Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 110
96
S is independent of both the Icelandic versions: vv. 975-83 describe the
terrible pagan Chernubles de Munigre, who is so strong that he can carry
more,
O 978: Que .1111. mulez ne funt, quant il sumeient.
The other French and foreign versions have essentially the same read-
ing (although some say 7 mules, others 3, etc.). But in a, it is said that
“Gernublus”
må meiri byrSi bera en 7 ulfaldar, [ia er peir eru klyfjaSir
and so also in S:
ma mera byrdh bara ån siw ’uilffwalla, oc en wlffwalder bar meer ån siw hasta
(S3:----ma mera byrde bæra æn tolff wlualder ok æn mera och siw hæsta)
but Bb:
må meiri byrSi bera einn en 7 mular er peir eru klyfjaSir (Kms p. 506®"7 and
notes, S p. 26726-28 S3 p.552-4).
Apparently, Bb has preserved the correct reading, mules, which has
been changed to camels in a and S, and consequently, 5 cannot be indepen-
dent of the Aa version. But there are so many other cases where S has a
better reading than either a or Bb that it seems almost impossible to ex-
plain how Bb can have preserved a correct reading where the other ver-
sions have a corruption. It is at least certain that the corruption in S and
a cannot be due to an ordinary scribal error; mular cannot become ulfaldar
by a mere misreading, nor can ulfaldar become mular.
But Fri does not use the word ulfaldar for “camels”. O vv. 184—86:
Set cenz cameilz e mil hosturs muables,
Quatre cenz mulz cargez de l’or d’Arabe,
Avoec igo plus de cinquante care.
are translated:
hesta oc mula.vij.h. camela. clyfiaSa af gulli af arabia lande, hann vill oc gefa
mer .1. vagna laSna af gersimum (Kms p. 5561_s).
(a has ulfalda for camela, the passage is omitted in Bb). Thus if the com-
mon source of all three versions had camelar in the translation of v. 978,
it is possible that two versions, a and S (or its Norwegian original), have
independently substituted the more common ulfaldar for camelar, while
the author of the Bb version has read mular for (es.) melar, possibly be-
cause the writing of the MS from which he copied the passage was blurred
in this place.
In this way, we have to postulate a reading---------en siau camelar in the