Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Page 69

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plicated by the faet that some of the unpublished MSS of the Aspremont
seem to have a text that is closer to the source of the saga than the version
published by Brandin61. In this branch there is a lacuna in both the MSS
of the Aa version, corresponding to about 3'/2 pages of text in Unger’s
edition. And then, to add to the confusion, some leaves in the MS from
vvhich the Kms was translated have evidently been misplaced; thus in the
Kms, Brandin’s laisse 242 is suddenly added in the middle of laisse 235,
while laisses 238-241 are inserted before laisse 230: the result is that the
description of the eschieles of Charlemagne’s army, laisses 237—42, has been
cut in two without the slightest reason. On the whole, the branch is very
confused and ineoherent. This is what the editor of the Bb version has
felt, and he has revised the tale, without knowing any of the French
sources, but adding a number of details from his own repertoire of stock
phrases and motifs. He was certainly an Icelander, and he occasionally
uses words and expressions that belong to the poetic language of the
skalds, such as hildarvgndr. As a result of this revision, Bb is of little use
in filling in the lacuna in a and A. D has, as usual, shortened the branch
considerably, and has tried to bring some order into the confused account
of the original saga62.
Branch V, the story of the war against the Saxons, is based on a lost
poem which has also been the source of Jean Bodels Chanson des Saxons.
The main difference between Jean Bodel’s work and the Kms is that in
the saga, Roland is the leader of the French, while in the Chanson des
Saxons, it is his hrother Baudouin63. A few lines of the French poem are
quoted in the saga (MS A only64). There is no important difference be-
tween the versions in this branch65.
Branch VI, Otuel, is based on the Chanson cf O tinel66. The translation
follows the French text fairly closely, but towards the end of the branch
61 See the Appendice to Brandin’s ed. vol. II pp. 181-88, and cp. R. vanWaard,
Etudes etc. pp. 203-210.
62 R. vanWaard, op. cit. pp. 211.
63 Unger’s ed. p. xxvm, and cp. H. Meyer: Die Chanson des Saxons Johann Bodels
in ihrem Verhaltnisse zum Rolandsliede u. zur Karlamagnussaga, Marburg 1882.
64 For the text of the MS, vide Unger p. XXIX, cp. Gaston Paris in Bibliothéque de
l’École des Charles 1865, p. 19.
65 The best edition of La Chanson des Saxons is: F. Menzel und E. Stengel: Jean
Bodels Saxenlied I—II, 1906-09. Cp. O. Rohnstrora: Étude sur Jean Bodel (Uppsala
1900).
66 Ed. by F. Guessard and H. Michelant, Paris 1859.