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by a fragmentary manuscript only; the very beginning and the last half
are lost. Where the Anglo-Norman text is preserved, it sometimes agrees
with the Norse version against the Continental French texts* * * 4; there is
therefore always the possibility that changes in the saga at points where
only the Continental French texts are available for comparison could
derive from the lost sections of the Anglo-Norman text5.
Central to Geraldine Barnes’ argument is the following passage in the
saga, which according to the article “diverges from any known version of
the original”6:
CEptu Jtå margir: sumir bå6u hengja, sumir halshoggva }tau; en
a&rir dæmåu, at Jtau skyldi vella i brennanda biki; sumir, at Jjau
skyldi grafa kvik i jorå, ok hofuåin stæåi upp or joråu, ok steypa
siåan vellanda oleo yfir hofuå jjeim: sumir dæmåu, at Jtau væri
flegin kvik ok lifåi siåan i sterkum fjotrum til viårsjonar oårum,
sliks at dirfaz. (XXII.7)7
There is no equivalent passage in the French version, and the Anglo-
Norman text is deficient here, but for comparison we can turn to
translations of the roman into Low Rhenish, Flemish, English and High
German. A striking parallel in the Flemish version suggests that the
saga's public cry for revenge, specifying various methods of torture, was
BlancIieJlorT', Romania, 92 (Paris, 1972), p. 66, n. 2, and Jean-Luc Leclanche, "Remarques
sur la versification du Conte de Floire et Blanchejlor", Romania. 95 (Paris, 1974), p. 114, n.
5, where new editions are promised. My references are to the Kriiger edition, because it is
reasonably accurate and incorporates the Anglo-Norman text in its critical apparatus. 1
have not had access to Pélan, 2nd ed., which the Royal Library, Copenhagen, has not been
able to obtain on European Inter-Library loan.
4 Investigation of the relationship between the Norse and the European material will be
published in connection with my forthcoming edition of Flores saga ok BlankiJIur in
Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Hédinn Jonsson and Jean-Luc Leclanche have already noted a
"ressemblance ... surprenante" between the Anglo-Norman and the West Norse texts, see
Jean-Luc Leclanche. "La date du conte de Floire et Blanchejlor", in Mélanges ile philologie
ojjerts a Alf Lomhonl, Etudes romanes de Lund, 18 (Lund, 1969). p. 559, n. 2.
5 In a later article, "Some Observations on Flores saga ok BlankiJIur", Scandinavian
Studies, 49 (Kansas, 1977), p. 55, Geraldine Barnes apparently rejects the view that the trial
scene, which is the most significant deviation in the saga, derives from a lost French version.
6 P. 156.
1 Flores saga ok BlankiJIur, ed. Eugen Kolbing, Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, 5 (Halle a.
S., 1896).