus analogous to that of many an Icelandic romance, Erex
saga, for example, the author of which did not hesitate to interpolate
extraneous material.
Skikkju rimur, the Mantie Verses, consist of three major divisions each
of which, as is common practice in the rimur, commences with several
stanzas of a subjective nature, known as mansongr; in them the author of
Skikkju rimur deplores the infidelity of women. The first rima of the
poem is devoted to King Arthur and his knights, as well as to some of the
guests whom the king has invited to his feast. The splendor of Arthur’s
court is depicted. The section concludes with Arthur’s reassuring his
knights that there is no need to hurry with the meal, since the whole day
is still before them - Ekki hastar enn um padl allur er dagur til stefnu (I,
55)26 - and at this moment a knight on a large horse is seen approaching
from the woods. Section I of the Skikkju rimur is of particular interest to
24 For general background, see Olafur Halldorsson, “Rimur,” KLNM, XIV, cols. 319-23;
Eugen Kolbing, “Beitrage zur kenntnis und kritischen verwerthung der alteren islåndischen
rimurpoesie,” Beitrage zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa
des Mittelatters unter besonderer Beriicksichtigung der englischen und nordischen Litteratur
(Breslau: Wilhelm Koebner, 1876), especially pp. 137-43.
25 See Bjorn K. Porolfsson, Rimur fyrir 1600, Safn Frædafjelagsins um Island og Islend-
inga, vol. IX (Copenhagen: Hid islenska Frædafjelag, 1934), pp. 3-4; 393-95.
26 For the text of Skikkju rimur, see Gustaf Cederschiold and F.-A. Wultf, Versions
216