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367
ters, there are at least two potentially contradictory attributions. The first
is based on a comment which has been inserted between the title of the
poem and the first line in one of the earliest manuscripts (roughly dated
to the seventeenth century), namely AM 615 f 4to.13 The comment reads
simply “S[era] Gudmundar Erlendzsonar” (i.e. the genitive form of Pastor
Guðmundur Erlendsson, suggesting his authorship of the work named im-
mediately before; see Figure 1). The ink is a slightly different colour to the
surrounding text, the hand is different, and the words are squeezed into a
space seemingly not intended for them, so it is safe to say that they were
not included by the original scribe of the manuscript. It is, however, un-
certain when exactly these three words were inserted, although they could
well be seventeenth century, based on the style of the hand. Guðmundur
Erlendsson (c. 1595–1670) was the pastor at Fell, Sléttuhlíð (inland on the
north-eastern side of Skagafjörður), from 1634 until his death and was
known for being a prolific poet. The attribution of Grobbians rímur to him
is found nowhere else in near-contemporary sources,14 though this single
appearance in the manuscript has led to Grobbians rímur being associated
with Guðmundur Erlendsson in a number of more recent ones. For exam-
ple, Kristian Kålund’s catalogue of the Arnamagnæan collection mentions
the attribution, neither confirming nor refuting it, and the Ritmálssafn
Orðabókar Háskólans thus lists numerous citations from Grobbians rímur
along with Guðmundur Erlendsson’s name.15
to be Jón Jónsson Borgfirðingur (1826–1912) who was the owner of the manuscript in the
nineteenth century.
13 This appears on f. 37v (according to the handrit.is foliation) or f. 40v (if one follows the
foliation found in the manuscript). For the dating of the manuscript, see Kristian Kålund,
Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske haandskriftsamling, 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske
Boghandel, 1889–94), II:25.
14 See Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík, Safn til íslenskrar bókmenntasögu, 205–6; Hálfdan
Einarsson, Sciagraphia, 80–81; Páll Vídalín, Recensus poetarum et scriptorum, 38–40.
15 Kålund, Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske haandskriftsamling, II:25; Ritmálssafn Orðabókar
Háskólans, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, ritmalssafn.arnastofnun.is.
Páll Eggert Ólason also repeats this attribution in Íslenzkar æviskrár frá landnámstímum
til ársloka 1940, 6 vols. (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1948–76), II:141–42:
“Aðrar rímur eftir hann eru og guðrækilegs eða siðferðilegs efnis [...] nema það, sem hann
kann að eiga í Grobbíansrímum” (Other rímur by him are either pious or moral in content
[...] except for the fact that he might have contributed to Grobbians rímur).
GROTESQUE ADVICE