Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 66
52
lost in our MSS32. The ballads are of great interest for the literary history
of the romantic sagas in Scandinavia, but they are of no use for the
textual history of the Krns.
II
Contents of the saga
Before discussing the date and authorship of the Kms, and the theories
of various scholars about the origin of some parts of the saga, it will he
convenient to give a survey of the saga as it is now known to us in two
Icelandic versions and one Danish one.
Branch I has no separate title in the one MS (B) which has preserved
the first chapter53. It is the history of Charlemagne’s youth, his dealings
with the thief Basin and the traitors Heldn and Renfrei, his coronation,
his vvar against Girard de Viane, and a summary of the events up to the
beginning of the fighting in Spain. Most of the details are known from
other French sources, but no French or Latin work has been preserved
that could have been the immediate source of this branch.
Branch II is the story of Olif and Landres. A short preface States that
Herra Bjarni Erlingsson of Bjarkey found this tale when he was in Scot-
land during the winter after the death of King Alexander (1286; he was
there in connection with the succession to the throne of “the Maid of Nor-
way”). It was written in English, and he brought it back with him. The
English source is lost, but the theme is very similar to that treated in the
roman d’aventure Doon de la Roche5i. It is unfortunate that Unger has
chosen to follow the MS b in giving this branch the second place. It does
not belong to the original saga, and, as has been pointed out above, B has
it in its correct place, as a supplement, which may have been added by the
editor of the Bb version, or by some scribe. In the MS copied in b, a scribe
who was animated by the typically Icelandic desire for order and method
in a saga has moved it to what he considered its correct place.
Branch III is a translation of the first part of the chanson de geste La
52 Examples in Bjorn K. I>6r61fsson: Rimur fyrir 1600, pp. 365, 391 (and note), 489.
53 B also omits the title before branches III, V, and VI. Only b has both titles and
numbering of the branches everywhere.
51 Doon de la Roche, publ. par Paul Meyer et Gédéon Huet, Paris 1921.