Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Blaðsíða 45

43
Jerusalem with its pictures of martyrs and saints or angels
(granz maiestez), but these are not mentioned in the Welsh
version. Plants are mentioned in the decoration of the sleep-
ing chamber in the French text but not in the Welsh. The
explanation of the correspondences between the þáttr and
the Welsh version of the story is therefore probably that the
Welsh version preserves in some respects details of the ori-
ginal poem that have been lost or obscured in the French
and Norse texts. It is likely that many of the details of the
description of the church in the Anglo-Norman text have
been transferred from the description of the revolving hall,
and that in this respect the Welsh version preserves the
original arrangement.1 Even so it is clear that the descrip-
tion in the þáttr is not just an imitation of a single descrip-
tion in the original poem, but has used motives taken from
all three buildings described. The author of the þáttr has
also departed from his source in transferring the scene of
the boasting from the sleeping chamber to the main hall,
in making the host take part in the boasting, which is made
the main entertainment at the feast, and in omitting the
spy; and in making the sleeping chamber the one that
revolves.
There are other stories in Icelandic literature that have
descriptions of buildings derived from Le Voyage de Charle-
magne.2 Most of them are derived from the version in Karla-
magnus saga, but some seem to show the influence of RauS-
úlfs þáttr, e.g. Rémundar saga, which has a description of
a hall that turns with the sun, like Rauðúlfr’s, and which
also has a balcony (svalir) round it.3
1 The opposite is assumed by E. Koschwitz, Karls des Grossen Reise,
pp. 60—61; same, Ueberlieferung und Sprache der Chanson du voyage
de Charlemagne á Jérusalem et á Constantinople (Heilbronn 1876), p. 9.
2 See M. Schlauch, Romance in lceland (Princeton 1934), p. 163.
3 Riddarasögur, ed. Bjami Vilhjálmsson (Reykjavík 1949—54), V
170—171; cf. ÓH 667/12; cf. Margaret Schlauch, “The ‘Rémundar Saga
Keisarasonar’ as an analogue of ‘Arthur of Little Britain’,” Scandinavian
Studies and Notes X (1928—29), pp. 189—202.