Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 196
182
Guinelun jarli til Jtess at færa Karlamagnusi konungi til heilla såtta,
en Jtar bjuggu undir svik reyndar.
647-48: J>å mælti Marsilius konungr vi3 Guinelun jarl:
Nu skaltu heim fara, segir hann, til Karlamagnus konungs ok færa
honum fjårhluti,
653, cp. 651: en ek skal hverja 12 månuSr gefa ]pér
652: 10 mula hla3na, etc. (p. 49826'36).
The additions contain nothing that cannot be inferred from the con-
text, and there are frequent repetitions, suggesting that the translator has
tried to summarize the passage, without really succeeding in shortening it.
The additions have nothing in common with the additional verses in V4.
The French source may have had some additional verses of its own, but
its text scarcely differed from O except in a few details.
This examination of the first 700 verses of the Chanson de Roland and
the corresponding part of the Runzivals f/åttr has shown that the major
differences between the Norse and the French versions in this part of the
text are not due to changes made by the translator; the variants must have
existed in the French source, and although this version of the poem has
been lost, the variants have been in part preserved as additions in the later
French versions (as in the case of the scene d’investiture). Furthermore
there are other details, generally of minor importance, which are not re-
flected in any other version, and which are therefore probably due to the
scribe or scribes who wrote the MSS that must be placed between the
archetype of the “variant version” and the MS used by the Norse trans-
lator S1. In the following sections of this chapter the remaining two thirds
of the Norse translation will have to be examined in the light of the results
we have already obtained.
IV
The rearguard is left at Roncevaux; pagans and Christians
make preparations; the first battie, vv. 703-1422.
This part of the poem is extant in O, V4, CV7, and, from v. 766 on-
wards, T. P begins with v. 1059 (it has a number of additional laisses
31 The letter k is used, by M. Aebischer, to designate the French MS from which
the translation was made.