Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 188

In this passage as in the previous one from Tristrams saga, the author has
in effect created the episode anew: the matter is the same as in the
French, but the formal aspects differ and, therefore, also the impact of
the text upon the reader. In the French Perceval emphasis is on the image
of biood in the snow. Twice Chrétien tells us that the color combination
reminds Perceval of his beloved (vv. 4200-01; 4209-10). The saga author
stresses this aspect of the scene not through repetition but by assonance
- slikr litr; andliti - and alliteration - andliti.unnustu. Perceval’s reaction
to what he sees - his delight and pensiveness - is also repeated by Chréti-
en with variation (w. 4202; 4207-08; 4211). In the depiction of the mu-
sing Parceval the present participle functions in the saga to express state-
of-being as well as duration, especially since the tautological hugsandi-
ihugandi and their antithesis in gleymandi express sustained thought pro-
cesses. Moreover, the author’s intention of expressing duration through
use of the participle is evident if one considers that Parceval’s musings
commence with the semantically related but structurally different phrase
kom i hug. The effect of Parceval’s reverie is transmitted by the rhymed
couplet at the end of the scene.
The preceding textual samples and analyses strongly suggest that the
authors of the Arthurian riddarasogur were neither insensitive nor disin-
terested in some of the more formal aspects of the narrative art. Despite
deletion and condensation of French text, there is ampie evidence that
the translators/redactors were concerned with style and not merely with
content, that they too could depict emotion, albeit in a manner somewhat
different from that of the great French authors. In the last analysis, the
rhetorical means available to a Thomas or Chrétien, such as repetition
and variation, were neither unknown nor disdained by the translators.
Far from dismissing the riddarasogur as summaries lacking any sense of
style, they should be considered without prejudice and as individual
works. Despite the homogeneity of the Arthurian riddarasogur by virtue
of their content and a common repertoire of rhetorical devices, the trans-
lated romances nonetheless evince considerable diversity in the applica-
tion of the stylistic techniques that are generally considered to be their
hallmark.
A scene with similar content can differ markedly in structure and style,
as the comparison of various laments has demonstrated; the same is true
of dialogue or of the depiction of combat. Nonetheless, statistical analys-
es have shown Ivens saga, Mottuls saga, Parcevals saga and Valvens påttr,
Tristrams saga, and the Strengleikar to have a common lexicon and syn-
tax. On the basis of certain syntactic-stylistic features, such as word order
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