Sæl Patricia,

> Had it said vetrinn I would have referred to winter but it did

not it said várit - spring, Am I confused here.


Spring´s right. I only mentioned "winter" in reference to those
examples in Zoega.

> Gordon gives two examples leið á vetrinn (Winter)/ or leið á

várit (spring) being far spent and since the text was given leið á
várit I chose to say in late spring.


Yeah, that´s probably what I would have done, or "as it was getting
on towards the end of spring"; "late spring" is good and clear and
to the point.

> My history book gives some information that the Norsemen traded

with Russia, so next time I shall translate austrveg as the
Baltic/Russia


The kingdom of Russia itself was called 'Garðaríki' "realm of
fortified towns" or just 'Garðar'. There are a couple of sagas
which involve Norsemen acting as mercenaries for one of the early
Russian rulers, Grand Prince Yaroslav (Yngvars saga; Eymundar
þáttr). And the hero of the former is actually mentioned on dozens
of Swedish runestones, as Ingwar, the leader of a viking expedition
somewhere out east. Hilda Ellis Davidson´s book "The Viking Road to
Byzantium" has lots of interesting stuff about Norse activities in
this area.

> I sometimes find people less pleased with Gordon, actually since

I have Zoega and Gordon and the three books by Barnes and Faulkes,
well I have a good team, I find Barnes easier to study, easier so to
say on the brain, I also find that with some terms the definitions
given in all three are much the same, so if it is not in Zoega which
I prefer, I try Barnes, and leave Gordon as Back-up


Did I already mention the diagrams in Gordon were done by JRR
Tolkien? Or so it says here:

http://has55.www9.50megs.com/OldIcel/LearningOldNorse.html

I don't know if that's so, but the Norse cosmos on p. 196 does look
rather like his style, especially those teetering dwarves.

Llama Nom