Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 190
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The laisse is found, in essentially the same form, in CV7 as well (C
vv. 588-99). There are some slight differences, e.g. in C v. 589, which
corresponds to O v. 393:
Qi tant bon roi velt faire recreant,
and instead of vv. 400-01 there is a passage of 7 verses (8 in V7):
C 596: Li emperere fait tot le ses commant,
A Saragoze fera meint cuer dolant,
Per mi Espeigne s’en ira conquirant,
C 599: Ne finera de ci q’en Baligant.
V7: a lamirant de Babilonie auant
se il ne prent la loi a son creant
se il nel fait de mort naura garant
ne finera a trestot son uiuant. (Foerster’s edition, p. 30)
V4 has only a very much shortened version of this laisse, 5 verses (V4 vv.
308-12), of which three correspond roughly to O vv. 392, 396, and 398.
V4 may therefore be derived from either of the other versions.
The Kms version is as follows:
Blankandin mællti. MaSr læzk Rollant vera cp. O 392, C 588
en hann vill b° huern konung undir sic kuga. = C 589, cp. O 393
oc man hanum illa til takaz ein huerio sinni. cp. O 395, C 591 ??
Guinelun jarl svaraSi. cp. O 396, C 592
hat villde Rollant at eigi kæmisk sætt pessi alæijiis.
oc villde hann leggia undir sic spanialand. = C 598
si)>an villde hann til babiloniam cp. C 599, V7
oc drepa Ammiral konung æf hann vill eigi skiraz cp. V7
oc eigi vill hann letta a3r hann hæfir yfir stigit allar pinSer. cp. V7 (Kms p. 5586'12).
As it stands in the saga, the laisse has become a more emphatic repetition
of vv. 382-91, and the really important thing in this laisse, in O as well
as in CV7, Blancandrin’s question,
Par quele gent quiet il espleiter tant?
with Ganelon’s answer,
Par la franceise gent,
Il l’aiment tant, etc.
has disappeared. The omission, if that is what it is, concerns only some
few verses, but the words
oc man hanum illa til takaz ein huerio sinni,
C 600-02
different.