Gripla - 2022, Page 390

GRIPLA388
in fitt VIII of Guðmundur’s Rímur af Sál og Davíð,69 where after being
rudely refused Nabal’s help, David goes to see the “nískan rekk” (stingy
man; f. 177r) with violent intent. Nabal’s wife, Abigail, intervenes and pla-
cates David with gifts, thus avoiding bloodshed. But when Nabal hears of
what she has done, he is struck down by something like a heart attack and
dies. We are thus told that “svo kom Nabals nískan hörð / nú með skyndi
honum í jörð” (Nabal’s unrelenting stinginess took him to an early grave;
f. 178v). Another example of a verse found only in the four-fitt version of
Grobbians rímur relates to Fraktari (Freighter/Cargo Ship), Grobbian’s
fifth son, who is said to be vain and boastful and “við Absalon líkjast vildi”
(wanted to be compared to Absalom; I:21). Once again, Absalom appears
in the Rímur af Sál og Davíð, introduced there in fitt XII as the son of
David (f. 190r), and then playing a principal role from the end of fitt XV
up to the end of fitt XVIII, first by killing his brother Amnon and then
by usurping his father but ultimately dying in an ensuing battle. In the
rímur we are told that “Absa- lífs - á -lóni voru lýtin engi / og svo fegurð
yfir mengi / auðar viður hafði fengið” (there were no flaws on the living
Absalon and that tree of wealth [MAN] had been granted beauty superior
to the multitude; f. 206r). It makes sense that Fraktari, vain and superficial
and advised by Grobbian to get “sama fatasnið / sem frægast er í landi” (the
same style of clothes as the most renowned men in the country), should
want to be considered equal to a paragon of male beauty. No definitive
conclusions can be drawn from these two examples, especially given that
familiarity with Bible stories can be assumed for most learned Icelanders of
the time, including Jón Magnússon, but it is intriguing that these two rath-
er more obscure biblical allusions from Grobbians rímur match up with Old
Testament stories retold by Guðmundur Erlendsson in another context.
If Guðmundur Erlendsson is responsible for turning the three-fitt
version into the four-fitt version, he could also be the author of the three-
fitt version. Alternatively, we could see Jón Magnússon as author of the
three-fitt version and Guðmundur as the adaptor. The motivations for such
an adaptation have already been discussed, but, in that regard, it might be
worth remembering Robert Cook’s comments concerning Guðmundur’s
adaptation of The Monarche, that “séra Guðmundur also has a nice sense of
69 The full story of Nabal appears on ff. 176v–178v (or ff. 187v–189v) of JS 232 4to. I
normalise the text when quoting.