Tvennar rímur af Fertram og Plató frá 17. öld

Rímur Jóns Eggertssonar og brot af glataðri rímu Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða?

Abstract

During the spring of last year, I was approached by a private owner, Eyþór Guðmundsson, who had discovered a manuscript fragment inside a book of psalms printed at Hólar. He wanted to see if I could identify the text on the fragment and the age of the fragment as well. The fragment proved to be from a manuscript dating to the 18th century and contained a rímur text of unknown source, which turned out to be a version of Fertrams rímur og Plató. Discerning which Fertrams rímur og Plató exactly proved to be more complex, as there are more than one such rímur preserved.

One Fertrams rímur og Plató, composed around 1830 by Sigurður Breiðfjörð could be excluded based on the age of the manuscript fragment itself. Leaving the possibility of the fragment being related to another Fertrams rímur og Plató composed in the 17th century. However, two named poets have been said to be the composer of those Fertrams rímur and Plató, while other sources seem to indicate that both poets composed rímur on the same material each. These named poets are Jón Eggertsson and Jón Guðmundsson lærði. A comparison with the preserved Fertrams rímur og Plató in the manuscript Lbs 695 4to, said to be the work of Jón Eggertsson, showed clearly that the manuscript fragment does not contain a portion of those same rímur. This suggested strongly the possibility of the said fragment being the sole surviving bits of Fertrams rímur og Plató composed by Jón Guðmundsson lærði. Stylometric analysis, using the lexomic method, seems to suggest that the newly discovered manuscript fragment is indeed related to another set of rímur composed by Jón lærði, Ármanns rímur.