Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Qupperneq 35

21
from the 15th century, three others from the 17th. Apparently, they are
all independent of each other. The Norse saga is derived from a now lost
French version of the poem, but fragments of an English translation based
on the same version exist50. The language is “Translator’s Prose”, without
rhetorical embellishments. According to Bødtker51, the Danish poem Per-
cenober, written in 1484, is based on the saga. The saga may have been
strongly modified by an Icelandic editor.
11. Pamphilus, a fragment, based on a Latin poem of the 12th century.
The translation is preserved in one Norwegian MS of the 13th century,
but about a third of the text is lost52. The language is “Court Prose”, but
less rhetorical than that of Elis saga, as far as it is possible to judge from
such a comparatively short text. The translation follows the Latin source
fairly closely, as is usual with Latin texts.
12. Amikus saga ok Amilius. The source is the short Latin version of
this famous legend, preserved i.a. in the Speculum His tori ale53 of Vincent
of Beauvais. The beginning is lost in the only Icelandic MS in which it has
been preserved (Holm. 6 4to, the same as for Parcevals saga, 15th cen-
tury). The translation follows the Latin source closely, even to the point
of imitating certain syntactical features. Vincent’s work did not appear
till c. 1260, and although it is possible that the version included in the
Speculum Historiale may have existed separately before that time, the style
of the saga gives the impression of belonging to the end of the 13th
century.
13. Clarus saga. According to the statement in the saga itself, Jon
Halldorsson found the story skrifaSa med låtinu i Franz i pat form er peir
kalla rithmos. No such poem is known to exist now. The translation prob-
ably belongs to Jon’s younger years, before 1300. The style is heavy and
ornate, typical “Late Prose”, without the grace and elegance of the earlier
translations54. The text is based on two Icelandic MSS, one written in the
last quarter of the 14th century, the other dating from the 15th century.
There is also another 15th century MS and some 16th century fragments.
w Thus A. T. Bødtker: Parténopeus de Biois. Étude comparative des versions is-
landaise et danoise, Chria. 1904, pp. 45-47.
51 Ibidem, pp. 44^-5.
“ Cp. L. Holm-Olsen: Den gammelnorske oversettelsen av Pamphilus, Oslo 1940,
p. 9.
53 E. Kolbing in Germania vol. 19 (Wien 1874), p. 184.
M Cp. G. Cederschiold’s ed. of the saga in Saga-Bibliothek 12, pp. xx-xxi.