Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 272
258
In many verses, all versions, including the saga, agree on all points. In
another and far larger group of verses, there are small differences between
the French MSS, but the translation is not sufficiently close to make it
possible for us to decide which reading the translator had in his source.
Apart from these groups, a comparison of the Norse text with the French
MSS shows that we have the following groupings:
1. Kms = O against all the other MSS. This grouping is not very
frequent, but it does occur. It does not either prove or disprove my theory,
but it is more easily explained by assuming that Kms is derived from an
old variant version and not from the same archetype as V4 and the version
rimée.
Examples of this are:
O 250: Vos n’irez pas uan---
Kms:
eigi ferr bu bessa .*y. man(udr) (p. 5571).
In V4 v. 179 and C v. 295, there is no trace of the word uan. O v. 905
says that Charlemagne is velz e redotez, cp. cerr ok uviti, Kms (p. 5049).
V4 v. 860 says that he is veelz ne ssera redoter, cp. V7 (C v. 1282:-------
fait mout a redoter).
Other verses where Kms follows O against the other MSS are: 235,
255, 289-90, 754, 1563 (see below), 2070, 2189, 2332 (= the German
poem, v. 6855).
Less important, because V4 and the version rimée MSS differ among
themselves, are vv. 8, 639, 785, 840, 851, 979, 983, 1052. Also of small
importance are vv. 200, 305, 1266, 1614, 2211, which are only preserved
in O and Kms, and vv. 81 and 196, where there is a difference in the title
used by the MSS. Finally, when O v. 520,
Guenes, par veir sacez,
is translated:
(Jiå mælti Marsilius konungr viS Guinelun jarl:) bat skaltu vita (p. 49624"25),
while V4 v. 429 has:
— Gaynes, cri por ver = C 804, V7,
this does not necessarily mean that Kms is based on the O reading, since
pat skaltu vita would be the natural translation of the V4 version too.