Gripla - 2022, Page 365

363
PHILIP LAVENDER
GROTESQUE ADVICE
IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ICELAND
The Mysterious Origins of Grobbians rímur1
in the middle of the sixteenth century a twenty-five-year-old
German student by the name of Friedrich Dedekind (1524–98) wrote, in
Wittenberg, a book which advocated foul manners in explicit detail, albeit
with the professed aim of acting as a deterrent to offenders against good
manners. Dedekind’s work elaborated on a figure, Saint Grobian, the pa-
tron saint of vulgar people, who had been one of the travellers on Sebastian
Brant’s Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools; 1494), albeit now presented as a purely
secular figure. Around a century later the titular Grob(b)ian made his de-
but in Iceland. In this article, attention will be paid to this grotesque strand
of seventeenth-century writing, as put on display in Grobbians rímur.2 Like
so much Icelandic literature of its time, almost nothing has been written
about this curious work, and I am aware of only a couple of articles which
make more than passing reference to it.3 Most literary histories mention
1 The research necessary for this article was carried out while receiving funding secured from
Birgit och Gadd Rausings Stiftelse för Humanistisk Forskning. I am sincerely grateful to
them for their support. I am also extremely grateful for all the help provided by Halldóra
Kristinsdóttir at Landsbókasafns Íslands – Háskólabókasafn in securing images of the
various witnesses of Grobbians rímur.
2 Note that there is little agreement on how the name of the work should be spelled. Finnur
Sigmundsson, Rímnatal (Reykjavík: Rímnafélagið, 1966), I:177, gives it as “Grobians rímur,”
but “Grobbiansrímur” and “Grobbíans rímur” also occur. The earliest manuscripts give
the name of the work as “Grobbions Rÿmur” (AM 615 f 4to, f. 37v) and “heilræda Rymur
Grobbians bonda og Gribbu husfreiu hans med merkilegum kienningum” (AM 149 8vo, f.
1r; note that the name is also spelt “grobbjon” (f. 1r), “grobbian” (f. 3v) and “griobbian” (f.
6r) in the body of the text). There is no title provided for the work in AM 436 12mo, but
the name is usually spelled “grobbion” in the body of the text (e.g. ff. 77v, 80v).
3 See Ellert Þór Jóhannsson, “Arfleifð Gróbíans,” Þórðargleði, slegið upp fyrir Þórð Inga Guð-
jónsson fimmtugan 3. desember 2018 (Reykjavík: Menningar- og minningarsjóður Mette
Magnussen, 2018) and Tryggvi Gíslason, “Bókmenntir um Grobbían,” Eimreiðin 1 (1968).
In the latter it is only pp. 32–34 (section V) which actually discuss the rímur.
Gripla XXXIII (2022): 363–398