5. For the attention and action of all editors - please read!

The following issues are ones the general editors seek your input on now or in the near future. We would very much appreciate your help in sending your comments and/or requested information as soon as possible to the relevant person under each of the 5 heads listed below:

i) The first item concerns information about the manuscripts (or occasionally printed sources) you are using as the bases for your edited texts. As we will shortly be able to access the ONP Registre directly on line on our web site, it will not be necessary in most cases for editors to supply full information about the mss they will cite in their editions. However, in some cases, if your mss do not appear on the ONP list, you will need to supply your coordinating editor(s) and TW with full details, which must be approved and confirmed correct by them. Please check our web site in the near future to see whether ‘your’ mss appear on our list.
• Whether your mss are listed on the project site or not, all editors must confirm to their coordinating editor(s) a list of the full sigla (e.g. AM 61 fol) of the mss they cite as witnesses to their text(s) and the correct abbreviated sigla (e.g. 61) for those mss. This list should be submitted as soon as possible, so that checking can take place. If the full and/or abbreviated sigla are not on the project database, editors must obtain an approved abbreviated siglum from TW or submit their own suggestion to TW for approval. He will liase with the relevant coordinating editor and then notify you of the approved abbreviated siglum.
• If you use early printed sources as primary texts (e.g. in the case of the Icelandic Rune Poem), you must devise abbreviated sigla for them, which will also have to be confirmed by your coordinating editor via TW. A similar situation applies in the case of runic poems, where an edition must be cited as a primary source (unless the inscription is unpublished).

ii) A second item also concerns manuscripts. Could you please check the database of mss on the project website as soon as possible to see if all the mss you will cite as significant in your editions of the texts in your assignment are listed there. If any mss you will use are NOT listed, please contact TW as soon as possible and let him know what these mss are.

iii) The third matter concerns our deadlines and the continued contact we would like you to maintain with your coordinating editors. We ask you to do the following, in the interests of achieving our stated deadlines:
• please send a report on the progress you have actually made by April 2003 to your coordinating editor(s) to reach her/them by 30 April 2003. This should be accompanied by a detailed plan of how you will achieve the project objective of having a completed draft of your verses to your coordinating editor(s) by October 2004. The timetable should be realistic, and any problems you are having or are likely to have which might make it difficult for you to submit by the agreed time should be indicated to your coordinating editor(s) as soon as possible. It is of course possible to send in material early; early submissions will be welcomed.

iv) The fourth item is about how you should deal with situations where your own interpretations of skaldic verses differ markedly from those of other/previous editors. This matter came up during our discussion of problems arising from sample edited verses people had sent in. The most important thing here is to be even-handed, clear and succinct. Assuming you think the ‘standard’ view or earlier views are less satisfactory than the one you are advocating, you should say so, and indicate why you hold your view, while at the same time giving a brief but clear exposition of other opinions. For the most part, such discussions should appear in the Notes to verses, but sometimes it may be necessary to mention them in the Introduction and Variant Readings sections as well.

v) The editors discussed a number of problems which related to succinct referencing of recurring contextual matter for the edition, including the glossing of untranslatable indigenous terms (e.g. hersir), nicknames, place-names and dates. It was resolved to deal with these issues by providing indices of personal names (with dates, where appropriate and known), indigenous terms, place-names, major battles (KG to draw this up) and mythological references (MCR to draw up this list). These indices will be published in the same volume of the edition that contains bibliographical data.

In order to draw up comprehensive lists under all these heads, we would like you to provide lists of terms for inclusion in these indices to your coordinating editor(s), who will then vet them and forward them, if approved, to TW for inclusion in the database.

When you submit your draft edited texts, will you please also submit as separate lists any material in your assignments that you wish to see included in the indices, viz.:
• personal names, with dates where known, and nicknames, if known
• indigenous terms for which there is no precise English translation
• place-names
• major battles
• mythological references
See the Editors’ Manual, J. 1.3, p. 38 for advice on the forms in which names should be cited.

References