Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 58
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Charlemagne’s death. This is not what we find in D, however, which has
a rather different description of Charlemagne’s last days and death:
The emperor has fallen ill in Paris, and when the Pope and other “good
men” come to see him there, he asks them to make his son “Lodarius”
emperor32. Three years later, Charlemagne dies, and his death is an-
nounced to St. Giles in a vision (the same as that attributed to Turpin
in all other sources). His body is embalmed by Turpin and placed under
the altar of a church, with his sword “Josve” at his side and a crown on
his head (D, Brandt’s edition, p. 185-86).
According to the Pseudo-Turpin, the archbishop was at Vienne when
Charlemagne died, and did not come to Aix for the funeral (ed. Meredith-
Jones, p. 2332-7).
There can be no doubt that the description of the vision in D is
ultimately derived from the Pseudo-Turpin, but there is absolutely no
reason why the author of D should be responsible for transferring it to
St. Giles. There was no need for the change, and when alterations are
made in D, it is invariably because the author has tried to get rid of one
of the numerous contradictions of the Norse saga: thus, in branch VIII
of Kms as well as in the Chanson de Roland, Turpin is killed at Ronce-
vaux, but in D he survives the battie, obviously because he appears again
at Charlemagne’s funeral at the end of the story.
The account of Charlemagne’s death in D must be a substantially cor-
rect translation of the original branch X of the saga. And what has been
said about the author of D applies to the original translator of the branch
as well: there was no reason whatever why he should attribute the vision
to St. Giles if in his source the visionary was Turpin: St. Giles is not a
well known saint in the North, and he plays a very minor part in Kms,
while Turpin is one of the most prominent of the friends and councillors
of Charlemagne. Consequently, the vision must have been transferred to
St. Giles by the probably French author of the work from which Kms
branch X is derived. However this may be, it is at least certain that
branch X of the original Kms was not based on the Pseudo-Turpin.
32 “Lodarius” must be a corruption of LoSuer in Kms, cp. Storm: Sagnkredsene
p. 163. M. Paul Aebischer: Les différents états de la Kms (Berlin 1956), p. 314, is
of course wrong in “correcting” Storm on this point. (H)lQ3vir has nothing to do
with (H)lotharius, it is the usual Norse equivalent for Louis, Ludwig.