Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 200

lack of the steward’s speech in the lady’s behalf - to a desire to reduce the
text rather than to change the narrative. Deletions occur, however, in
conjunction with interpolations and modifications of the plot; substantial
revision results. Since important details in the events precipitating the
lady’s marriage to Iven differ in the vellums and in Stockholm 46, modifi-
cations in the latter manuscript must therefore be considered intentional.
The sequence of events following Iven’s wounding and pursuing the
lord of the spring is presented in such a manner in Stockholm 46 - as a
consequence of a series of interpolations and modifications - that the
hero finds himself in a more dangerous predicament than in the version
preserved in the vellums and in the French romance. In Yvain, after the
eponymous hero has wounded the lord of the spring, he pursues the
fleeing lord into the latter’s castle - where he subsequently dies - but
Yvain’s horse is sliced in two by a descending gate with a finely honed
edge. Chrétien and the vellums inform us that the hero finds himself
trapped in a hall. The maid-in-waiting to the lady of the spring gives him
a ring which makes him invisible. As a consequence, the lord’s retainers
cannot find Yvain, although they infer from the dead horse that the
knight must be in the hall. Their search - conducted before and after the
lord’s funeral - proves fruitless.
The author of the version represented by Stockholm 46 systematically
revised the above sequence of events as well as subsequent ones, to
exaggerate the danger to Iven’s life. In Stockholm 46 the lord’s retainers
are present when Iven’s horse is killed; they seize the knight immediate-
ly, tie him up, and lock him in the hall. When they return after the lord’s
funeral to avenge their master’s death on Iven, he is still in fetters,
although now invisible because of the ring which Luneta, the maid-in-
waiting, had given him. In the Stockholm 46 version - but not in the
vellums - the retainers actually touch the immobile Iven as they search
for him. Only after the lord’s men have left the hall and Luneta returns,
does Iven complain about being in fetters. Luneta frees him, and then
opens a window from which Iven catches sight of the grieving widow, of
whom he immediately becomes enamoured. The reader knows that Iven
has nothing to fear when he is finally to appear before the mistress of the
spring, but the Stockholm 46 version again introduces some modifica-
tions vis-å-vis the vellums, so that Iven’s situation is still precarious - as
far as he is concerned. Luneta informs Iven that her lady is angry and that
she, Luneta, fears for his life, since the lady’s retainers await his ap-
pearance with swords drawn. She hastens to add, however, that he will
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