Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1968, Page 148

CXLVI
Krossrímur
In the 17th century a set of rímur was composed
on the subject of Leg. These rímur are generally
referred to as “Krossrímur” but they are also known
by such names as “(Annáls-)Rímur af krosstré
Krists”, “Adams rímur”, “Rímur af því heilaga
krosstré” and several others. The title “Krossrímur”,
abhreviated KrR, is the one used in this edition.
The titles found in most of the surviving texts of
KrR contain the information that the author of
the rímur is Sigurður Jónsson, minister at Presthólar
(c. 1590-1661). It is true that in the 19th century KrR
were occasionelly ascribed to Guðmundur Erlendsson
á Felli (so Hallgrímur Jónsson and Einar Bjarnason
in their unprinted lists of Icelandic authors, and
Sveinbjörn Egilsson in Lexieon Poeticum, Copenha-
gen 1860, p. xliii); this is, however, patently incor-
rect, for the author refers to himself in stanza II 66 as
Sigurður prestur. One text, JS 329.8vo (C3), says
that KrR were composed in the year 1635, which
in itself is a reasonable enough date, hut the source
of this information is not known. The texts most
closely related to C3, C1 and C2, do not mention the
date, and it can thus hardly have been found in
their common original.
KrR consist of five rímur with 83, 66, 57, 77 and 50
stanzas respectively, 333 stanzas in all. KrR are
rather shorter than the majority of rímur from the
17th century.
KrR must be considered in the light of the fact
that a new type of rímur had begun to appear at
the instigation of Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson.
In the preface to his Vísnabólc (1612), he made a
forcible appeal to the rímwr-poets to abandon profane