Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 178

alliteration is neither automatic nor indiscriminate. One cannot discount
entirely the possibility that the lack of uniformity in the distribution of
the alliteration derived from the inability of the author to produce more
nearly symmetrical antitheses (nor should one dismiss the possibility of
poor manuscript transmission). Nonetheless, if one considers the stylistic
finesse the author of Mottuls saga demonstrates in general, it seems more
likely that the distribution of the alliteration is intentional - barring a
copyist’s editing - as is also the rhythm of the sentence. The heavy
emphasis on the unpleasant at the beginning of the series in the pair
dfund ok angrsemi is balanced by the length of the last clause, of which
the final word - expressing continuity by being a present participle -
alliterates with the preceding antithesis, thus providing a fitting conclu-
sion for the series of collocations.
The lyric, dramatic, and rhythmic potential of an antithetic series sup-
ported by alliteration is fully exploited in Ivens saga in the hero’s lament
over having so foolishly forfeited his wife’s love. The saga passage is an
interpretation of 32 verses of French text commencing with the question,
Que fet que ne se tue/Cist las qui joie s’est tolue? (vv. 3531-32 ‘Why does
this wretch not kill himself who has thus deprived himself of joy?’) and
culminating in Et je doi la mort redoter/Qui a duel ai joie changiee? (vv.
3552-53 ‘And ought I to fear death who have changed joy into grief?’).
The effectiveness of the French lament rests principally on the skillful
repetition, variation, and augmentation of a series of rhetorical ques-
tions. The corresponding passage in the saga reflects the tone and general
content of the romance faithfully enough. Nonetheless, the saga text
must be considered a new creation as well as interpretation of the source,
primarily because of the use of alliterating antitheses as a principle of
structure. In the saga, Iven’s lament is a rhetorical amplification of the
single verse, Qui a duel ai joie changiee. The passage opens with a varia-
tion of the opening lines of the French text: Que fet que ne se tue/Cist las
qui joie s’est tolue:
Til hvers skal ek lifa?
Vesall maår var ek, svå ogeyminn.
Hvat skal ek utan drepa mik sjålfr?
Ek hefi rynt huggan minni ok fagnaåi,
ok um snuit af sjålfs mlns glæp virding minni
ok vent rign minni i tyning,
yndi mitt i angrsemi,
lif mitt i /eidindi,
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