Gripla - 2022, Page 389

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for bringing up the Disticha here is that they are the pre-eminent model
for early modern advice literature and are divided into four books. Jón
Bjarnason’s translation maintains this four-book structure, and it may be
that both the Latin and Icelandic works have played a role in encouraging
the three-fitt version of Grobbians rímur to be adapted into a generically
appropriate four-fitt structure.
Having come up with a theory of how the three-fitt version was com-
posed on the basis of a Latin/German original and subsequently adapted
into a four-fitt version, we can return to the question of authorship which
was brought up at the start of this article. There is no reason why both ver-
sions should not be the product of a single author, but we should also not
rule out the possibility that the four-fitt version was adapted by someone
other than the author of the three-fitt version. We know that both Jón
Magnússon and Guðmundur Erlendsson have been connected to the core
Grobbians rímur, so we can ask the question, are there any clues in either of
the versions which point towards one of these men as author?
Just such a clue might be identified in the intertextual references found
in the rímur. These include several to biblical characters, completely absent
in the Latin source. Moreover, a number of these names are only found in
the four-fitt version, principally in fitt I where, when the names of the sons
are first listed, several of them are compared to characters from the Bible. In
addition to Lucifer (I:19) and Satan (I:63), we have Absalom (I:21), Nabal
(I:27), Ishmael (I:20), Achan (I:30) and Judas Iscariot (I:31). Since we know
that both Jón Magnússon and Guðmundur Erlendsson composed poems
and rímur on religious subjects, these references should come as no surprise
if either of these men were the author. What might tip the balance in favour
of Guðmundur Erlendsson as author of the four-fitt version, however, is a
comparison of certain of these biblical references with his Rímur af Sál og
Davíð, written during his stay on Grímsey (1631–34).68
One example of such a verse involves Kargur (Stubborn), Grobbian’s
tenth son, who is said to be “Nabal rétt að nísku jafn” (A perfect equal of
Nabal in terms of stinginess; I:27). The story of Nabal’s stinginess appears
68 These rímur have not been edited in their entirety but can be read in the manuscript JS 232
4to online at handrit.is. According to the foliation in the manuscript (which I use here) they
appear on ff. 157r–228v. handrit.is offers a different foliation, such that the rímur run from
ff. 168r–239v. See Parsons, “Gagn, gæði og gömul vísa um Grímsey,” for an edition of the
mansöng of fitt XVIII.
GROTESQUE ADVICE