Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 166

ing them as facing a man supported by an unusually large number of
positive attributes:
Allir er at sato domenom varo ryggir mioc. oc harmado mioc
at J)eir skylido dæma hann sva dyrlegan mann
sva milldan oc kurteisan oc vel reyndan. oc utlennzkan mann,
on hialpar oc hugganar allra sinna frænda. (p. 72)
(All those who were sitting in judgment were very sad, and they
lamented greatly that they had to judge such a glorious man, so
gracious and courteous and well proven, and a foreigner without
the help and comfort of his kinsmen.)
The rhythm of the passage is established primarily through the coupling
of the nearly synonymous pair ryggir.harmado (further linked by the use
of mioc to modify both), through the five adjectives describing Janual
(these too are linked by the repetition of a word, mann, at the beginning
and end of the phrase), and through the alliterating on hialpar oc huggan-
ar. In addition, association between judges and the accused is established
alliteratively as well as semantically through the grammatical and seman-
tic variants domenom.dæma which not only alliterate with each other but
also with the first adjective in the series describing Janual, dyrlegan. To
appreciate better the skili with which the Norwegian passage is construct-
ed, as well as the stylistic independence of the author from the French
text, consider the corresponding verses in Lanval:
mult sunt pensif e esguaré
del franc hume d’altre pa'is,
qui entre els ert si entrepris, (w. 430-32)
(They are sunk deep in thought and disturbed because of the noble
man from another country who is so powerless among them.)
To these three lines a fourth should be added that occurs a few verses
earlier; it too describes the courtiers’ sympathy for Lanval: Mult furent
tuit pur lui dolent (v. 421 ‘All were very sorry for him’). In this instance
the author of Januals Ijod was more successful in conveying through
form the very content of the passage than was the French author.
The use of grammatical variants of a semantic stem, as seen in the
example dæma:domenom above, is not unusual in the translated sagas.
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