Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 105

modify the content of Yvain. The vellums follow the French romance in
assigning the admiring words to the maidens who observe the progress of
the battie from the ramparts. The paper manuscript does not follow suit
and, by a change of speaker, alters the basic thrust of the narrative so that
attention is focussed on the lady of the castle. Furthermore, in the paper
manuscript the recasting of the entire episode commences prior to the
combat scene. In the first place, not the hero but the lady takes the
initiative as she herself approaches Iven for help against her oppressor.
Then, as the battie rages, she - not her maidens - breaks into a soliloquy
of praise. The initial sentence of the monologue changes the nature of the
narrative in this episode. The French romance and the vellums depict a
case of wishful thinking on the part of secondary characters, not the
protagonists. The lady’s attendants sigh, “Happy the woman loved by
such a man.” In the paper manuscript, however, wishful thinking be-
comes a case of anticipating one’s own behavior. The mistress over vast
possessions assesses implicitly the future prospect of the hero when she
exclaims, “Happy the woman who gives herself and her entire realm into
his keeping.” Both changes make good sense and are exemplary of the
editorial revisions of the scribe responsible for the many changes, some
of them radical, in the Stockholm 46 redaction of Ivens saga (see also pp.
183-91).
The changes evince a concern with motivation and are easily under-
stood from the point of view of the conclusion of the episode as depicted
in the vellums. Once peace has been restored between Earl Alies and the
lady of the castle, Iven takes leave, and the final scene of the episode
focusses on the lady who is left behind reid ok dngrud (100:1 ‘angry and
sorrowful’) because Iven did not wish to stay. She had wanted to show
him honor and make him master of all her possessions. The phrase ok
gera hann herra allra sinna eigna can, of course, imply an erotic interest,
but need not. Only in the French Yvain are the romantic implications
expressed in a passage not represented in the vellums. When Yvain seeks
leave, Chrétien - the all-knowing author - informs us of the lady’s unspo-
ken reaction to his request:
Mes ele ne li donast mie,
Se il a farne ou a amie
La vosist prandre et nogoiier. (vv. 3317-19)
(But she would rather have granted it, if only he had been willing to
accept her as his beloved or wife, and marry her.)
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