Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 124
110
Kms p.51825-30:
1816: Sidan let Karlamagnus konungr taka Guinelun jarl
1817-18: ok fekk (1) hendr hofuSsteikara slnum, ok baS hann
1819-20: svå varSveita hann sem illan drottins svikara.
1821: Hann tok vi3 honum
1828: ok lét setja hann å klyfjahesta sina, ok hverfa hofuS til hala,
1824: ok lét berja hann meS svipum ok hnefum,
1825: meS stongum ok stofura,
1826-27: ok lét svå færa hann til myrkvastofu.
The details of the treatment of Ganeion at the hånds of the cumpaig-
nons de la quisine are omitted in Bb, S and D (from v. 1821 onwards).
The French version rimée has also shortened this description, but in other
respects there are no important variants: the Norse text is clearly based
on the assonanced laisse in substantially the same form as we have it in O.
The additions in the Norse text are very few: the word sidan is one of
the usual stylistic modifications, and the addition of the name Karla-
magnus is another unnecessary explanation. The word bastun is translated
(med) stongum ok stdfum, one of the few cases of rhetorical amplifica-
tion in the Kms text.
The omissions are more numerous: the name of the hofudsteikari in
v. 1818, the mention of the cumpaignons de la quisine in vv. 1821—22,
some details of the treatment of Ganeion in vv. 1823-24, and v. 1829,
which is an anticipation of things to come.
The changes are quite extensive: the direct speech of vv. 1819—20 has
been changed to indirect speech, and v. 1820 is summarized rather than
translated; the translation of vv. 1826—27 is wrong, if we may assume
that the French source had the same text as O, and there seems to be no
good reason for doubting this. The translator cannot have understood the
verses, although he must have had some idea that Vencaeinent meant that
Ganeion was chained (cp. v. 2557, where chaeines is translated “fetters”),
and, deciding that a prison was the most likely place for a man who was
“chained like a bear”, he has concluded that Ganeion was taken to a
myrkvastofa, and he has changed what to him appeared as a description
of the conditions under which the traitor lived in prison to a flat state-
ment that he was taken there. But this led to another change: v. 1828,
where Ganeion is put on horseback, had to be moved, since he could not
first go to prison and then be put on a horse. Lastly, there is the peculiar
translation of the the expression a deshonor in v. 1828: ok hverfa hof ud