Note to Anon Mv I 10^VII

[7] þar, sem þjóðir vissu ‘there, where people found out about it’: Lit. ‘there, where people found out’. The l. is difficult to make sense of. Þar ‘there’ is an adv. with full stress carrying alliteration and followed by sem ‘where’. The internal rhyme falls on the two syllables þar-sem (assimilation of rs to ss). Skj B emends þar ‘there’ to þat ‘that which’ and tentatively translates the cl. as hvad folk mente at vide (?) ‘that which people thought they knew (?)’, which leaves the l. without internal rhyme. Kock (Skald; NN §2864) emends to þess sem þjóðir vissu ‘as people knew’. Wrightson has ‘although people knew about it already’. All these translations make little sense, because, according to Mar, the woman had confessed the crime to the priest, who later became so enraged that he broke his confidentiality. He reported the crime sva at allir mega heyra ‘so that all are able to hear’ (Mar 1871, 277) or fyrir morgum monnum ‘before many people’ (Mar 1871, 1203). Accordingly, he announced it in a public place where many people, who did not know about the crime, heard about it.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.