Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 240

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rhymed, has made further changes, thus reminding us (T vv. 2496-97,
2504-06, 2525-27) of the reason for the disaster, Ganelon’s treason, but
in all essential features T differs little from OV4.
The lament is far shorter in Kms than in OV4:
-----ok fell til jarSar (cp. O 2880) ok mælti siSan: BlezaSr sértu Rollant, dauSr
sem lifandi ok kvikr, yfir alla riddara jarSliga, {>vi at juan jafningi uran aldri fåst
å jarSriki, [ivi at fiu ert bæSi vinr gu8s ok manna.
Nu fell konungr i umått, ok ætluSu hans menn at hann væri dauSr, en hann var
lifandi (p. 52729-5283; D p. 17320-24; om. s).
This is a fairly correct rendering of O vv. 2886-91:
2886: Tant dulcement a regreter le prist:
“Amis Rollant, de tei ait Deus mercit!
Unques nuls horn tel chevaler ne vit
Por granz batailles juster e defenir
2891: Caries se pasmet, ne s’en pout astenir.
The words ok ætluSu hans menn at hann væri dauSr may be a remin-
iscence of vv. 2929, 2936-42, in which Charlemagne wishes that he were
dead:
2936: Si grant dol ai que ne voldreie vivre,
but the remaining four laisses of the lament have been omitted in the Kms
version. Instead there follows the scene of the recovery of Durendal, and
although it is of course possible that the omission of most of the lament
is due to the translator, it seems more likely that we have in Kms a
thoroughly revised version of the poem in which the lament had been
drastically cut down, and something else, viz. the Durendal episode, in-
serted instead.
The relationship between Kms and the second Roncevaux scene, the one
found in the MSS of the version rimée, will be discussed below, when the
additions in the Kms text have been considered. Suffice it to say that the
most important similarity between Kms and this scene is the negative one
that the lament for Roland is relatively short in both versions.
In the version rimée Charlemagne’s main concern is with his grief, and
with Ganeion and the revenge. His threats against the traitor are repeated
again and again, and the language is conventional in the extreme. “Nous
ne démontrerons pas le caractére apocryphe de cette derniére scene: il est