Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Qupperneq 174
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The three laisses describing Roland’s attempt to break his sword (vv.
2297-2354) are adequately translated, although repetitions and some de-
tails are left out. It is strange that in the long list of Roland’s conquests
(Kms p. 5242-5 = O 2322-32) names like Normendie and Saisonie (vv.
2324 and 2330) do not occur in the Norse text, although they are among
the few names that must have been familiar to the translator as well as
to later scribes. It is therefore likely that the verses had already been
omitted in the French source24.
Kms omits vv. 2338-43, the beginning of the third laisse, which de-
scribes Roland’s third attempt to break his sword, and thus two speeches,
vv. 2316-37, in which Roland enumerates his conquests, and vv. 2344-54,
the description of Durendal and the holy relics in its hilt, are combined
into one. In CV7 too Roland makes only two attempts to break his sword,
the second and third of the assonanced laisses having been combined. But
the differences between Kms and CV7 are more important than the simi-
larities. In CV7 the list of conquests has been omitted altogether, and there
is practically nothing left of the second laisse (see C vv. 4075-92). In the
saga it is only the introductory verses of the third laisse that have been
omitted. They may have been omitted by almost any scribe or remanieur,
either deliberately, to shorten the episode, or by mistake, as when, in the
MS a, the verses 2305-16 have been omitted, by haplography.
The translation of vv. 2503-06 creates an intricate problem of textual
criticism. The O text is as follows:
2501: Ceinte Joiuse, unches ne fut sa per,
Ki cascun jur muet .XXX. clartez.
Asez savum de la lance parler,
Dunt Nostre Sire fut en la cruiz nasfret:
2505: Caries en ad la mure, mercit Deu;
En l’oret punt l’ad faite manuvrer.
24 M. Aebischer’s translation of certain passages in this part of Kms is unsatis-
factory. Thus,-----at engi bæri sd pik i hendi, at einn yrdi hræddr fyrir einum (p.
52329-30) ;s a fairly correct translation of v. 2309,
Ne vos ait hume ki pur altre fuiet!
and does not mean:-------que seul quelqu’un te porte dans la main, qui ait peur de
Lui (!). En nu er mér skamt til dauda, ok <verSr mér nu at pér heSan af ekki gagn
(p. 52327-28) is not an addition, but translates, incorrectly, v. 2305 (Rol. Bor. p.
219).