A2.I. Aim and background
This is not currently part of the peer-reviewed material of the project. Do not cite as a research publication.
The present edition of Chanson d'Aspremont (Aspr) is designed to form the base text in an electronic presentation of its translation into Old Norse, branch IV of Karlamagnúss saga, where, at an early stage in the transmission, the opening sections of the text were replaced by a translation of the relevant section of the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle. This project is managed by Christopher Sanders, one of the editors of A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose in Copenhagen; the database concept and management is the brainchild of Tarrin Wills, while validation and input has been in the hands of Agathe M. Hahn..
The primary aim of the project has determined the choice of the main manuscript, Lansdowne 782 (L2), of which the text, without being identical with what the Old Norse translator had before him, is closer to it than any of the other surviving witnesses. This same aim has also determined the choice of which variant readings from other manuscripts are provided in the apparatus: only those are cited that I viewed as potentially closer to the translator's exemplar than the readings of L2.