Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 201
not be molested during the course of the negotiations with the lady, be
they for two or three hours:
Mjok er fruin min reid ok hrædumsk ek dauda J)inn, J)vi at
med brugdnum sverdum standa menn inni hjå henni bunir at
hoggva J>ik, enn |j6 hefir )>u frid å medan {)u flytr Jaitt erindi i
två tima, edr )>rjå. (ch. 4, 53:24-54:25)
Missing in Stockholm 46 is Luneta’s assurance - in the language of court-
ly love, still echoing Chrétien’s language - min fru vill hafa pik sem
hertekinn mann i sinu valdi, svå vandliga at eigi skal hugr pinn né hjarta
vera or hennar valdi (ch. 6, 54:3-5 ‘My lady wishes to have you as a
captive in her power, so complete that neither your head nor your heart
can escape’). Also lacking in Stockholm 46 are Luneta’s final words
before leading Iven into the lady’s chambers: Hræzk ekki ok ihuga eigi at
pu munir vera hér angradr (54:8-9 ‘Don’t be afraid and don’t think about
the possibility of being distressed here’). Instead, the Luneta of Stock-
holm 46 informs Iven that his horse stands saddled, should he wish to
escape. Despite a show of bravado - Ekki ottumsk ek dauda minn (‘I
don’t fear my death’) - we are amused to read in Stockholm 46 that Iven
appears before the lady with his helmet on his head, and that he takes up
a respectful, and as it were timid position - at some distance from her.
Only after Luneta now reassures him that the lady does not intend to
have him killed - ok ottask ekki at hon låti drepa pik - does Iven remove
his helmet. The tone is quite different from the teasing remark in the
vellums with which Luneta encourages Iven to step forward: Ottask eigi
at hon biti pik (56:3 ‘Don’t be afraid that she will bite you’) which is a
direct translation of the French et peor n’aiiez/De ma dame qu’ele vos
morde (vv. 1966-67).
Another episode from the Stockholm 46 version of fvens saga can be
offered as evidence that Icelandic copyists were also interpreters who
revised the texts they were copying, and that substantial changes in the
riddarasogur should not necessarily be ascribed to the Norwegian transla-
tors. The episode in which Yvain/Iven rescues 300 maidens from a fate of
life-long slave labor demonstrates the evolutionary process from French
romance, to modified translation, to revised tale. The account is avail-
able to us in only one Icelandic vellum (Stockholm 6) - the last section of
AM 489, beginning with the episode in question is lost - and in the paper
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