Hi Mike!

> Personal Testimony:
> "Thanks to the Norse Course, my friend and I
> can enjoy a relatively lengthy
> discussion of black cheese and long swords."

:D I think I'll put that on the homepage if you'll
allow. Does anyone else want to contribute a quotable
testimony?

> I have a question, and if this is answered elsewhere
> please direct me to it: what is the relationship
> between modern Icelandic and Old Norse?

I don't have the answer to this on the homepage but
I probably should. Making a FAQ would be a good idea.

Very quickly the relationship between modern Icelandic
and Old Norse is similar to the relationship between the
English you speak and the English of the King James Bible.

> I have been impressed with what I've read about
> the Icelanders desire to maintain the integrity
> of their language. Am I correct in recalling
> that the word for _electricity_ is derived from
> the Icelandic for _lightning_ and _stone_?

Not quite. Our word for electricity is 'rafmagn';
made from 'raf' meaning amber and 'magn' meaning
might or power. Thus 'rafmagn' is amber-power.
This is, more or less, a translation of the greek
word. The greek word for amber gives you the electro
words.

One problem with the 'rafmagn' is translating Philip
Pullman's books. The English fantasist Philip Pullman
uses amber-words for electrical phenomena in his Dark
Materials books. The solution of the Icelandic translator
is to use 'ambur' instead of 'raf'. This seems rather
absurd. The Icelandic (loan) word 'ambur' doesn't mean
amber but ambergris - as far as I know.

Anyway, we don't use homemade words for everything;
plastic is simply 'plast' for example. I think the
Finns have their own word for plastic, but I don't
remember what it is.

> For the mind set of the original Old Norse speakers,
> what would y'all recommend reading?

Why, Old Norse literature of course! :)

I don't know which popularisations or overviews are
good since I have read so few of them.

Kveðja,
Haukur