Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 151

(But you are a guileful, treacherous person and a thief. My lady
thought that you were sincere; it never entered her mind that you
would steal her love and betray her.)
The text cited above from Chrétien’s Yvain is a typical example that
might be put forth in evidence of the inadequacy of the translations, of
their stylistic inferiority vis-å-vis the French originals, of the inability of
the translators/redactors to understand or appreciate the spirit of courtly
romance. Denial of what seems proof positive is futile in this instance.
Comparison of two other passages - again direct discourse - should,
however, convince us that other factors must be taken into consideration
before reaching a definitive judgment regarding the style - or its lack - in
the riddarasogur. Despite the radical condensation of Lunete’s speech in
Ivens saga, other examples can be adduced from the same work to dem-
onstrate that the author did indeed understand the advantage of such
techniques as repetition or variation of synonymous words or phrases in
order to emphasize a particular aspect of the narrative. For example,
when Laudine realizes at the conclusion of Yvain that she has been duped
into taking back her husband as protector of the spring, she angrily gives
vent to her exasperation:
Miauz vosisse tote ma vie
Vanz et orages andurer!
Et se ne fust de parjurer
Trop leide chose et trop vilainne,
Ja mes a moi por nule painne
Pes ne acorde ne trovast. (vv. 6766-71)
(I would rather endure the winds and the tempests all my life! And
if it were not a mean and ugly thing to break one’s word, he would
never make his peace or be reconciled with me.)
Chrétien stresses the vehemence with which Laudine speaks through
three pairs of nearly synonymous words - vanz.orages, leide-.vilainne,
pes.acorde. The anger of her words is even more pronounced in the saga,
which inflates the French text:
Heldr vilda ek alla mina lifsdaga upp neyta
vid vatn ok vind,
eldingum ok illvidri.
137