Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 79

deyja (60:8 ‘with you I desire to live and die’). The other vellum, AM
489, diverges somewhat: mér Ukar med pér at vera, bædi lifa ok deyja
(60:17 ‘I desire to be with you, both to live and to die’). Without evidence
from the paper manuscript H46, the above readings in the vellums would
be quite acceptable, and the slight deviations from the French text would
be explained as intentional modification on the part of the translator. The
following reading in H46 suggests, however, that the shift of nuance is the
result of scribal editing, since the reading in the paper manuscript follows
the French content literally - at fyrir ydr vil ek lifa ok deyja, ok aldrigi
vid ydr skilja utan ydar vilja (60:23 ‘that I want to live and die for you,
and never to be parted from you against your will’) - even in regard to the
formal second person pronouns. Because all three manuscripts agree in
changing the sequence of morir and vivre, the translator himself had
presumably initiated the change - but of course one can’t be certain.
To reconstruct the original Ivens saga, recourse must be had to the
three manuscripts; not infrequently, divergent readings are not variants
resulting from scribal modification, but rather variants resulting from
attrition, be that intentional or accidental. Inadvertently or intentionally
a copyist - whose work represents one manuscript branch today - left out
one member of a collocation; another copyist - whose work represents a
different branch - left out its mate. Because of complementary attrition,
a common phenomenon in the transmission of Old Norse-Icelandic man-
uscripts, all manuscript evidence must be carefully sifted and evaluated.
The transmission of vv. 5191-5211 of Yvain in the Old Norse-Icelandic
version illustrates what is meant by complementary attrition. The text of
the vellum AM 489, which is defective, breaks off before this juncture in
the narrative. The translation must therefore be reconstructed on the
basis of one vellum, H6, and the paper manuscript H46 alone. At this
point in the narrative, the hero comes upon a wondrous scene: he sees
three hundred maidens on a meadow; they are engaged in various tasks.
The vellum transmits OF vv. 5191-95; 5198-5205 as follows:
Hann så einn sléttan voll ok j^ar å vel CCC meyja. Fær våru
magrar ok klædlausar, ok {)6 allar enar friåustu.
(On a level field he saw a good three hundred maidens sitting. They
were thin and poorly clothed, yet all extremely lovely.)
The paper manuscript, H46, concurs - inconsequential variants aside -
with the above, but then continues with the description of the maidens:
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