Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 220

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point of fleeing, but Marsilie encourages his men (V4 laisse 133). They
attack, and Roland si na dol e pesange ( V4 v. 1750), he performs great
deeds of prowess again (V4 laisse 135), and so does Oliver, but Roland
understands that the battie is lost (V4 laisse 136). Then follows the re-
ference to the Geste, O vv. 1680-89, badly translated in the saga, but still
in all essentials identical with the O laisse, and Roland now proposes
biowing the trumpet (O vv. 1702-12). The additional laisses between
vv. 1679 and 1680 are really an expanded version of vv. 1691-1701, in
which the psychological point has been lost and replaced by a common-
place description of fighting. In V4 and the version rimée, the two versions
have been combined.
Vv. 1798-1801 are summed up in the clause peir gerSu sem hann baud
(p. 51825), and the following verses, 1802-15, are left out altogether. It
is a description of the preparations of the French army and of the begin-
ning of the return journey towards Roncevaux. Then follow vv. 1816-29,
the episode of the seizing of Ganeion, and then two laisses, vv. 1830-41
and 1842-50, showing the French on their way back to save Roland and
his army, full of apprehension about what may have happened. Kms has
only one short passage after v. 1828:
SxSan rei8 hann (i.e. Karlamagnus) frå borg ok å brott meS miklura her,
ok ætlaSi at verSa Rollant at liSveizlu (ok ætlaSi nu til liSveizlu viS Rollant ok
hans kurapåna, Bb)
ef hann mætti, ef Rollant lifSi er J>e>r fyndist, a only (p. 51830-5192).
Vv. 1802-15, 1830-41, and 1842-50 are parallel descriptions, and the
parallelism is even more elaborate since this scene is meant to form a
counterpart to vv. 814-47, which show the French army leaving Ronce-
vaux and going towards France. V4 leaves out vv. 1830-41, but adds
instead a laisse after v. 1850, in which Charlemagne curses Ganeion and
alludes to his descent from the “traitors” who killed Cæsar (V4 vv. 1941-
63). This addition is also in the version rimée, and there too vv. 1830-41
are omitted (some of the MSS have shortened the episode still more). The
Norse text is obviously based on one of the parallel laisses, but so many
of the verses occur in all of them with only slight variations that it is
difficult to decide which of them is the source of the saga. It seems to
come very close to O vv. 1802-05:
Brochent ad aii tant cura durent li port.
N’i ad celoi a l’altre ne parolt: