At 8:52:43 AM on Saturday, May 23, 2009, Fred and Grace Hatton wrote:

> Thanks for all your help with that section! I have one
> quibble tho. I tortured this bit sticking in all possible
> translations of bregda and only praise seemed to fit the
> sense.

Where do you find 'praise' as a possible translation?

> If you say "few disregard the good, that goes against what
> M & P got out of it - - "good is ignored."

Yes, I didn't look closely enough at the context, for which
I have to agree that their translation is a better fit. On
further investigation, I see that CV s.v. <bregða> use this
proverb to illustrate the sense 'to upbraid, to blame', with
the person and the thing both in the dative. That would
make it 'Few blame (one) for the better if he is aware of
the worse', and if 'blame' is given an extended (or possibly
ironic) interpretation, the sense would indeed be more or
less what you and M&P have.

Brian