Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 177
plants, the former essential because it is a part of the name (viduindill),
but not the latter (heslivid), and the author cleverly severs -vid from the
hazeltree at an appropriate moment: par deyr haslenn. Then too the
entwining is suggested twice, in the name vidvindill itself and in the
tautological binnz. The latter word dictates the alliteration for a second
level of meaning; entwining symbolizes life: from bua bader the next step
is liva oc bera lauf. By adding bader to bua (unnecessary because of the
prior tveir) the author is able to continue and develop his alliterative
interpretation of the content. As with the play on vid, he is able to
express death concretely by transforming the alliterating pair bua bader
into firir verdaz bæde. For Tristram’s explication of the simile he has
used to depict the love enjoyed by him and Isond, the author prefers a
rhymed couplet.
As delicate and subtle an alliteration as found in Geitarlauf to express
the highpoint of the Ijod is unusual in the longer works, where allitera-
tion tends to occur in clusters, frequently in a series of either synonymous
or antithetic pairs. The combination of rhythm established by parallelism
and alliteration brings the text in question immediately to our attention.
Not infrequently a series of alliterating collocations represents an expan-
sion of French text or else its restructuring. One example is found to-
wards the end of Mottuls saga, in which the French couplet spoken by
Gawain - Une chose pouez savoirlque li plusor en sont dolent (vv. 870-71
‘One thing you may know, that the majority are sorrowful’)35 - is expand-
ed into a series of four antithetic and in part tautological collocations:
En nu he fir at hogum (181, logum 179) til skipzk,
at Jyeirra øfund ok angrsemi er [)ér fagnadr,
t>eirra Ziarmr \>éx /tuggun,
Jyeirra svivirding J?ér virding;
Jyeirra glcepr mun J>ér /of i hverju /andi vaxanda. (ch. 11, p.
32)
(And now the situation has undergone a change for the better, as
their envy and grief become your joy, their sorrow your consola-
tion, their disgrace your honor, their misdeeds will only cause your
praise to swell in every land.)
The structure of the above passage from Mottuls saga demonstrates that
35 Only in the Berne manuscript, no. 354 and Paris, B. N. Nouv. acq. fr. 1104.
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