Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 108
94
XJn Sarrazin i out de Sarraguce,
the MSS have various corruptions and omissions:
a: Einn hofSingi (så er kallaSr er Klibanus)
B: Einn Saragiz af landi J>vi er Saraguz heitir
b: Einn hofSingi \ liSi heiSinna manna
S: en hedhen (som het clibanus. han) ar hoffdinge ower thz land
som sarragin heter
D: en heden (hed Libanus) (Kms p. 5137'8 and note; S p. 27418"19;
D p. 16416-17)
Here the original translator seems to have kept the term Sarrazin in his
text; this word has been corrupted in B (or in the first Icelandic edition),
a and b have changed it to hofSingi, probably because the word was un-
known to the scribes, and 5 and D have substituted the correct en hedhen.
There are other cases where S has a better or more complete text than
the Icelandic MSS, e.g. in v. 852, and vv. 2188, 2533, which are preserved
only in 5. Some more doubtful cases in vv. 2525-62 will be discussed later.
In some cases the S text is considerably shorter than that of the Icelandic
MSS. The most important omission is found at the beginning of the Run-
zivals f>dttr: chapters 1-17, corresponding to vv. 1-813 of O, have been
omitted, and the Swedish text begins with a short summary of the intro-
duction (Kms a p. 4841-4, Bb p. 483, note) and of vv. 792-802 (Kms p.
5018-11). Other places where 5 differs from the saga are: vv. 1757—90
(Kms p. 5182-23, cp. S p. 27911-27), 1869-75 with additions, 1889-94
(Kms p. 5192-13, S p. 2801'6). In all these cases the Danish version agrees
with Kms against S, and consequently, if D is derived from an earlier
Swedish version, the changes in S must be due to the person who revised
this original translation, or the two branches of it which are preserved in
the existing Swedish MSS.
When there is a difference between Bb and a, S almost always follows
the version t’nat agrees with the French text(s), cp. the list of verses where
the reading of Bb is better than that of a (above pp. 89-90). When, in some
of the verses, the correct Bb reading is not supported by S, it is usually
because 5 has omitted the passage; sometimes, S differs from both a and
Bb. Sometimes S may support Bb in general, while some differences in
smaller details show that the Swedish text is at times doser to that of
the original translation than Bb: this is the case in the description of the
death of Oliver, where S is shorter than Bb, but longer than a: