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balance and repetition.”70 The equal weighting of the two fitts focussed on
Grobbian’s sons and those focussed on Gribba’s daughters certainly pro-
vides the poem with more balance, and the inclusion of the lists of names
of the sons and the daughters at the start of fitts I and III also clearly pro-
vides repetition, in a way which reduces the burden on a listener or reader.
Guðmundur’s lengthy Rímur af Sál og Davíð can also provide further
food for thought, especially if we consider them alongside Jón Magn-
ússon’s Rímur af Salómon konungi hinum ríka. The former covers Old
Testament events from Samuel making his sons, Joel and Abijah, judges
over Israel (as in I Samuel 8) up to King David’s advice to Solomon just be-
fore his death (as in I Kings 2:1–11).71 Jón Magnússon’s Rímur af Salómon
konungi hinum ríka continue the story precisely where it was left off by
Guðmundur, starting by mentioning David’s death and then discussing
the challenge to his rule which the new king Solomon faced from Adonijah
(as in I Kings 2:13).72 In at least one extant manuscript, namely ÍB 509
4to (dated 1770–71), the two sets of rímur appear one after the other in
this order, suggesting that the compiler might have been aware of this
relationship or at least been reliant on an exemplar which was. What this
implies, quite simply, is that Jón Magnússon and Guðmundur Erlendsson
were engaged in complementary acts of literary composition, the writing
of one continuing where that of the other left off. This may have occurred
spontaneously, but knowing what we do about the close ties between the
clergyman-poets of Northern Iceland in the seventeenth century, it seems
perfectly reasonable to guess that such neat dovetailing involved direct
consultation.73 If their work on religious rímur seems to have involved
collaboration, the possibility of them having collaborated in some way on
Grobbians rímur is not so far-fetched.74
70 Cook, “A Critical Edition of Einvaldsóður,” 9.
71 See JS 232 4to, f. 157v (f. 168r) and f. 228v (239r).
72 See JS 45 4to, ff. 133r–134r. It seems that Jón’s Rímur af kónga- og kroníkubókunum might
also be considered another continuation, since the Rímur af Salómon konungi hinum ríka
mention Jeroboam’s rebellion against Solomon towards the end (fitt XIV of XV) while
the Rímur af kónga- og kroníkubókunum start by discussing Jeroboam in Solomon’s old age.
More research remains to be done on these works and how they interact with each other.
73 On the friendship between Jón Magnússon and Guðmundur Erlendsson, see, for example,
Þórunn Sigurðardóttir, Heiður og huggun, 198.
74 It is also worth bearing in mind Katelin Parsons’ recent discussion of the “possibilities
of collaborative authorship even at the stage of its initial composition” with regard to
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