5. Publication contract with Brepols

The draft contract with Brepols Publishers, drawn up by Simon Forde in July 2003, was discussed and each clause examined by the General Editors at their August meeting. It was agreed that the contract was generally acceptable, though it was noted that a separate agreement will have to be drawn up concerning the electronic product. This has not yet happened. Another concern was to agree what in the database should be included and what excluded from the contract for the electronic product. The question of the maintenance of the excluded material came up and it was suggested that Odd Einar Haugen might be approached to see whether the Menota project might be interested in providing a home for it. (Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, Web site www.menota.org)

At present, there still remain a few details of the hard copy contract to be clarified with Simon Forde, but they are minor and are likely to be resolved shortly. What is clear is that there will be a general contract for the Series (see below) between Brepols Publishers and the responsible Academic Body, effectively the 5 General Editors, and that each Contributing Editor will be asked to sign a separate protocol, which is a standard waiver for contributors to a miscellany volume, whose main objectives are to ensure there is no plagiarism (perish the thought!), that Brepols has the permission of Contributing Editors to publish, and that the benefits they will gain are set down clearly.

The titles and composition of the 9 proposed volumes of the edition have now been revised. The original Volume 6, Miscellany, has been scrapped and its former contents now assigned to other volumes, as follows:

Málsháttakvæði and Háttalykill are reassigned to Vol. 3, Poetry from Treatises on Poetics (General Editor Edith Marold (EM))
Merlinúspá and Krákumál will appear in Vol. 8, Poetry in fornaldarsögur (General Editor Margaret Clunies Ross (MCR)).
Rekstefja, Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar and Jómsvíkingadrápa will appear in Vol. 1 Poetry for Scandinavian rulers 1 (General Editor Diana Whaley (DW)).
Nóregs konungatal will appear in Vol. 2 Poetry for Scandinavian rulers 2 (General Editor Kari Gade (KG))
Íslendingadrápa will appear in Vol. 5, Poetry on Icelandic History (General Editor Guðrún Nordal (GN)).
Hugsvinnsmál will appear in Vol. 7, Poetry on Christian subjects (General Editor Margaret Clunies Ross (MCR)).

In place of the former Miscellany volume (6) will be a separate volume of Runic poetry, edited by EM and Hans-Peter Naumann, which will include all metrical runic inscriptions and the Norwegian and Icelandic Rune Poems, the latter edited by Ray Page. This volume will be smaller than the others, though images of the material objects will probably take up a reasonable amount of space.

In addition, the new verses which are either not in Skj or were omitted by us will appear in existing volumes; 2 verses in Latin will be assigned to Vol. 7, Poetry on Christian subjects; one Latin stanza from Oddr Snorrason’s saga of Óláfr Tryggvason will appear in Vol. 1. The remaining Latin(ate) verses will be assigned to Vol. 3. Grettisfœrsla will appear in Vol. 5.

Revised volume titles and the order in which volumes will be published is now as follows:

Early 2006: Vol. 7 Poetry on Christian Subjects ed. MCR
End of 2006: Vol. 6 Runic Poetry ed. EM
2007: Vol. 4 Poetry on Icelandic History ed. GN
2008 Vol. 1 Poetry for Scandinavian Rulers 1: Óláfr Tryggvason and Óláfr Haraldsson ed. DW [this volume will also include the General Introduction to the series]
2008 Vol. 2 Poetry for Scandinavian Rulers 2: from mythical times to c. 1300 ed. KG
2009: Vol. 3 Poetry from Treatises on Poetics ed. EM
2009: Vol. 5 Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders ed. GN
2010 Vol. 8 Poetry in fornaldarsögur (mythical-heroic sagas) ed. MCR
2011 Vol. 9 Bibliography and Indices.

Each volume will have its own Introduction, Bibliography and Index.

EM has undertaken to compile the General Bibliography for the whole Series (to appear in Vol. 9) in Kiel. She will shortly issue a template for this on the database. Editors can enter material directly into this bibliography and check on whether the item is already present. The General Bibliography aims to be a comprehensive bibliography of skaldic verse (to replace Hollander) and may include items not mentioned in any of vols. 1-8.

References