Gripla - 2022, Page 368

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“Grobíans rímur 4” (i.e. four fitts of Grobbians rímur).8 The attribu-
tion is also provided in Hálfdan Einarsson’s Sciagraphia (1777), where
we read “Johannes Magnæus Laufasinus, præter varia poëmata, inprimis
sacra, Grobiani & Grobianæ monita (ex Frid. Dedekeni opere sub eodem
titulo edito Francof. 1564. forte deducta) cum Apodosi carminibus aliqvot
complexus...” (Jón Magnússon í Laufási, in addition to various poems
of a principally religious nature, composed the advice of Grobianus and
Grobiana (from the work of Friedrich Dedekind, published under that
title in Frankfurt, in 1564, greatly reduced) and with a moral commentary
on some of the verses).9 Hálfdan Einarsson is likely to have made use of
Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík’s work in the preparation of his Sciagraphia,
so we cannot necessarily take this as independent confirmation of Jón’s as-
sociation with Grobbians rímur.10 Nevertheless, Finnur Sigmundsson goes
tentatively along with the attribution saying that “virðist það geta staðizt”
(it seems to hold).11
The tentativeness seems justified, however, since there is no straight-
forward comment on authorship embedded in the poem itself, and Jón
Ólafsson was born twenty years after Jón Magnússon’s death. Moreover,
only two of the many manuscript witnesses of Grobbians rímur include
an attribution to Jón Magnússon, and both are late.12 To complicate mat-
8 See Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík, Safn til íslenskrar bókmenntasögu, sem skiptist í þrjá hluta, ed.
by Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (Latin trans. by Hjalti Snær Ægisson),
RIT 99 (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, 2018), 213. A fifth
and sixth fitt are also mentioned in Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík’s work, and Vigfús Jónsson
á Leirulæk and Brynjólfur Halldórsson á Kirkjubæ are mentioned as their authors.
9 Hálfdan Einarsson, Sciagraphia (Copenhagen: Sander et Schröder, 1777), 84. Only one
other work by Jón Magnússon is mentioned by Hálfdan Einarsson, namely the Rímur
af Auðbirni. Uno von Troil, in his list of Icelandic literature, does not mention Grobbians
rímur. See Bref rörande en resa till Island (Uppsala: Magnus Swederus, 1777), 154. Another
literary history written around 1700 by Páll Vídalín mentions Jón Magnússon í Laufási
but not his authorship of Grobbians rímur. See Páll Vídalín, Recensus poetarum et scriptorum
Islandorum hujus et superioris seculi, ed. by Jón Samsonarson, RIT 29 (Reykjavík: Stofnun
Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 1985), 67.
10 See Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík, Safn til íslenskrar bókmenntasögu, xii.
11 He also non-commitally states that the “fjórar fyrstu [eru] venjulega eignaðar sr. Jóni
Magnússyni í Laufási” (first four [i.e. of the wider group of eight associated fitts are]
generally attributed to pastor Jón Magnússon í Laufási). Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal,
I:177–78.
12 These are Lbs 188 8vo (dated 1850–70) and ÍB 502 8vo. In the latter manuscript Jón’s name
has been added by a later hand next to the title: the person who made the addition seems