As other have mentioned, Icelandic is very close to Old Norse. Or -
to be specific - WRITTEN Icelandic is close to STANDARDIZED WRITTEN
Old Icelandic (i.e language of the sagas). Of course, Finnish has
nothing whatsoever to do with Old Norse (not much more than, e.g.,
Turkish has).
Spoken Modern Icelandic has not much in common with Old Norse,
concerning "accent". The Scandinavian dialect which has the most well-
preserved accent is in fact Dalecarlian. Here are some sound samples
of Dalecarlian:

http://www.unilang2.org/wiki2/wiki.phtml?
title=Dalecarlian_sound_samples

Skål,
/Sjuler




--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Rose Lieberman" <pyrite@...>
wrote:

> Hello, All. My name is Rose, I'm 56, I live in rural upstate New

York. I have embarked on a study of the runes and it has kindled an
interest in Old Norse, especially for the reading of poems, eddas,
etc.

>
> QUESTIONS: Other than learning Old Norse, I would also like to

learn a living language that is as close to Old Norse as possible.
What would that language would be? And are there any online
resources for learning it? Would it be Icelandic, Norwegian, Finnish?

>
> My thinking is that even though Old Norse is no longer spoken, it

must still bear at least a faint resemblance to some extant language
akin to it; for example, as Italian is to Latin, perhaps.

>
> This is all very new to me as I have never studied a language on my

own. Latin and Spanish in high school, but that was alotta
presidents ago.......

>
> Thanks,
>
> Rose