Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 63
49
cluded in the Bb version of Kms, printed on pp. 524-25 of Unger’s edition.
In this case, it is absolutely certain that the Bb version has borrowed from
Michaels saga, which contains the whole Roncevaux episode according to
the Spec. Hist.: the Kms passage is only a short extract, inserted by the
remanieur to prove that Turpin did not die at Roncevaux. Thus, when
the Bb version says:
Su bok er heitir Speculum Historiale våttar f>at, at virøuligr herra Turpin erki-
byskup Reinsborgar var eigi £ Jieim bardaga sera gerSist £ Runzival, heldr meS
Karlamagnusi konungi, på at sumar norrænubækr segi odruvis af pvisa efni (Kms
p. 52516-19),
this clause is taken over verbatim from Michaels saga (p. 692* 2 * 4'6), and the
writer of the Bb version of the Runzivals påttr has not added anything
taken directly from the Spec. Hist. The last clause of the passage from the
Michaels saga which has been interpolated in Kms Bb,
— hvaSan af ver munura frå venda, pv£ at nu er vitni borit, at englar guds fylgja
voldum raonnum guSs til eilifra fagnaSa (Kms p. 5 2539"41),
clearly shows that the passage originally belongs to a saga of the Archangel
rather than to a History of Charlemagne. The clause is an addition to the
text of the Spec. Hist, and in the Michaels saga, it marks end of the Ron-
cevaux story (ed. p. 69227-29; Michaels saga has Mikael fylgir for englar
guSs fylgja in Kms).
Kms has been the subject of Icelandic rimur, and of ballads in the other
Scandinavian countries. Of about 80 cycles of rimur dating from the
period 1300-1600, more than 50 are based on fornaldarsggur, Icelandic
romantic sagas, and similar tales, and only 6 are derived from translated
romances. Of these, four cycles are based on the Kms: Geiplur, Landrés-
rtmur, Rollantsrimur af Ferakutsbardaga, and Rollantsrimur af Runsi-
valspætti.
Geiplur are based on branch VII, the Norse translation of Pelerinage
Charlemagne. They are among the older rimur, i.e. they were composed
not long after 1400, at the latest38. Landrésrimur are somewhat later, and
33 On all these rimur in general, see Dr. Bjorn K. Porolfsson: Rimur fyrir 1600,
Copenhagen 1934; on the age of the rimur especially, pp. 289-294. On the Geiplur,
ibidem pp. 364-366. Printed in Rimnasafn, ed. Finnur Jonsson, Copenhagen 1905-
22, vol. II, pp. 357-90, and in E. Koschwitz: Sechs Bearbeitungen des altfranzosi-
4 Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, XIX