Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 83
fragment NKS 1794b and Stockholm 6 (Kolbing, 21:1-22:2; 22:31-24:2) -
of Parcevals saga provide further documentation to support our thesis
that textual corruption is a relatively early phenomenon in the Arthurian
riddarasogur. Variants from the two primary redactions of Parcevals saga
furnish evidence of corruption and loss of text before c. 1350. Not infre-
quently seventeenth-century copyists were only perpetuating the conse-
quences of scribal misreading and editorial tampering that had occurred
four centuries earlier. Comparison of the vellum fragment with Stock-
holm 6, and in turn with the French text, produces irrefutable evidence
that the translator had adhered closely to the content of his source, even
in such seemingly trivial matters as the transmission of tautology. That is
the case with v. 2512: hors font tres et paveilions tendre (‘then they
pitched tents and pavilions’). The vellum fragment reads: frvl næst settu
fpeir landtjold sin ok herbudir (‘thereupon they pitched their tents and
camp’). Stockholm 6 - and its derivatives - lacks the concluding phrase.
The following juxtaposed texts make readily visible a process of cor-
ruption and of textual reduction that represents complementary attrition.
If we compare an extended French passage with the two primary Iceland-
ic redactions of the text, we find that neither Icelandic text represents the
translator’s work adequately: now one, now the other redaction lacks a
word, a phrase, even a sentence or two. By conflating the two texts we
arrive at a version that more nearly resembles the original Parcevals saga.
The basic Icelandic text below is that of Stockholm 6. Text in bold face is
lacking in the fragment, NKS 1794b, but italicized text is missing in
Stockholm 6 and has been interpolated from the fragment. Text within
square brackets has also been supplied from the fragment.
w. 2456-83
Tant que le grant bataille voient
Qui tot le val orent passé,
Et furent quatre cent armé,
Estre les mil serjans qui vindrent.
Et li autre molt pres se tindrent
De le porte qui fu overte,
Et cil defors virent lor perte
De lor gent affolee et morte,
Si s’en vienent devers la porte
Tot desreé et desrengié
Et cil se tinrent tuit rengié
Pvi næst kom fram allt meginlidit
er leynzk hafdi i skoginum,
fjogur hundrud riddara
ok tvær (jusundir gongulids [xx. fot gangandi manna]
en hinir bidu t>å ekki fjarri
borgarhlidinu er opit stod,
ok så |)eir Ipå er at komu skada
sinna manna, er drepnir våru ok herteknir
ok foru ])eir ])å at borginni
med lausu lidi ok fylktu ekki,
en hinir ridu |>å inn med fylktu lidi
6 King Arthur
69
L