Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Page 268
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worden . . . newlich auss Frantzosicher sprach in Teutsch gebracht.. ,14.
The copy I have used is in the Royal Library of Copenhagen which
acquired it from Suhm’s collection15; it is not mentioned by Heitz
and Ritter16.
The 1533 edition of Fierrabras will be referred to below as G.
It may not be G, but one of the later octavo editions (Frankfort-
on-Main n. d., Frankfort-on-Main 1594) that are the source of the
Icelandic saga. It should be possible to clarify this if all known
editions were accessible, but in this minor investigation the problem
is not of great importance, partly because experience shows that
the various editions of popular books do not normally differ widely,
partly because I and G agree to such an extent that it is not only
feasible to establish beyond a doubt that the saga is a translation of
the German popular book, but also methodically sound to treat G
as the source of the Icelandic text. A juxtaposition of the opening
lines of G and I will document this and will at the same time permit
a number of preliminary observations on the language and style of
the saga:
IN Hispanien was eyn Amiral gnant
Baland/ eyn måehtiger Haid/ des
leibs/ guuts vnd gwalt/ der het eynen
Sone hiess Fierrabras/ der groste
Riess/ so ye von eynichem Frawen-
bild zur wellt was gewunnen vnd
braeht worden/ dann seins gleichen
I spania war fordumm daga eirn
amriniall, Sem hiet Balant mikil hetia
og mektugur ad lykamanns hreisti,
gotzi og met ordi, hann atti eirn son
sem hiet ferakutt, pessi potti vera
hinn stæsti Risi, Sem af kuenn manni
hefur j pessa verolld Borinn verid,
14 For typographical reasons the German quotations are simplified in aecordance
with the following rules: Abbreviated words are given in full without indication;
‘o superscriptum’ (over u) is deleted; ‘e superscriptum’ is rendered •* (6, li, etc.),
though this veils the faet that e superscriptum does not invariably indicate mutation.
15 See the reference in note 12.
16 The German Fierrabras 1533 has been reprinted—with modernized spelling,
but in other respects it is apparently a faithful reproduction—in Buch der Liebe.
Hrsg. durch Dr. Johann Gustav Busching und Dr. Friedrich Heinrich von der
Hagen. Erster Band. Berlin 1809, pp. 143-268, cf. the editors’ introduotion
xxxviii f.
Besides, the text has been printed in Die deutschen Volksbiieher. Gesammelt
und in ihrer urspriinglichen Echtheit wiederhergestellt von Karl Simrock. Siebenter
Band. Frankfurt a. M. 1850, pp. 1-165. As is suggested already by the alarming
sub-title, this edition cannot be used for scholarly purposes.