Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 194
180
592: Sentu enn til annarrar orrustu svå marga riddara,
add.: en ollum J)eim muntu tyna. (cp. C 880)
En i j>ri3ja sinn muntu sjålfr fara me5 almenning,
593: ok Jtess meiri vån, at Rollant luti [ja t Jjeirri atlogu (p. 49726”30).
No other version, French or foreign, mentions three batties in this place.
Similarly in other parts of this branch the Kms version distinguishes more
clearly between the three batties than any other version: e.g. at the be-
ginning of chapter 27 (after V4 v. 1399 and before V4 v. 1483, at the
beginning of an additional laisse before O laisse CXVI), the saga alone
has an additional line:
Nu er upphaf annarrar orrostu.
Marsilius konungr hefir 10 fylki meS sér = V4 1483 (Kms p. 5131"2).
5 has the same addition, which cannot, therefore, be due to an Ice-
landic editor (S p. 2748-10).
At the beginning of chapter 30 (before O v. 1467, V4 v. 1672, after an
additional laisse), the saga adds:
Marsilius konungr eflir nu til hinnar pri5ju orrostu
ok ri'Sr nu af Spania meS mikinn her bæSi spanskra ok blåmanna =
O vv. 1468-69 (Kms p.5152*-28),
and here again a similar phrase is found in S (S p. 2775-8).
Unfortunately S has omitted the first part of the branch, and con-
sequently there is no Swedish parallel text for vv. 589—93, but it seems
likely that the Kms text of these verses is not due to an Icelandic scribe,
any more than the additions in chapters 27 and 30. It is probable, if not
entirely certain, that these additions were made by the same hånd. There
can be no doubt that they are additions, not omissions in all the French
texts; they are just the kind of pedantic amplifications that are usually
made by remanieurs. But in this case the Kms addition cannot be explained
in the same way as some of the passages discussed previously; V4 and
CV7 cannot here represent a combination of the O and the Kms versions.
The notion that there were three batties is found in some of the other
versions as well, e.g. in V4: in an additional laisse following O v. 1525,
V4 laisse 115, Marsilie speaks to the pagans before sending his ten
eschieles into battie:
V4 1456: Per doe bataille no sera vencu, go crei,
Cosa che no, poi li donaron trei.
Anchoi perdera Karlo so podei, etc.