--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Justin Farwell <chelagil3@...> wrote:

>
> my bad with the typos! (which is a critical issue when dealing with

language!). i wrote the replies quickly (and obviously didnt use a
character set).

Don't worry about that: I make mistakes all the time. I have a memory
of seeing a quote somewhere attributed to one of the Indian
scriptures, although unfortunuately I don't have a reference for it:
"I made my first mistake the day I was born and have been following
the same path to wisdom ever since."

> undeniable arguments for Norse; I guess I just also (as you said)

find both languages worthwhile and both literatures to have their
charms, so if one eventually learns both, I could imagine one doing
better to start with OE rather than ON. But any route is possible!

Oh, another thing I just thought of: with Old Norse, you have the
advantage that the language is still used, in one sense, in the form
of Modern Icelandic, whereas English has undergone much more profound
changes since the 11th century. So you can often rely on the instincts
of Icelandic speakers about their own language, in a way that you
can't rely on untrained speakers of Modern English to have much of an
insight into Old English grammar. It also mean that you can make use
of the many resources available to students of Modern Icelandic. Often
googling for examples of Modern Icelandic usage can clear up some
mystery about the medieval language, where examples of a particular
idiom or grammatical construction may happen to be rare.

LN