Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 211

second half of the thirteenth century, and written by the same scribe,
commonly designated Mb2. Both episodes appear to be an integral and
essential part of the narrative.
The complicated structure of Erex saga, the character of the other
translated romances, and the age of the episodes in Pidriks saga are the
primary reasons for supposing that the author of Erex saga plagiarized
Pidriks saga. How well-known and popular Pidriks saga was is attested
by several other sagas, among them Vdlsunga saga, that borrowed mate-
rial from it.10 Of the translated Arthurian romances only Erex saga diver-
ges substantially from the structure of the French source, and only Erex
saga falis outside the Tristram-group for stylistic reasons. It is unlikely
that the translator was so familiar with Chrétien’s Erec et Enide that he
could at one and the same time adhere closely to some portions of the
French text, shift the location of other passages (for example, the portrait
of Erec) as well as entire episodes (for example, Erec’s duel with Kay),
while at the same time creating and incorporating new episodes (flying
dragon and seven armed men), and still produce a work that is both
structurally sophisticated and stylistically consistent. The example of the
Stockholm 46 version of Ivens saga demonstrates that major changes - of
the type common in Erex saga - were introduced into Ivens saga by an
Icelandic copyist. The case was presumably similar for Erex saga. Both
Erex saga and Ivens saga share a primary manuscript, Stockholm 46, that
is a copy of the now lost Ormsbok (see pp. 12-14). The changes in Erex saga
and in the Stockholm 46 version of Ivens saga were probably introduced
into the respective works some time in the course of the fourteenth
century.
The extant text of Erex saga is the result of a major revision of a
Norwegian translation that, like the other Arthurian riddarasogur, was a
somewhat condensed but generally accurate re-telling of the plot of the
French source. We assume that the original Erex saga reproduced not
only the content but also the structure of the French original. At some
point in the fourteenth century, an Icelandic scribe, who was also conver-
sant with Pidriks saga, thoroughly revised the structure, content, and
style of the Norwegian saga. He abhorred verbosity and reduced the
alliterative, tautological language of the Norwegian translation to a lacon-
ic prose. For that reason he also conflated two successive and duplicative
robber episodes in Erec et Enide into a single narrative unit, and adopted
10 Henrik Bertelsen, Pidriks saga af Bern (Copenhagen: STUAGNL, 1905-11), I, pp.
LIV-LV.
14 King Arthur
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