Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 72
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published, and pointed out differences and some of the misunderstandings
in the Norse text (e.g. pp. xvi, xxxn). He discovered that the MSS re-
presented two dif ferent versions of the saga (pp. m-v), and pointed out
the importance of the Danish Chronicle for the textual history of the saga
(pp. xi-xii, xxxiii).
Kms was first made known to French scholars by Gaston Paris71, who
translated Unger’s summary (of branch IV, Unger had unfortunately
given a summary only of the revised Bb version, and as Gaston Paris was
not sufficiently familiar with the ancient language, he was unable to com-
pare it with Aa, although he was aware that the latter version was more
interesting from the French point of view). He also made a number of
valuable suggestions about parallels to the traditions preserved in branch I.
In 1874 Gustav Storm published a book on the Karlamagnus and the
Dietrich cycles in Scandinavia72, of which the first 70 pages are devoted to
Kms. He pointed out that the Danish Karl Magnus Krønike must be
derived from the saga in its original Norwegian form, and that it has
preserved the last part of the saga. He agreed with Unger about the
sources of most branches, and thought that the Bb version was compiled
in Norway some time between 1290 and 1320. He also pointed out a num-
ber of places where the translator had misunderstood his source (pp. 31-
36). Most important is his theory concerning branch I: according to
Storm, it is a sort of introduction to the Chanson de Roland, a summary
of all the more important events in Charlemagne’s life up to the beginning
of the war against Marsilie (p. 39), originally compiled by a Frenchman,
one of whose sources was the Chanson de Roland itself. As regards the
additional chapters in the Danish chronicle, Storm thought that the “War
in Libya” is a part of the Chanson de Roland (p. 16), “The War against
the Saxons” is a part of branch V (p. 58), and “The Wars against Amarus
and Maskabret” is the last part of branch III, Ogier (p. 51-54). The
mediæval editor of Kms has divided branches III and V because some of
the events described in them must have happened before the battie of
Roncevaux, others after the battie; in the second part of branch V, Guita-
lin, Roland is dead and his brother Baudouin is the leader of the French,
71 La Karlamagnus-Saga, histoire islandaise de Charlemagne, in Bibliothéque de
l’École des Chartes 1864, pp. 89-123, and 1865, pp. 1-42.
72 Sagnkredsene om Karl den Store og Didrik av Bern hos de nordiske Folk, Kri-
stiania 1874.