Brilliant - I like the idea and yes I have the Teach yourself - and the Hippocrene Dictionary it is a two-way job  and very useful  and a phrase book

Thank you for the encouragement I shall have to start soon

But is is turned two O clock so I'll put the book under my pillow

Again my thanks

Patricia

 

 

 

Patricia,

>> ... "argue with my dictionary" ...

CV is not an "infallible" source. It contains errors, and often
fails to enlighten. Remember: it is very old - the bulk of it was
composed well over a century ago. And Zoega often over-simplifies
and leaves out a lot of the relevant examples.

And of course CV is quite worthless as regards the poetic language
- the original authors were aware that Egilsson was compiling the
Lexicon Poeticum at the same time, and so left out most of the
poetic usage, as they didn't want to duplicate his efforts.

I recommend having a good Modern Icelandic dictionary on your shelf
(if you can afford it) - most of the old idioms are still current
in the language, and even the 'obsolete' ones will be covered. The
downside is, of course, that it is ALL in Icelandic, but I think
you would understand a lot of it after a while.

As an example in the dictionary used by most Icelanders, if you
look up 'brestur', you find this usage listed:

berja í brestina: afsaka eða breiða yfir gallana

meaning: 'to apologize for or cover up the faults'

Regards,
Eysteinn