Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 245
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shows considerable independence in his treatment of the story, and we
cannot therefore regard it as a reliable reproduction of its French source
in the episode of Durendal63. But the similarity between Kms and the
Provengal poem is obvious: the emperor wants to recover Durendal, and
he is the only person who can take it (Kms), or dåres take it (Ronsasvals).
The sword is thrown into a lake, because there will never again be a
knight like Roland to carry it. The only real difference between the two
texts is that the poem does not know the story of how Charlemagne sent
his knights to take the sword.
In three MSS of the version rimée, C, V7, and T, there is a description
of the disposal of Durendal which does not agree with O and V4: after
Roland has made his unsuccessful attempt to break Durendal (O vv. 2297
-2354, C vv. 4054-92), he looks about him in despair, sees a fontenil
rovent (C v. 4115), and determined that the pagans shall not have it, he
throws the sword into the well:
C 4120: La vint .R., coroceus et dolent,
Entor lui garde ni scoisi nule gent.
Durendal prist par son fier hardiraent,
Dedenz la gete, car la mort le sosprent.
La gent del reigne en trai vos a garent:
C 4125: Cil nus ont dit, se l’estoire ne ment,
Q’encor i est por voir certanement
Et esera deci au feniment.
The addition is a part of the laisse which corresponds to O CLXXIV,
vv. 2355-65. T has the addition in the laisse which corresponds to the
next laisse in O, vv. 2366-74 (a parallel laisse), which in T precedes O
CLXXIV (T vv. 1998-2003). This laisse is omitted in CV7. P and L
have this laisse in the same place as T, but without the verses dealing with
the disposal of Durendal (laisse 144 in P, 98 in L). In spite of having
thus disposed of the sword for ever, C and V7 have the verses that cor-
respond to O vv. 3016-17, with Rabel and Guineman carrying the sword
and the trumpet (C vv. 4966-67, T has substituted escu for espee, v.
2611). It is probably because the author(s) of P and L knew that Duren-
63 “C’est, avec les longeurs et les effets massifs du genre épique, un poéme drama-
tique beaucoup plus qu’une chanson de geste ou qu’une histoire; et l’on ne peut y
méconnaitre la main d’un écrivain qui présente une forme poétique nouvelle å un
public sans doute moins facile que celui pour qui furent composes l’Entrée d’Espagne
ou la Spagna.” M. Roques, in Romania 66, p. 480.