Modern Icelandic and Old Norse (and yet more books)

I dropped into the public library a few days ago, just for a quick browse. At one of the computers, I searched for ‘sagas’ and then ‘norse saga’ (I was looking for a compilation of some of the Norse sagas translated into English). I didn’t have much luck in finding what I was looking for, but I did end up finding something of interest: Icelandic: Grammar, Text and Glossary.

I was happy to find that the library had it because I actually had put in a purchase request form for it many months back. It turns out that they paid attention to my request and bought it; too bad they didn’t tell me they had done so. According to the stamp on the inside of the book, they bought it back in May.

So, why did I put in a purchase form for a book on Icelandic? No, I don’t plan on moving to Iceland (but I wouldn’t mind visiting; they have some beautiful scenery) No, I requested it because for those not in the know, Icelandic is extremely close to Old Norse:

It is a remarkable fact that there have been very few historical changes in the grammar of Icelandic. The difference between written Old and Modern Icelandic is so insignificant that Icelanders today can read Old Icelandic texts (e.g. the Sagas) without difficulty. The main reason for this is that the inflectional system of Old Icelandic has remained virtually unchanged, unlike the inflectional systems of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, which have become drastically simplified.

Learning Old Norse has been on my “wanna’ do that” list for a while, based on my love of the Viking era, as well as my love of languages in general. I’ve been chipping away at German for a few years now, with a great deal of help from a German buddy of mine (hi, Marcel).

Anyways! I put in the request for the book because, when I initially became interested in learning the rudiments of Old Norse, there wasn’t much available on it. There was E.V. Gordon’s Introduction to Old Norse, and, well, that was all I knew about at the time. Unfortunately, as noted on the amazon.com page in the reviews, Introduction to Old Norse will surely be helpful at some point in the future, but it’s not for beginners, by any means. The first half of the book is a very terse grammar (one could even say just an outline), with tables upon tables upon tables of declensions and inflexions. The second half of the book is Old Norse texts.

One of the reviewers, however, did have a good idea though: get a copy of Einarsson’s Icelandic book, and learn through it instead. It’s far more graded in difficulty than Gordon’s book ever thought about being, and since Old Norse and Icelandic are extremely similar (almost identical, really, barring some suffic changes and word order), if you learn a reading level of Modern Icelandic, you can read Old Norse (Old Icelandic) as well.

I didn’t want to buy a $30 book without checking it out first, so I looked at the library; no dice. At the time, I wasn’t enrolled at the university, so checking there (or through OhioLINK) wasn’t an option. So, I put in a request at the public library and promptly forgot about it. In the meantime, I discovered that the Viking Society for Northern Research has published a New Introduction to Old Norse through the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The New Introduction is actually 3 books: a grammar book, a book of texts (complete with annotations / helpful pointers after each selection), and a glossary. I ended up purchasing the set from ACMRS for $45. At the time (and even now, for that matter….) I didn’t have enough spare time to truly delve into the material, but I was concerned that the books would go out of print before I got copies. (By the way, if you’re interested in learning Old Norse, they’re still available, and you can read a bit more about the set here; about 3/4 of the way down the page.)

The set’s extremely nice. They’re nicely made, and they’re all linked to each other quite well. As mentioned on the ACMRS page, the grammar is probably better tackled with the help of a tutor, but, having looked through it, with a bit of hard work, you could go it alone.

Lastly, if my jabbering about Icelandic and Old Norse has inspired you to run out and start learning Old Norse , but you don’t want to get a book just yet, I can still hook you up. There’s a free Old Norse course online with 6 lessons to start with. The course also has an off-shoot Yahoo group, where you can ask questions, as well as work with other members at slowly translating Old Norse texts.