Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 172
158
The omissions here (O vv. 2173-75, V4 vv. 2325-26) are unimportant,
but the moving of v. 2183 (V4 v. 2335) to the place it occupies in the saga
must be deliberate, and is explained by the French text as printed above:
if the additional verse V4 2327 is Turpin’s words, then v. 2183 has been
moved to combine Turpin’s words in that verse with what in the saga
appears as his words in V4 v. 2327. But, and this is the important point, if
v. 2183 has been moved to combine two speeches by Turpin into one, the
verse has been moved in the French source, not in the saga, since the saga
has a free translation of the additional verse (ok sneri honum i moti vindi
at kcela hann, ok mælti sidan), and the words are not spoken by anybody
at all. From the point of view of the translation the change is unneces-
sary19. Thus, according to this explanation, it was the French remanieur
who first made Turpin help Roland in v. 216920.
Between vv. 2200 and 2201 V4 and the MSS of the version rimée have
an addition:
V4 2353: Li cont Rollant vait li camp recercher; = O 2200
2354: Desot un pin e foluc e ramer
2355: Si oit trové ses compagnon Oliver: = O 2201
Cp. P 2491: Desoz .1. pui, delez .1. aiglentier, T 1814: Dessoubz .1. pin, etc., C
3829: Il garde avant, desoz un aiglenter, V7 follows C, L has pui, like P.
The verse is rendered in the saga:
(fann hann um siSir) undir bakka einum, (p. 52214).
M. Aebischer21 translates:-------il le trouva enfin le long d’une rive, and
thinks that the translator has invented the rive because he did not know
the word pin. But as in a number of other cases, the misunderstanding is
M. Aebischer’s: bakki does not necessarily mean rive; (ar)bakki may mean
“river bank”, especially when there is a real bank, slope, up from the river,
39 The V4 text of the additional verse is supported by the version rimée, e.g. C
vv. 3756-57:
“Sire”, fait il, “gisez por refroidier;
Se ja vos plaies poroient estanchier”.
V7 has the same text, P and L omit the laisse, T is doser to the saga, in so far as
the additional verse there is not part of a speech.
M. Aebischer, Rol. Bor. p. 212, also admits that the saga version of v. 2169
may be due to the French source.
91 Rol. Bor. p. 214.