Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 103
89
In these cases there is practically no difference between a and Bb; the
additions must therefore go back to the first Icelandic version, and since
A and Fr2, which have the same text as a in the parts of the saga where
a comparison is possible, date from the 14th century, and the Bb version
also belongs to that century (above, p. 75), the MS from which both
versions are descended must have been written in the years around 1300.
Thus the revision of the text must have been carried out only some 50
years after the Kms was originally translated. The modifications, as may
be seen from the examples, are unimportant as far as the story is con-
cerned, but the style of the Kms is radically changed. All the additions
are obvious and occasionally rather silly, but on the other hånd, the style
of the original saga might with some justice have been considered some-
what abrupt and uncouth by the Icelanders. We may deplore the loss of
the original version of the Kms, but that is only because we are mainly
interested in it as a translation of French chansons de geste, while the
Icelanders of the 14th century wanted a well-told saga of Charlemagne.
The editor of the Aa version slightly modified the text to obtain a read-
able saga, but the author of the Bb version went further, although, in the
case of the Runzivals pattr, he did not rewrite the whole story.
Comparison of A and a shows that a was written by a scribe who
generally did not change the text. But there are quite a few scribal errors
and mistakes in a, e.g. the haplography of the translation of the verses
2305-16, which came about because vv. 2304 and 2316:
E! Durendal, bone, si mare fustes!
and
E! Durendal, cum es bele, e clere, e blanche!
are identical in the translation:
Gott sverS ertu Dyrumdali (p. 52326 and 31),
and the scribe copied v. 2304 and then, looking at the MS again, started
from v. 2316. There are also verses where the reading of Bb is definitely
superior to that of a. The following is a list of the verses where the Bb
version (often supported by the Swedish translation) is to be preferred:
Vv. 30add., 92, 161, 226, 242, 431, 451, 491, 515add., 525, 658-59add.,
699, 815, 863 (=5), 871-72 (= S), 892 (= S), 895, 900-01 (=5),
927 (= S), 934, 937 (= S), 949, 952 (= S), 957 (= S), 967 (= S),
970, 979, 985, 992add. (=5), V4 1015 (in additional laisse after v.
1069), 1165 (=5), 1211, 1261 (= 5), 1281, 1289, 1297 (=5), 1304,