Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 100

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The last example is typical, if not of the original translation, at least
of the way the later copyists treated the text. Therefore in cases where
the original translator omitted a title, or used a pronoun instead of a noun,
the Icelandic scribes may quite easily have reintroduced an expression
which accidentally made the text more like that of the French source.
The same consideration applies in the case of changes from direct to
indirect speech, and vice versa. For example:
O 192: Dient Franceis: “Il nus i cuvent guarde!”
Fri: Frankis menn svara at at pui væri hyggianda. (p. 556s"7)
aBb: Frankismenn svoruSu: “Far er at at hyggja” (har er at hyggjanda Bb)
(p. 48821-22)
Such changes are continually made by all Icelandic scribes, and it would
be quite wrong to argue, from the aBb reading here, that the Icelandic
MSS are based on a Norwegian MS that was doser to the original trans-
lation than Fri. The Icelandic sagas on the whole prefer direct speech22.
In this connection, we shall have to consider two readings of the MS a
which appear to be based on a better text of the translation than that of
Fri. The first is the translation of vv. 191-95 in the Kms:
O 191: Mais jo ne sai quels en est sis curages.”
192: Dient Franceis: “Il nus i cuvent guarde!”
Laisse XIV.
193: Li empereres out sa raisun fenie.
194: Li quens Rollant, ki ne l’otriet mie,
195: En piez se drecet,
Fri: En eigi væit ec huat hanum er i hug.”
Frankis menn svara at at pui væri hyggianda.
Rollant reis pa upp (p. 5565"7).
aBb: en eigi veit ek hvat honum er i hug”.
Karlamagnus lauk reeSu sinni.
Frankismenn svoruSu: “par er at at hyggja” (at hyggjanda Bb).
på sto3 Rollant upp-----(p. 48820-22).
The words in italics look like a translation of O 193, but there is no
trace of these words in Fri. On the other hånd, in aBb, the words are
placed after v. 191, not after 193, as in O. But this is a minor point; it is
more important that the clause is a common phrase in the sagas, of the
same type as the numerous “he says”, “he answered”, etc. And from the
K Cp. also Meissner: Die Strengleikar, pp. 276-78.