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when exactly or who the scribe was.49 We may now have arrived at slightly
more restricted periods of composition for these witnesses, but determin-
ing which of the three represents the most original form is still uncertain.
A comparison of the texts in these three witnesses shows that there
are a number of differences, but one of the most significant is the fact,
alluded to already, that the text found in AM 436 12mo consists of three
fitts rather than four. This is not a result of the text being defective and
thus truncated at the end. Rather, while fitts I and II are fairly similar to
the corresponding fitts as found in AM 615 f 4to and AM 149 8vo, there is
in AM 436 12mo only one additional fitt, which I shall refer to as fitt IIIa,
and which consists of eighty verses (fitt III in AM 615 f 4to consists of
sixty-six verses and in AM 149 8vo of fifty-seven). Fitt IIIa is fairly close
to fitt III in the other witnesses, albeit somewhat abbreviated, up until
verse 28 (corresponding to verse 43 in AM 615 f 4to), after which it di-
verges significantly with a little over fifty verses not included in most other
witnesses (Figure 2). I use the word “most” because there are in fact two
later witnesses which also contain this three-fitt version, namely Lbs 1028
8vo (c. 1770) and Rask 86 (1700–99). While the four-fitt version spreads
the discussion of Gribba’s eight daughters over fitts III and IV, the three-
fitt version discusses all eight daughters in fitt IIIa. Another more minor
difference is that the three-fitt version is abbreviated at the start of fitts I
and IIIa as compared to the four-fitt version. More specifically, of the first
forty-three verses of fitt I as it appears in AM 615 f 4to (the specific advice
to the sons begins with verse 44), the three-fitt version in AM 436 12mo
has only nine corresponding verses, and thus the list where the sons are
introduced for the first time is missing in its entirety.50 Likewise in fitt
IIIa, verses 3–10 and 15–22 (as reckoned by the text of fitt III in AM 615 f
4to) are missing, the latter eight verses being those in which the names of
the eight daughters are first listed.
49 For some context regarding this manuscript and its contents, see Margrét Eggertsdóttir,
“Handritið hennar Dóru systur,” 38 vöplur bakaðar og bornar fram Guðrúnu Ingólfsdóttur
fimmtugri 1. maí 2009 (Reykjavík: Menningar- og minningarsjóður Mette Magnussen,
2009) 63–66.
50 AM 149 8vo has forty-one verses prior to the commencement of the specific advice to the
sons in fitt I. Thus it has a text much closer to that found in AM 615 f 4to.
GROTESQUE ADVICE