Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 102
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remain a number of unnecessary repetitions and epithets which look very
strange in the otherwise rather dry and matter-of-fact saga prose. It is
unfortunate that the part of the MS A which contained the påttr has
been lost, since a comparison of a and A in parts of the saga where the
text is preserved in them both shows that quite a few of the omissions and
corruptions in a are due to the scribe who wrote that particular MS.
In many cases B and b can be of use in determining whether the a text
is changed: a reading common to a, B and b must be derived from their
common source. But the editor of the Bb version has shortened the text
in many places where a has preserved a text which generally follows the
French source fairly closely. Thus, of the verses extant in Fri, the fol-
lowing have been omitted in Bb:
Vv. 183-86, 197-200add., 202-09, 212-16, of the verses in the first
part of the fragment; 246-74, 278-79 of those in the second part; a num-
ber of additional verses in the third; and vv. 392, 396, and 402 in the
fourth.
Consequently it is only in the fourth part of the fragment (a translation
of O vv. 383-416) that we have a text which can be compared with both
the Icelandic versions of the saga. But this is sufficient to show that most
of the differences between the Icelandic MSS and the original text of the
translation already occurred in the common source of these versions. A
few examples will illustrate this:
O 383: Er matin sedeit li emperere suz l’umbre,
384: Vint i ses niés, out vestue sa brunie,
386: En sa main tint une vermeille pume:
387: Tenez, bel sire, dist Rollant a sun unde,
Fri: 383: Karlamagnus konungr sat i ger undir tre æinu
add.: oc fiolment um hann.
384: pa com Rollant
386: oc haf3e ihendi ser abburSar mikit æpli æitt.
387: herra segir hann tak her. (p. 5581"3).
aBb: pat var i gær,” segir liann, “er Karlamagnus konungr sat undir tré einu
(undir olifotré einu, Bb)
ok fjolment um hann haråla mj'ok,
ba kom par farandi Rollant frændi hans
ok hafSi i hendi sér afburSar epli eitt mikit (afburSar mikit epli eitt, Bb),
ok mcelti viS Karlamagnus konung: “Herra keisari,” segir hann, “tak
hér epli petta--(p. 49329'33).