--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Haukur Þorgeirsson
<haukurth@...> wrote:

> > Verðr ok fátt svá ólíkliga sagt, at eigi finnist sönn dæmi til,

at

> > annat hafi svá orðit.
> >
> > There are few things told that can´t be put in doubt by some old
> > example to the contrary.
> >
> > Question: Do these lines correspond in meaning, or could the

Icelandic

> > conceivably say: "Few things are told that are so unlikely that

there

> > can't be found some true example showing that another thing has
> > happened in the same way." ?
>
> Sæll, Llama Nom.
>
> I agree with your translation and I can hardly believe
> that the Hermann-Edwards version is a translation of the
> same thing.

Thanks Haukur,

Maybe the text in the later edition is different. My other guess
was that they might have assumed the text is mistaken here because
it comes right after a bit of rhetoric on how unreliable old stories
are in general, and by implication this story in particular. But
elsewhere in the saga there are similar reversals and having-it-both-
ways sorts of argument. The author might just be saying in his
impish way: no stories are all that reliable (so you can't really
complain about this one), but still even all the crazy things that
happen in mine aren't completely unheard of, so you never know.

Llama Nom