Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 94
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lator’s ignorance of particular words and terms. M. Aebischer has not in
faet tried to find out what the translator meant to do, and he has not
considered the question whether it would indeed be possible to translate
the Chanson de Roland into Norse prose without making considerable
changes.
M. Aebischer’s text is based on Unger’s, with a selection of variants.
But although M. Aebischer is aware of the importance of the Swedish and
Danish versions, and especially of the Norwegian fragment, and in spite
of the faet that he knows the text of the Chanson de Roland better than
Unger did, he has not revised Unger’s text, even in places where Unger
had made unnecessary corrections15.
Thus there are still some important questions in connection with branch
VIII of the Kms that have not been answered. The Runzivals l>åttr is
based on a lost version of the Old French Chanson de Roland. But if we
want to find out what this version was like, we cannot take the text of
the saga as it appears in Unger’s edition, translate it into French, and say
that this is what is left of that particular version of the poem. With the
exception of Fri, our oldest MSS are later than the original translation
by about one hundred years, and their text will have to be examined in
the light of what we know about other Icelandic copies of earlier transla-
tions. When we have found out what additions, omissions and changes the
later copyists are likely to have made, we shall have to consider the text
of the original translation, the translator’s methods and aims, his know-
ledge of the foreign language, and the additions, omissions and changes he
himself is likely to have made. Only then shall we have a chance of find-
ing out what his French source was really like. M. Aebischer has done
mueh preliminary work towards solving some of the problems, but a good
deal still remains to be done.
II
The French versions
The versions of the Chanson de Roland with which we shall have to
compare the Kms text are the following:
1. The Oxford MS, O, in the Bodleian Library, written by an Anglo-
15 Cp. the text of laisse Cl, ibidern, p. 170, and below, p. 99, note.