Gripla - 2022, Page 382
GRIPLA380
This begs the question, is the three-fitt or four-fitt version more origi-
nal? The fact that large portions of the text are virtually identical lets us
know that they are not two completely independent compositions, but
rather that one must have been derived from the other. But it is not im-
mediately obvious which has precedence. Based on the different endings
alone, one might speculate that a scribe came across a text which was de-
fective at the end and thus made an effort to complete it. This could have
worked in either direction, i.e. a defective four-fitt version was found and
was completed by a scribe in such a way that it became the three-fitt ver-
sion, or a defective three-fitt version was found and was completed in such
a way that it became the four-fitt-version. But it is not just the endings that
diverge. As mentioned, the three-fitt version lacks the lists of sons and
daughters found at the start of fitts I and III in the four-fitt version. The
missing verses so perfectly excise the lists that it is hard to see this as any-
thing other than conscious, albeit again in either direction. That is to say
that a scribe may have consciously omitted the lists of names (seeing them,
perhaps, as superfluous) or a scribe may have consciously added the lists
of names (deeming them a helpful addition to orient the reader/listener).
If the adding or removing of these lists was a conscious modification, then
the extending or shortening of the ending might also be seen as conscious
work rather than a necessity brought about by damage.51 Although two
versions could be the result of a single scribe producing multiple versions
of a work, this discussion also allows for the possibility that two scribes
played conscious roles in two quite different versions of the core Grobbians
51 It might be pointed out that if a scribe had come across a witness containing the three-fitt
version which was defective at the end (i.e. with the text after III:43 missing), then it would
have been very difficult to produce the four-fitt version in the way that we have it, since
there was no list of daughters at the start of fitt III upon which the scribe could base the
advice given after III:43. The names of daughters in both the three-fitt and four-fitt version
are the same, even in the diverging endings.
a group of approximately five verses. A gap means that fewer than three of the five verses
are present. In fitt III, the “o”s are used to show where fitt IIIa diverges significantly from
the version found in the other two witnesses. Prior to this point, there are strings of verses
which are not found in any other witness, but the longest string is of four verses (e.g. I:4–7
and III:7–10 in AM 615 f 4to). Note that AM 615 f 4to also contains a fifth fitt, but
this is not included in the diagram, since it is not considered one of the core Grobbians
rímur.