On Mon, Nov 27, 2000 at 01:38:18PM +0000, Haukur Thorgeirsson wrote:
Hi Folks,

>
> >So where do we go to get started? What sources and resources do we turn to?
>
> I still aim to start on the 1st of December.
> No sources beyond those that I give will be _required_.
>
> As to what other sources are _available_ I quote a letter by Arlie Stephens
> which was posted to another list. I hope she doesn't mind.

Of course I don't mind. Glad you saved it, in fact; this way I didn't need
to write and post something equivalent.

If people are trying to get these books, they should be aware that the Gordon
book is available from Barnes and Noble online, but not Amazon, which (last
I checked) thought it was still out of print. The Barnes book was available
from amazon.co.uk, but not either the American amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.
And amazon.co.uk reports that the La Farge book is no longer available (it
had been a special order).

> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> E.V. Gordon's "An Introduction to Old Norse"...
> The *only* good thing about it, IMO, is that it's
> available. It's basically a set of texts to translate, with a
> few
> notes, and a grammar that's difficult to understand, unless
> perhaps
> you are an expert on linguistics. For a modern english speaker,
> unfamiliar with inflected languages (who learns latin
> nowadays?),
> and perhaps a little weak on formal grammar, it's atrocious.
> Even *with* my experience with other languages, including latin,
> it was very hard to learn from, starting as a complete beginner
> to Old Norse, and with no other germanic languages except
> english.
> On the other hand, it would probably be quite useful as a
> textbook,
> with the instructor providing the explanations, beginning
> exercises,
> simpler examples, and answers it so sorely lacks.
>
> Michael Barnes' "A New Introduction to Old Norse: Part I
> Grammar"
> is *much* better for teaching the basics of the language.
> Unfortunately,
> it doesn't have enough in the way of confidence
> building/learning
> reinforcing exercises, so tends to turn the early learning
> process
> into a tedious round of memorization, without the variety of
> being
> able to use what one has learnt. (He suggests starting to read
> ON texts as soon as possible, which is good ... but he
> doesn't even
> discuss verbs until p. 131 of 258, which would make actually
> understanding texts rather difficult, if one were trying to
> follow his text book in the order things are given.)
>
> There appear to be *no* Norse-English or English-Norse
> dictionaries
> in print. This leaves Gordon's glossary as the only available
> dictionary
> ... and it's strictly Norse to English. (I've recently heard
> that
> la Farge's _Glossary to the Poetic Edda_ ISBN 3533045412 may
> still
> be available, so there may in fact be an alternative. I've no
> idea
> if it's any good, but at this point I'm collecting anything I
> can get
> my hands on.)
>
> ...
>
> There are some good web pages.
>
> http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au/english/2000/icel has some
> good tutorials.
> The first one, in particular, is very confidence-building; it
> gives easy
> texts that don't require much knowledge to understand. (If
> the first thing
> I'd ever tried to translate was Gordon's 1st selection, I'm
> not sure
> whether I'd have simply given up entirely.)
>
> I also like
> http://www.midhnottsol.org/public/oldice/index.html (The Midhnott
> Sol Kindred's "Easy Readings in Old Icelandic".)
>
> These are what I remember (books I purchased and pages I
> bookmarked) of
> those I've heard mentioned. (I think they unfortunately
> include all
> the books on old norse presently in print in english.) I got
> many of them
> from early postings to this old norse list; it would probably
> be worthwhile
> checking the archives.
>
> Resources for English speakers trying to learn Icelandic
> aren't much better.
> Check out the bad reviews on www.amazon.com. I have Arnold
> Taylor's
> Icelandic-English English-Icelandic Dictionary. I didn't
> purchase the
> one instructional book I found, part of the "Let's Go Europe"
> series
> (if I remember right), after reading the collection of bad
> reviews
> on amazon. (I'm still very unclear on how much Icelandic has
> changed
> over time, and whether Icelandic learning resources are
> really any use
> for Old Norse.)
>
> --
> Arlie
>
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>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Regards,
> Haukur

--
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens arlie@...)