Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 96
ces to the queen is conveyed in indirect discourse. In Lanval the retort to
the charge of having boasted of the beauty of his beloved is also ex-
pressed indirectly by the author:
Mes de ceo dunt il ot parlé
reconut il la verité,
de Pamur dunt il se vanta;
dolenz en est, perdue l’a. (vv. 377-80)
(He admitted the truth of what he had spoken, of having boasted of
her love; he is sad, for he has lost her!)
The passage appears simple, but is not, because of inherent ambiguities.
Whose voice do we hear above, Lanval’s or the author’s? Are we to
interpret v. 380 as indirect discourse or as authorial commentary? What is
the referent for the pronoun in v. 380, the beloved or her love? If she no
longer loves Lanval, does that also preclude coming to his aid if neces-
sary? The ambiguity of the passage is resolved in the Ijod through a
change to direct discourse. A shift of nuance results that renders the Nor-
wegian version of the passage a more poignant expression of hopeless-
ness than the French. The irrevocable loss of Janual’s beloved is a foregone
conclusion as the knight exclaims to King Arthur: En nu heui ec tynt
unnasto minni. af jmi er ec rosade mér af astarpocca hennar (p. 71 ‘I now
have lost my beloved because I have boasted of her affection’). As in
Geitarlauf we have before us an interpretation, probably the translator’s
own exegesis occasioned by the ambiguity of the source.
Because of the change to direct discourse above, Janual unequivocably
expresses the conviction that he cannot be acquitted of the charge of
declaring his beloved more beautiful than the queen; loss of his sweet-
heart implies the inability to recall her presence, and thus also the inabili-
ty to determine whether she is in faet more beautiful than the queen. In
consequence, the duke’s suggestion to the knights in the French lai that
Lanval clear himself of the charge by producing his beloved (v. 454)
becomes pointless, as does the repetition of the demand to Lanval (v.
465) and his response that he cannot do so (v. 467). Dramatic interest is
maintained in the French lai by the demand that the lady appear in
person. The change in the altercation between King Arthur and the
accused knight as well as the deletion of the duke’s speech shift the focus
in the Ijod to the repeated and mysterious interference with the progress
of the trial. With any possibility removed - as Janual supposes - of
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