Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 229
215
O
Kms
2077-82: Turpin is thrown from his horse.
2083-88: Turpin, on the ground, joins Roland, speaks.
2089-94: Turpin fights well, kills many pagans.
2095-98: Allusion to the Geste, etc.
2099-2104: Roland is still fighting, blows l’olifant
for the last time.
2105-10: The emperor hears it, orders his men to
blow their trumpets.
2111-12: 60,000 trumpets are sounded.
2113: The pagans hear it.
2114: They know that the emperor is on his way
back.
om.
p. 52114-16: Turpin joins
Roland, speaks.
om.
om.
om.
p. 52116-11
om.
p. 52117
That the saga does not say that Turpin has been thrown from his horse
is probably due to the general ignorance of fighting on horseback dis-
played by the translator in many places, but the other omissions are due
to deliberate editing of the text. It is again difficult to decide whether this
editing was carried out by the translator or a French remanieur.
Of laisse CLIX, vv. 2134-45, the saga omits vv. 2134-38:
2134: Li quens Rollant unkes n’anat cuard,
Ne orguillos, ne malvais hume de male part,
Ne chevaler, s’il ne fust bon vassal.
Li arcevesques Turpin en apelat:
“Sire, a pied estes e jo sui a ceval:
The first three lines may have been omitted by any remanieur because
they had nothing to do with the story as such, but the omission of the
last line must be deliberate, and must be seen in conjunction with the
omission of vv. 2077-82. It is even possible that the author of the variant
version (the French remanieur) avoided these verses because he thought it
would be impossible for Turpin to have fallen from his horse and still go
on fighting. If this is so, the omissions and changes in vv. 2077—94 must
be due to the French remanieur, not to the translator. The Norseman may
not have known much about chivalry and fighting on horseback, but when,
in vv. 2166-68,
Li quens Rollant nes ad dunt encalcer:
Perdut i ad Veillantif, sun destrer;
Voeillet o nun, remés i est a piet,