Gripla - 2023, Page 69
67GENESIS AND PROVENANCE OF THE OLDEST SOUL
“en” (in), not the accusative preceded by the preposition per (L), denoting
“through” a place, as in the Nuper (see table 3). However, this error does
not have an indisputable transmission link; since the referents for “sleep”
and “dream” are semi-synonyms, the original “sleep” could have been
changed into “dream” independently in different traditions. This section
of text is missing in R2.
Table 3.
L (102/7) P (112/3) N (280/4) A (280/34) R1 (280/20)
per somnium
[through a
dream].
en mon dor-
mant
[in my sleep].
i draume
[in dream].
sem svefns
[as sleep].
isuefni
[in sleep].
Furthermore, Widding and Bekker-Nielsen provided further evidence
in favour of the existence of Y. During her speech in the Old French
text, the soul stresses her inability to manage the body, in particular in P:
“refrener” (to curb), “da mal retorner” (to retrieve from evil), “conseiller”
(to counsel righteously), and “castier” (to chastise). N transmits the verbs
“hępta” (to curb) and “fra illu hværfa” (to turn from evil), displaying a
perfect agreement with “refrener” and “da mal retorner” in P. Z (AR1R2),
on the other hand, preserves the verbs “hirta” (to chastise), erroneously
interpreted as “hjarta” (heart) in A through a paleographic change, and A
reads “fra illu hverfa” (to turn away from evil), which corresponds perfectly
with “da mal retorner” and “castier,” this time mistakenly transcribed
by Z2 and transmitted in R1 as “fra villu draga” (to draw from heresy)
and in R2 as “fra villu færa” (to move away from heresy) (see table 4).
According to Widding and Bekker-Nielsen, it is plausible that Y included
the four Norse verbs that correspond exactly with the Old French text.
Subsequently, according to Widding and Bekker-Nielsen, N and Y may
have selected two verbs each, thus omitting the other two.27
27 Widding and Bekker-Nielsen, 278.