Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1970, Side 210
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5.24 I am] er eg O, er petta N.
5.25 I am delyuerede] er eg leyst O, hefer pu mik leyst N.
Furthermore, O retains the same order of exempla as does 9066,
namely “Woman’s Tongue in Devil’s Purse” followed by “Priest
Prays for Mother in Hell,” but N has their order reversed.
On the other hånd, N cannot be a copy of O, since N several
times renders the English text more faithfully than O does:
5,4 xv.] xu N, xij O.
5,6 thy synne] pinar syndir N, allar pinar synder O.
5.8 if that she be in payne] ef hun er j pinu N, ef hun parf pess med og se
hun i pinu O.
5.9 fro the fyrste day] fra fysta sinne (a misreading for tima?) N, pat fysta
tima (!) O.
5,11-12 the state of thy modre] huersu pin moder fer N, -i- O.
5.15 herte] hiarta N, hiarta blod O.
5.16 gnawynge] naganndi N, [ha]ngannde O.
5,21 and dide it] ok suo gerdi hann N, -j-O.
In addition, N contains some errors which a scribe would be
likely to make, but not a translator: uinit 2r27 for “watyr,” and
leddu (pi.) hann ... ok beiddizt (sg.) Irl7 for “one of his felawes
lade him ... he askede” 5,19-20.
A passage which was misunderstood, apparently by the trans-
lator, is 6,22-23: he was not aware that “that be goode werkes ...
contricione” are the devil’s words. Another more complicated mis-
take is 3,3-4 “That saw the quene of the Northe, and norisshede
her doughtir with venyme,” rendered “pat sa ek seger meistarenn
at drottningenn i nordrenu fæddi upp sina dottur med eitur ok
olyfian.” A conjectural supposition is that the translator wrote:
“Pat så, segir meistarinn, drottningin i nor&rinu ok fæddi”, i.e.
he added a reference to the “master,” the foreign author, who
must be responsible for his source (cf. the addition ‘seger hann’
N 2v5). This text was then misunderstood by a copyist.
The final fragmentary exemplum in O (“The Sick Lion, the Fox
and the Wolf,” 2r21-2v30) is the only tale for which no correspond-
ing English text has been found, although Old and Middle English
texts may have existed at one time. From the extant Old French