Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 147
133
Since in this case the words As vus Marsilie--------/Siet el cheval---------
show us Marsilie riding forth and attacking the Christians, the translator
must have taken the expressions As vus Rollant sur sun cheval---------------to
mean that Roland rode forth on his horse, and having got this idea, he
could not make the word postnet fit in here, and had to leave it out. Per-
haps he thought it might be one of the epithets he did not know (cp. v.
1943:--------sur un ceval s or). The other French versions cannot help us
to explain the Kms text, since they have substantially the same text as O,
with the exception that they (V4 2108, C 3363, etc.) have or est (fu)
instead of as vus, and the word or is correctly translated e.g. in vv. 1923
(Nu) and 2123 (pd). The translation must therefore be based on the O
text25.
In the saga, Gualter de l’Hum has become Turpin’s nephew. The source
of this error is the peculiar translation of vv. 2039-48:
(2038: Morz sunt Franceis----)
2039: Senz l’arcevesque e senz Gualter de l’Hum.
2044: Si reclaimet Rollant, qu’il li aiut:
2045: “E! gentilz quens, vaillanz hom, u ies tu ?
2046: Unkes n’en oi poiir, la u tu fus.
2047: Co est Gualter, ki cunquist Maelgut
2048: Li niés Droiin, al vieill e al canut!
2050: Ma hanste est fraite, &c.
Kms:
(2038: Nu eru allir Frankismenn fallnir)
add.: nema Rollant (obvious)
2039: ok Turpin og Valteri systurson hans
2048: ok son Jiess manns er Dragon hét, er kallaSr var Dragon gamli ok
hinn skegghviti.
2044: Hann kalla5i å Rollant:
2045: “Far hingat”, segir hann, “ok dugi mér,
2046: ek varS enn aldri hræddr i bardaga, bar sem b't vart hjd mér.
2050: Nu er spjotskapt mitt i sundr, &c. (p. 5213~7).
The other French texts are either identical with the text of O, or derived
from it, and it is therefore hardly likely that the French source of the
saga contained the additional information that Gualter was the nephew
of Turpin. The translator must have made a mistake, but it is difficult to
“ Cp. Roli. Bor. p. 205.