Sæl aftur,

Always glad to be of help.

There is much to recommend learning Modern Icelandic, if you
want to become fluent in Old Icelandic. The two are practically
identical in written form, and it is much easier to obtain beginners'
materials in Modern Icelandic - children's books, for example,
newspapers, and translations of books you are familiar with in your
own language.

It is much easier to learn a language that people are actually
speaking, and as soon as you achieve any fluency in Modern Icelandic
you will find that you have actually learned a lot of Old Icelandic
without even trying.

One difficulty in learning Old Icelandic via actual texts
(sagas etc.) is that the language of these tends to be very
artificial/literary, and we know very little of how these
people actually spoke in their everyday lives. I'm pretty sure
nobody ever spoke like the characters of Njála do - no more
than anybody ever spoke like characters in Shakespeare do!

But I do admire your tenacity in attacking a difficult text like
Njála. The general narrative is not so difficult, but the dialogue
is quite hard most of the time. Many of the idioms are difficult
to penetrate because they are more or less obsolete, even when you
actually understand all the separate words used. As far as I'm
concerned, Eddic poetry is much easier to decipher than most of
the dialogue in Njála!

Gangi þér vel að lesa áfram!

E.



--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:

>
> Saell Eysteinn
> Many Thanks for your help - this is of value to me - I want to

practice

> writing in the Old language but may presently want to learn the

Modern form

> also
> með Bestum Kveðjum
> Patricia
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: Eysteinn Bjornsson
> Date: 09/16/06 18:53:20
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [norse_course] Re: solitude
>
> --- Patricia reit:
>
> > the intention is to say
> > I live alone but not lonely
>
> Perhaps the most straightforward way would be:
>
> Ek em einbúi, en eigi einmani.
>
> In Modern Iceland, we would say:
>
> Ég er einbúi, en ekki einmana.
>
> Or simply:
>
> Ég bý ein, en er ekki einmana.
>
> Regards,
> Eysteinn
>