Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Qupperneq 98

Substantial scribal modifications that affect both content and style of
the riddarasogur occurred as early as the thirteenth century. Among the
several manuscripts of one saga we not infrequently come upon consider-
able variation in text. A comparison of primary manuscripts reveals that
amplification and condensation, both together and as separate phenome-
na, occurred in at least two steps: in the original translation and in the
transmission of that translation. The unresolved question concerns attri-
bution of modification, condensation, and amplification. Several pas-
sages in Mottuls saga illustrate the problem. As was pointed out earlier
(pp. 53-56), the saga exhibits a general tendency toward amplification
vis-å-vis Le mantel mautaillié. The volume of a particular passage in
French can be tripled in Old Norse-Icelandic, as happens in Arthur’s
invitation to the Whitsun celebration. The French version is both succinct
and abstract:
Li rois Artus a fet crier
que tuit li vaillant bacheler
i venissent delivrement. (vv. 13-15)
(King Arthur has it proclaimed that all the valiant young men
should come there speedily.)
In comparison, the corresponding section of the saga is verbose (the text
below is that of the paper manuscript AM 179; italicized words are lack-
ing in the vellum fragment AM 598):
Artus konungr var hinn forvitnasti madr
ok vildi verda viss allra tidenda,
er gerdusk i riki hans ok svå i odrum londum,
f)ar sem hann måtti spyrja.
Ok Jjvi lét hann blåsa hvervetna å skogum, å vegum ok
gatnamotum, at hverr er ()ar var um farandi, skyldi koma
til hirdar ok håtidar hans.
(King Arthur was the most inquisitive of men and wanted to be
apprised of all news of events which took place in the realm as well
as in other lands, where he might learn of them. And so he let it be
trumpeted about, in the woods, on roads and crossroads, that
everyone who was traveling there, was to come to his court and his
festivities.)
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