Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 38
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exist. The language is “Translator’s Prose”, with moderate use of rhetori-
cal embellishments. The style is the same as in some parts of the Karla-
magnus saga (especially branch IV). There is a quotation from the French
source in one of the MSS (ed. pp. 164^65).
20. Bevers saga. The source is the roman d’aventure Boeve d’Haum-
tune, but the particular version from which the saga is derived is lost.
It is preserved in two 15th century MSS and two mediæval fragments,
one of the 14th century, all Icelandic. The language is “Late Prose”, with
extensive use of einn as an indefinite article, and with a numher of loan-
words, but the style is easier and more pleasant than that of Clarus saga.
Some of the loanwords suggest that the source was English, e.g. lavardr
(lord), stwardr (steward), skviari (squire), but such words may have
been more current in late 13th century Norway than the admittedly scanty
sources suggest, so it is hest not to draw any conclusions from this kind
of evidence.
21. Pidreks saga af Bern. This vast collection of tales mainly con-
cerned with Dietrich of Bern and his men is derived from German tradi-
tions. The saga, especially the prologue, which is preserved only in Ice-
landic MSS, refers to oral tales, and most scholars have concluded that
the traditions were written down, in Bergen or in Germany, by a Nor-
wegian or an Icelander, from stories told by Germans. This would be a
very strange thing indeed, in view of the faet that all the other transla-
tions are based on written sources. The collection of German popular
traditions by a foreigner in the 13th century sounds very unlikely59. The
saga has been preserved in a Norwegian MS of the late 13th century and
in Icelandic 17th century copies of two older MSS, now lost. The Swedish
translation (15th century) was made from the Norwegian MS. Pidreks
saga and Karlamagnus saga have been among the hest known of the trans-
lated sagas, if we can judge from the influence they have had on later
Icelandic lygisggur. Pidreks saga has been the subject of more hooks and
articles than all the rest of this literature put together, chiefly because
it gives us German heroic legends in a form different from the versions
known from Middle High German literature. The language is “Trans-
lator’s Prose”, with moderate use of rhetorical embellishments60.
“ Cp. also Jan de Vries: Altnord. Lit. Gesch. II p. 433.
60 On certain peculiarities in the language of the Pidreks saga, probably showing
German influence on the syntax, see Vemund Skard: Dativstudien, Oslo 1951, pp.
15-32.