Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 181
when my joy is buried? It is fitting that both of us should die. Since
he cannot come to me, I must pass through death, for his death
beats upon my heart. How shall I be able to live here longer?
My life must follow his life.)
Despite Brother Robert’s penchant for alliterative collocations, he has
chosen to base the stylistic structure of the above lament primarily on
semantic variation and antithesis. The composition of the passage is more
complex than the one cited from Ivens saga. Here the dramatic and
emotional impact is not the result of an alliterative cluster but rather of
repetition and variation of the antithesis Ufdaudi. The structure of the
lament is tripartite, and based on the rhetorical question, “How shall I
live now?” which is echoed by a metaphorical variation of the same,
“How shall I be comforted when my joy is buried?” Alliterative pairs are
used sparingly and only once does one of the central concepts alliterate:
daudi.drepr. The author’s reasoning process is rigorous. Commencing
with the equation Uf = Uf and its metaphorical expression in the tautolog-
ical yndi = giedi, he proceeds to the antithesis lifa:daudan - which is
also expressed metaphorically in gaman grafit - only to arrive at the
inevitable conclusion: saman at deyja. What is only a possibility is then
translated into a decision of the will, presented antithetically: ei til min
koma : gegnum daudann at ganga, a variation of which appears in the
concluding resolution: mitt Uf skal hans lififylgja. Thus the lament is once
more at the starting point, at the equation - albeit transfigured - Uf = Uf.
This one passage alone would prove Meissner’s negative evaluation of
Tristrams saga wrong: “Was fur uns in den resten des franzosischen ge-
dichtes so reizvoll ist, die seelische vertiefung, das entfalten des gefuhls-
inhaltes, das liebevolle ausspinnen von stimmungen, fehit in der norwegi-
schen iibersetzung.”39
Tristrams saga contains another passage which in structure and style
approximates more Iven’s lament than Blensinbil’s, that is, the passage in
which the author expresses Tristram’s anguish in arriving at a decision to
marry Isodd. The corresponding portion of Thomas’ text is preserved in
the Sneyd1 Fragment (vv. 183-98, Wind edition). Thomas employs repeti-
tion and variation to depict Tristran’s repeated attempts at finding a
solution to his problem (vv. 188; 189; 192; 195). Brother Robert follows
his example, but develops the principle of verbal repetition further. He
depicts Tristram’s indecisiveness primarily through alliterating synony-
39 Die Strengleikar, p. 307.
I2‘
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