This sounds like a good idea,it´s hard to find any exercises if one has already finished the lessons,and home-made excercises aren´t always good so this would save me and many others from a lot of trouble.Does anyone agree??

 Sarah Bowen <bowensli@...> wrote:

Hello everyone!
 
I´m another relative ´newbie' (started in Sept) and I've been reading the recent postings with interest.
 
I just want to say that although most of the postings are very scholarly and way over my head, I agree with Jarrod and Diego that it's worth trying to read them (or save them for future reference) because hopefully in a few years' time we will ALL be much more skilled and experienced at understanding Old Norse and these postings will be of interest to us.  So thank you Konrad and others for your complex discussions.
 
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with Daniel, Laurel and Jennifer that it would be great to have some beginner level translations being posted as well as the more scholarly stuff, I'm not sure that it's wise for people whose first language is not Icelandic or a mainland Scandinavian language to try and write Old Norse themselves.  As Arlie pointed out it is very hard for 'foreigners' to produce something 'native-sounding' and we might end up learning one another's mistakes rather than learning from them!
 
I'm a first year student at UCL in London and we've just finished our 'introduction to Old Norse' module where we translated the tale about Bodvar Bjarki in Hrolfs Saga Kraka.  Many of us couldn't tell a noun from a verb when we first started (English grammar is not taught in schools in Britain) but it was quite manageable really.
 
Alternatively, I would love to go back to the Færeyinga Saga or even try some poetry.  There is such a wealth of beautiful literature out there, some of it not too complex, why not take advantage of it?
 
OK!  Now here's a crazy suggestion!  Having just studied Böðvarr's story and analysed every word in the utmost grammatical detail, I don't mind posting up a paragraph every week or so.  Then if folk want to translate it, I will try to give constructive feedback on their translations, based on my uni notes - provided there is some more experienced person (Konrad, Pelle, Haukur) in the background who is prepared to jump in and correct any mis-advice I may be giving.
 
Your comments on this crazy idea of the partially-sighted leading the blind is welcome!!!
 
Bye for now,
Sarah.


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- Keth

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