Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Qupperneq 52

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the episode of La belle Aude, a short description of Charlemagne’s wars
in Libya and Saxony, and an episode from the Ogier cycle. Then follows
branch IX, as in Bb, and then a short description of Charlemagne’s last
days and death, roughly corresponding to chapter 7 in branch X which
is preserved only in Bb. The Danish adaptor has noticed the numerous
contradictions between the different branches, and has tried to avoid them.
Kms has influenced the later lygisggur, but this influence does not con-
cern us here. More important for our purposes is the faet that some of
the later Lives of the Saints contain references to Charlemagne and events
which are supposed to have taken place during his reign. The authors of
these later works sometimes refer to Kms, but they also include material
which is not found in the earlier version of the saga (Aa) or in the Danish
Krønike, and which must therefore be derived from other sources.
Most important among the sagas which have borrowed from Kms is
Tveggja postola saga Jons ok Jacobs. Sagas of St. John and of St. James
exist in MSS from the 13th century22. The saga of St. James was printed
by Unger in Postola sogur in three versions, all fairly short, based on four
old MSS. The oldest MS (AM 645, 4to) dates from about 1200, and the
later versions are based on this translation, with additions from other
sources. Later, the sagas of the two brothers were combined, a list of
miracles was added, and the original narrative was rewritten in the heavy,
ornate language of the late 13th and early 14th century. This Tveggja
postola saga filis 175 pages in Unger’s edition, while even the longest of
the older separate sagas of St. John and of St. James fill only 47 and 8
pages respectively. The saga is said to be a translation from Latin23, but
the translator has treated his source with the utmost freedom, paraphras-
ing rather than translating, and adding pious reflections at will. The
greater part of the saga contains the same tales as the older versions, and
even if he has used a Latin Vita as his principal source, he has certainly
known, and probably used, the older sagas as well. At the end of his saga,
the author has added extracts from the Kms. The list of miracles is
ultimately derived from those in the Codex Calixtinus at Compostela24.
22 Ed. by C. R. Unger in Postola sogur (Chria. 1874), pp. 412-535, cp. introduc-
tion, pp. xxii-xxiii.
23 Vide the prologue to the saga, Postola Sogur p. 536, and ibidem, pp. xxiv-xxv.
24 The contents of this MS are described by A. Hamel: Ueberlieferung u. Bedeu-
tung des Liber Sancti Jacobi u. des Pseudo-Turpins, in Sitzungsberichte der Philos.-
Hist. Klasse der Bayerischen Akad. der Wissenschaften, Jahrg. 1950, no. 2.