Grace, Brian
Re: Fár bregður hinu betra ef hann veit hið verra
My reading of it was that Asgrim was saying that:
(A) few (people) (ie some, not necessarily everyone) disregard (or ignore) (the) good (things that a person does) if he knows (or is aware of) (the) worse (things that a person does.)
or, briefly, there are a few who only see the bad and ignore the good
and Asgrim is accusing Skapti of being one of those people. In other words, the statement is not really “proverbial” as MM&HP seemed to have made it by turning it around.
Cheers
Alan