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young age.26 We also have hymns and edifying poems, for example the
Píslarsaltari, the Vikusálmar and the Hústafla. This latter, also known
as Oeconomia christiana, is a work of conduct literature in which, in the
words of Margrét Eggertsdóttir, “eru heilræðin flokkuð og þeim beint til
hinna ýmsu hópa í samfélaginu” (pieces of advice are gathered together
and directed at the various social groups).27 Subdivisions of the work
include “Faðerni” (Fatherhood) which discusses “skylda foreldranna við
börnin” (the duty of parents to their children) and “Hjónaspegill” (Mirror
of Married Couples).28 In short, Jón Magnússon was a productive and
wide-ranging author of poetry.
It seems reasonable to accept that Jón Magnússon was involved with
producing the core Grobbians rímur, but we cannot exclude Guðmundur
Erlendsson’s involvement in some way. He, like Jón Magnússon, was
a “clergyman-poet” from northern Iceland,29 born and raised at Fell
in Sléttuhlíð where his father Erlendur Guðmundsson was the pastor.
Guðmundur was educated at Hólar, after which he became deacon at
Þingeyrar for three years. Following this, he was pastor at various parishes
for around fifteen years before returning to Fell in Sléttuhlíð in 1634 and
remaining there for the rest of his life as the pastor of the parish which had
previously been served by his father. It was during his first assignment as
pastor (Möðruvellir) that, around 1620, he married Guðrún Gunnarsdóttir.
26 Þórunn Sigurðardóttir, Heiður og huggun, 285, chapter 7 (197–212) and chapter 10 (285–307).
See also p. 79 for a discussion of the common English terms used for referring to such
poetry and how they relate to the Icelandic taxonomy.
27 Margrét Eggertsdóttir, Barokkmeistarinn: List og lærdómur í verkum Hallgríms Péturssonar,
RIT 63 (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 2005), 65. Three editions came out in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, showing the popularity of the work. See also Þórunn
Sigurðardóttir, “‘Dyggðafull kona er ein eðla gáfaʼ: Menningarleg mótun kyngervis á 17.
öld,” Áhrif Lúthers: Siðaskipti, samfélag og menning í 500 ár, ed. by Hjalti Hugason, Loftur
Guttormsson and Margrét Eggertsdóttir (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 2017),
341–46.
28 Jón Magnússon, Oeconomia christiana edur Huss-Tabla sem sierhverium i sinu Stande þann
rietta Christendomsens Veg fyrer Sioner leider (Copenhagen: s.n., 1734), 13, 62.
29 Katelin Marit Parsons, “Songs for the End of the World: The Poetry of Guðmundur
Erlendsson of Fell in Sléttuhlíð” (PhD Thesis, University of Iceland, 2020): 54. This is
skáldprestur in Icelandic: see Þórunn Sigurðardóttir, “Hallgrímur með ‘síra Guðmund
Erlendsson í Felli í bak og fyrirʼ: Tveir skáldbræður á 17. öld,” Í ljóssins barna selskap:
Fyrirlestrar frá ráðstefnu um séra Hallgrím Pétursson og samtíð hans sem haldin var í
Hallgrímskirkju 28. október 2006 (Reykjavík: Listvinafélag Hallgrímskirkju – Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, 2007), 56.
GROTESQUE ADVICE