Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 107
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portance, and besides, Unger has not included all the minor variants
of b2e.
The Swedish version is preserved in four 15th century MSS. The oldest
MS, Cod. Holm. D 4, dating from about 1420-45, was published by G. F.
Klemming, together with the youngest MS, Codex Askabyensis, written
in 1492. These MSS are referred to in the following chapters as SI and
S4 respectively. Lacunae are filled in from the remaining MSS, S2, Cod.
Holm. D 4 a (about 1457) and S3, Cod. Holm D 3, Fru Elins bok (about
1476). These latter MSS were published by David Kornhall in 195 7 27.
The Swedish MSS belong to two groups, one consisting of SI, S2, and
S4, the other of S3 alone28. S3 has preserved a number of traces of the
Norwegian archetype which have been lost or obscured in the other MSS.
The differences between SI, S2, and S4 consist chiefly of stylistic variants:
for the purposes of this study it will be sufficient to quote from SI, as a
representative of the first group, with variants from S3 whenever that MS
has a better text.
The Swedish adaptor has shortened the text, occasionally making more
extensive changes where the original appeared to be confused or corrupt;
but the modifications in S are independent of, and usually different from,
the Icelandic changes, even though both <S and Bb occasionally omit the
same repetitions. Occasionally, too, the original Swedish translator has
left some Norwegian words or expressions in the text, and these have been
altered, in different ways, by later scribes.
S is chiefly useful as a check on the readings of the Icelandic MSS.
Where the translation was inexact from the very beginning, it is often
impossible to decide whether a or Bb has preserved the reading of the
original Kms, and in such cases, reference to 5 may solve the problem.
If a, Bb, and S have different readings, none of them decidedly doser to
the French original than the others, it is quite likely that S, having escaped
the influence of the Icelandic saga-imitators, may have the correct reading,
but since S is, at best, no more than a copy of a translation of the Kms, an
S reading can only be used if it is firmly based on a French verse in cases
where a and Bb have obvious corruptions. Thus, in v. 1526:
20 Cp. Jakob Benediktsson’s notes in Skirnir 1952, pp. 212-13, and below, p. 184.
27 Kleraming’s edition in Prosadikter från Sveriges medeltid, Stockholm 1887-89;
Kornhall’s in Karl Magnus enligt Codex Verelianus och Fru Elins bok, Lund 1957.
On the MSS, see Kornhall’s edition pp. vm-ix, with references.
28 Kornhall, introduction, pp. x-xi.