> Thanks for the response. I use Old Norse by E. V.
> Gordon, 2nd edition. The pronunciation key is on p.
> 266. I have trouble on those lines that have French
> and German words (instead of English) for the
> pronunciation example. Edred Thorsson (aka. Dr.
> Stephen Flowers) has some helpful stuff in his
> FUTHARK: A HANDBOOK OF RUNE MAGIC, but even he uses
> German.

Thorsson is no good. He mixes Modern Icelandic,
Old Icelandic and Nonsense in fairly equal portions.

I recommend Óskar's article, which is available
at the course's homepage

http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ (under articles)

I know Óskar took great pains to explain this as
clearly as he could. Any 'simpler' explanation is
likely to be a lie (read: completely inaccurate).

There is really no way around the following fact:

*****************************************************
**Many sounds in Old Norse do not exist in English.**
*****************************************************

Explanations like

"pronounce ee as in feet while trying to say
oo as in foot"

or

"like the ee in feet but with more rounded
lips and the tongue farther back into the mouth"

won't really help at all, I fear. You really
_have to_ obtain a sound sample from a living
language other than English. Otherwise you will
always be, more or less, in the dark.

Or you can be as sensible as Arlie and say
"What the heck, I just won't read aloud." :)

Best regards,
Haukur