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var á 17. öld” (the model will be found in a piece of German writing which
was printed in the seventeenth century).53 While indeed produced in
Germany, and thus reasonably called “a piece of German writing,” the first
version of this work was written in Latin. Regardless, it is not certain why
Finnur mentions the seventeenth century, for while editions were certainly
printed in the seventeenth century, Friedrich Dedekind’s work was first
published in 1549.54 After the original Latin text of 1549 (Grobianus, de
morum simplicitate), a German adaptation by Kasper Scheidt, almost twice
as long, was published in 1551 (Grobianus, von groben sitten und unhöflichen
geberden). Scheidt’s reworking influenced Dedekind to produce a second
Latin version (1552), incorporating the revisions, adding new material and
making the two books into three. A third Latin edition was also produced
by Dedekind in 1554, this time with descriptive chapter titles and a new
overall title, Grobianus et Grobiana, reflecting the inclusion of the chapter
on Grobianus’ female counterpart, which had already been present in
the second edition of 1552. Many subsequent reprints and translations
appeared,55 among which can be mentioned a fairly close English transla-
tion of the three-book version from 1605, apparently carried out by R. F.
Gent (possibly a pseudonym).56 None of these various forms show any
close verbal relationship to the Icelandic text, however, which cannot be
considered even a loose translation. Nevertheless, in what follows, I take
Dedekind’s third Latin version from 1554 as a basis for the discussion,
since the presence of Grobbian and Gribba in the Icelandic suggests that
the inspiration would have been the three-book version (from 1552, 1554
53 Rímnatal, I:178. Tryggvi Gíslason, “Bókmenntir um Grobbían,” 32–33, discusses Dede-
kind’s Grobianus and Grobbians rímur and compares passages but never explicitly states how
the relationship between the two should be understood.
54 This detail, correct but slightly misleading, is also repeated in Óskar Halldórsson, Bók-
menntir á lærdómsöld, 21, and in a footnote in Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík, Safn til íslenskrar
bókmenntasögu, 213, where we read the even more misleading statement that “fyrirmyndin
er sótt í þýskt rit frá 17. öld” (the model is a German work of the seventeenth century).
55 For a full list of editions of the original and expanded Latin text and the German
translations, see Gustav Milchsack, Friedrich Dedekinds Grobianus verdeutscht von Kaspar
Scheidt. Abdruck der ersten Ausgabe (1551) (Halle an der Saale: Max Niemeyer, 1882), xiv–
xxxvi.
56 R. F. Gent, The Schoole of Slovenrie (London: Valentine Simms, 1605). Reproduced by Ernst
Rühl, Grobianus in England: Nebst Neudruck der ersten Übersetzung “The Schoole of Slovenrie”
(1605) und erster Herausgabe des Schwankes “Grobiana’s Nuptials” (c. 1604) aus Ms. 30. Bodl.
Oxf. Palaestra XXXVIII (Berlin: Mayer und Müller, 1904).