Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 202

188
vv. 1002-16: Oliver hears the granz noise of the pagan
army, and warns Roland. Roland is full of joy at
the prospect of battie; Or guart chascuns que granz
colps i empleit/ Que malvaise can(un de nus chantet
ne seit!
vv. 1017-27: Oliver, standing on a hili, sees the shin-
ing helmets etc. of the pagans. He tells Roland, and
suggests that Ganeion has betrayed them, but Ro-
land refuses to listen.
vv. 1028-38: The whole pagan army appears, Oliver
runs down from the hili to tell the French warriors.
vv. 1039-48: He announces the news: he has seen
100.000 pagans, and there is going to be a great
battie: Seignurs Franceis, de Deu aiez vertut.' (v.
1045). They reply: Dehet ait ki s’en fuit!
Omitted in the saga.
Translated in the saga.
Omitted in the saga.
Omitted in the saga.
Thus the carefully planned development of the scene in the French
poem, especially in the assonanced version (the episode has been changed
and partly shortened in the version rimée), with the gradual revelation of
the overwhelming force of the pagans, has been lost in the saga. Instead
the episode in Kms is concentrated around Oliver and Roland, and forms
an introduction to the famous “trumpet scene” (laisses LXXXIII-
LXXXV). Some of the omitted verses might be rather difficult to trans-
late, notably those containing descriptions of unfamiliar objects (e.g. vv.
1031—36). Besides, many verses belong to types that are frequently omitted,
descriptions, speeches, etc. But none of these reasons applies to vv. 1008-
16, Roland’s credo, in which he expresses sentiments that every Norseman
should be able to appreciate. From the literary point of view, the omissions
are a serious loss.
But from the point of view of a remanieur who was chiefly interested
in the story, and who did not appreciate the psychological refinement of
the original poem, the omitted laisses might be considered less important:
the essential faet that must be reported to Roland and the army is the
approach of the pagans, and this is what Oliver does in vv. 1017-27. The
difference between O and Kms here is the difference between a work of
art and an ordinary chronicle of war and fighting.
The sentiments expressed in vv. 1008-16 are partly repeated in vv.
1114—23, translated in Kms (p. 50722-28). But if one of the reasons for
the omission is the desire to avoid repetition, it is hardly likely that the
translator is responsible: he would certainly have omitted the second of
two parallel passages, if he had noticed the repetition at all. Only a French