Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 75
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the translator of the other branches; the pdttr is a survey of Charlemagne’s
life, and was really the original Kms. This saga was a success, and
because of the great interest in such matters created by it several chansons
de geste were translated and added to the Vie romancée to form the Aa
version of Kms, which is therefore the second stage in the development of
the saga. Later another person, this time an Icelander, added branches II
and IX-X. M. Aebischer does not agree with Storm in regarding branch
I as an introduction to the Chanson de Roland: the Vie romancée probably
contained a description of the battie of Roncevaux, but the branch is not
preserved in its original form in the existing Kms. Episodes such as the
“Wars against Amarus and Maskabret” in D were originally parts of the
first branch.
In a paper published in 1956, M. Aebischer has developed this theory80.
With Storm and Steitz, he regards the episodes of La belle Aude and the
“War in Libya” as parts of the Chanson de Roland, while the “War in
Saxony” was originally a part of branch I. As for the Ogier episode of
“The Wars against Amarus and Maskabret”, he has now come to the con-
clusion that it is an independent branch and not a part of branch I. Branch
IX he regards as an independent tale, while branch X in the form pre-
served in D is a mixture, combining details which originally belonged to
branch I with some episodes that were added by a later remanieur.
Rolandiana Borealia81 is a translation of branch VIII, the Norse
version of the Chanson de Roland, with a discussion of the relationship
between the saga and the other versions of the chanson de geste. Finally
M. Aebischer has written a book about the treatment of the story of
Charlemagne’s expedition to Jerusalem and Constantinople in Kms82. In
both the latter books the author insists on the translator’s limited know-
ledge of French, and explains many omissions and alterations in the Norse
versions by pointing out certain words and phrases in the French text
80 Les différents etats de la Karlamagnus saga (in Fragen und Forschungen, Fest-
gabe fur Theodor Frings zum 70. Geburtstag. Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaf-
ten zu Berlin, Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fur deutsche Sprache und Literatur
8), Berlin 1956.
81 Publications de la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Lausanne XI, Lausanne
1954.
82 Les versions norroises du Voyage de Charlemagne en Orient (Bibliothéque de
la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liége fase. CXL), Paris
1956.