In a message dated 2/26/01 3:21:27 AM Pacific Standard Time,
hr_oskar@... writes:


Heil öll,

Can any of you describe for me your experience with finding ON
material? I've heard lots of it before, and I have the general
impression of it (of there being an acute lack), but I need my memory
refreshed. Like, what were the books like, that you have managed to
find, and how easy/difficult was it to obtain them.

Heill Oskar,
Before this course, I had only dabbled in Modern Icelandic, in preparation
for a trip to Iceland.  I also searched for Old Norse material, but found
nothing - out of print, ridiculously expensive or bad or all three.  (Sorry,
but we got quite frustrated with this.)
We bought an English course of Modern Icelandic, which was very confusing and
did not work for me at all.  I can't find the book right now, it is buried
somewhere.  Second, I found the German "Langenscheidts Praktisches Lehrbuch -
Isländisch", and things fell into place for me.  The grammar is organized the
way Germans are used to (cases in the order: Nominative, Genitive, Dative,
Accusative), pronunciation made sense, and the structure of the course
reminds me of the way I learned Latin, French, etc.  A good beginner's book
for a German, in my opinion.

Third, we bought the Hippocrene Concise Dictionary, Icelandic-English,
English-Icelandic, which is better than nothing, but very minimal.  Also,
without some understanding of grammar, it is hard to look up things on the
Icelandic side.
Needless to say, we did not speak much Icelandic by the time we went on our
trip :)
Greetings,
Birgit