Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 92
78
The Runzivals pattr was translated into German by Eduard Koschwitz,
in 1878* * * 5. The translation made it possible for scholars who did not know
Old Norse to compare the saga with the existing French versions, and in
the years between 1878 and 1908, Kms provided material for the discus-
sion concerning the original form and later development of the Chanson
de Roland. E. Donges6 argued that the absence of the Baligant episode
in the Kms was a proof that this episode was a later addition to the poem.
A. Pakscher7 has gone a step farther, and from a number of cases where
there is a difference between the Kms and the French MSS, he is inclined
to regard the poem which has been translated in the saga as an older
version of the Chanson de Roland. L. Fassbender8 has studied the text of
the saga more closely, and his attitude is more critical: he points out mis-
takes in the translation, the tendency to shorten the descriptions9, and
places where the Kms and the later French versions have obviously inferior
variants. There can be no doubt that Fassbender is, in general, quite right
in his criticism of his predecessors; he has at least studied the Kms text,
while they had only noticed the omissions. The trouble with these dis-
sertations, and a host of others as well, is that they base their conclusions
on argumenta ex silentio. Opponents could always find other arguments
to support their views, the protracted discussion really led nowhere, and
only served to discredit the traditional methods of textual criticism10. The
last of the dissertations which seriously attacked the problem of Kms, Karl
Steitz’s paper of 1908 (discussed above, p. 60), is mainly concerned with
the relationship between the saga and the Danish and Swedish versions;
he takes it for granted that the Oxford MS is the oldest version of the
Chanson de Roland, and thinks that the Runzivals J>åttr is derived from
a text that was practically identical with that of O, but more complete.
In the meantime Stengel had published his critical edition of the poem11,
and here the variants of Kms (Koschwitz’s text) are stated in the notes,
* Der altnordische Roland, in Romanische Studien, herausgeg. v. Eduard Boeh-
mer, vol. III (1878) pp. 295-350.
6 Die Baligantepisode im Rolandsliede, Diss. Marburg, 1879.
7 Zur Kritik und Geschichte des franzosischen Rolandsliedes, Berlin 1885.
8 Die franzosischen Rolandhandschriften in ihrem Verhaltnis zu einander und zur
Karlamagnussaga. Diss. Bonn (Koln 1887).
8 Ibidem, pp. 10-18.
10 Vide Bédier: Les légendes épiques, 3rd ed. vol. III pp. 392 et seq.
11 Das altfranzosische Rolandslied. Kritische Ausgabe, vol. I (Leipzig 1900).