Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 260

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meted out to Ganeion, but he reports it, without comment, while the
historians of the 13th century, and contemporary public opinion too, did
react against the cruel treatment of such princes as Magnus the Blind and
SigurSr slembir.
In faet, if the Pinabel episode was omitted by the translator, we cannot
give any satisfactory explanation. It is not unimportant or uninteresting,
and it certainly would not have shocked anybody. The French remanieur
on the other hånd might have been led to omit the scene by considerations
of a moral and legal character, but the cruelty of the procedure would not
have shocked him, on the contrary, the list of refined ways of torturing
the traitor in the version rimée shows that such details were quite popular
with the audience. The real trouble is that, from the point of view of the
king, Ganelon’s behaviour was absolutely indefensible, and all those who
sided with the growing royal authority against the anarchic tendencies of
certain sections of feudal society would deplore the weakness of Charle-
magne’s councillors in allowing the combat. The author of O is of the
same opinion (v. 3814: Qo dist li reis: "Vos estes mi felun”), but he is a
poet, and at least allows Ganeion to argue his case81. In O Ganeion is
regarded as a traitor by everybody except himself; in all the other versions
he is evil from the very beginning, and the psychological refinement of O
is lost, thus, in the version rimée, the Pinabel episode is really superfluous.
The creator of the Kms version is a somewhat pedantic “realist”; he has
changed the scene into an ordinary trial, and he makes his particular hero
Naimes decide the issue, although when the judicial combat is cut out,
there is of course no need for any hesitation on the part of the chieftains.
Ganeion is not even allowed to answer; the trial has become a rather
prosaic description of the summary conviction and execution of an ordinary
traitor by a most loyal and efficient Council.
It is difficult to decide whether the author of the “combined version”
has used the Kms version in this episode. The discussion of the methods
of punishment may be a reminiscence of the deliberations of the councillors
as to the guilt of the traitor in Kms, but the divergence between the two
assonanced versions was so great at this point that in general the author
of the “combined version” would have to choose to follow one of them,
and he has preferred O, the longer and by far the better of the two.
“ Cp. the judicious, if somewhat over-ingenious discussion of this scene in Hor-
rent: La Chanson de Roland etc., pp. 150-54.