Actually, I find it much easier to read sagas in Old Norse
than a newspaper in Modern Icelandic.
Reading Sigildar sögur's edition of Egil's saga (MM 1992)
is of course a different matter. For here one merely needs
to substitute að -> at, -ur -> -r and a few more things like
that. So this is only a matter of a slightly different spelling,
wheras the text itself is still essentially Old Norse.
But the newspaper is a whole new world!
What is "electricity" in Icelandic? (something with amber)
What is "computer" in Icelandic? (a word with a t)
What is "telegraph" in Icelandic? I don't know.
The advantage of the (other) Scandinavian languages is that
you get a whole bunch of words for free.
That doesn't mean I wouldn't want to learn Icelandic.
I am just saying that it isn't very easy. Do you know some
good Icelandic comic stips btw? (Donald, Tintin, Smurfs,..)