Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 182
mous pairs, and his determination to find a solution through repetition of
the verb freista (‘to try,’ ‘to attempt’):
Ok er nu Tristram i mikilli ihugan um sfna rådagerb,
ok getr hann ongva skynsemi gert sér adra en f>å,
at hann vill freista,
ef hann mætti nokkut yndi få moti (>eirri ast,
er hann hefir svå lengi haft
med angri ok 6ro,
Ziarmi ok hugsottum.
hvi vill hann freista,
ef ny dst ok yndi mætti gefa honum at gleyma Isond;
{>vi at hann hyggr, hon muni hann hafa fyrirlåtit.
Eda sér til gagns ok gamans vildi hann konu eiga.
at ekki asakadi /sond hann -
|)vf vill hann få hana,
sakir nafns, frægdar ok medferda. (ch. 69, p. 146)
(Tristram now devotes much thought in regard to a decision, and
can come to no other decision than that he wishes to try to find
some pleasure to counter the love which he has so long endured
with grief and anxiety, with sorrow and distress. Therefore he will
try to discover if new love and delight might enable him to forget
Isond, since he believes that she has forsaken him; or he might wish
to take a wife for his well-being and pleasure, so that Isond might
not reproach him - therefore he wishes to marry her for the sake of
her name, farne, and deportment.)
Stylistic effort has been lavished on this passage. The tentative and hesi-
tant nature of the repeated hann vill freista evolves by the end of the
passage into a firm decision, pvl vill hann få hana, so that the very next
sentence - Ok bidr hann f>vi Isoddar hertuga systur (‘therefore he wooed
Isodd, the duke’s sister’) - does not at all come as a surprise. In this
manner one is unaware that a significant number of verses of Thomas’
text have not been transmitted (w. 199-232), verses in which the author
depicts Tristan’s long drawn-out agony, expressed through repeated
word plays on the nun (name) and belté (beauty) of Isolt. To be sure, one
can lament the loss of Thomas’ text in translation, but one should not be
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