Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Qupperneq 228

ior - conveyed through a flurry of alliterative and other collocations - but
not one adjective or other descriptive feature occurs in the Icelandic saga
to render the appearance of the beast more plastic. The actual slaying of
the dragon is dispatched in the Icelandic saga without any reference to
particulars. Only the death of the horse merits more attention than in the
Norwegian saga, with an authorial comment relative to Tristram’s luck in
not having been seated on the horse at the time of the killing. The stylistic
relationship of the two dragon episodes in the Tristram sagas is analogous
to the relationship between the flying dragon episode in Pidriks saga and
in Erex saga. In both cases formal considerations determine the content.
As a group, the Arthurian riddarasogur are a concrete expression of
the process by which a translation, over a period of time, evolves into a
re-creation. As paradoxical as it seems, one and the same manuscript can
demonstrate the Norwegian translator’s fidelity to his source, while at the
same time it bears witness to scribal disregard for the integrity of the texts
to be transmitted. The Stockholm 46 version of Ivens saga demonstrates
that the original Norwegian translation of Yvain contained a fuller text
than the vellums - and Kolbing’s editions - indicate: at the same time,
this paper manuscript of Ivens saga presents evidence of Icelandic edit-
ing, of substantial modification of content. The Stockholm 46 version of
Ivens saga is marred, however, by lack of consistency, in style and con-
tent. The Stockholm 46 redaction of Ivens saga is part copy, part revision
of another manuscript. Erex saga, however - unlike Ivens saga in the
Stockholm 46 version - is a complete and successful revision of the Nor-
wegian translation of Erec et Enide. The editor-author undertook to
revise thoroughly and systematically the style, structure, and content of
the work before him. Yet, despite extensive modifications, the author
still retained the spirit of courtly romance: Erex saga, like its source Erec
et Enide, depicts the hero’s ascent, through countless trials, to the pinnac-
le of Arthurian farne. The evolutionary process from translated romance
to Icelandic saga reaches its zenith with the Icelandic Saga af Tristram ok
Isodd: the roman courtois of Tristan has been transformed into a parody,
both of the Tristan legend and of Arthurian romance. The matiére de
Bretagne has been re-created as an Icelandic Tristram.
The metamorphosis of the Arthurian riddarasogur is not limited to the
transformation of content and narrative structure. Form also is affected.
If one considers that French verse romances were transplanted to Scandi-
navia in prose form - the prose form imitating that of the indigenous
narratives - then it may come as somewhat of a surprise that the Icelandic
prose romances should in turn have provided the impulse for the compo-
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