--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Lee" <wildhare13@...> wrote:

>
> How similar is Icelandic to Norse? Is Norse different from Old Norse?
> Apologies for being a bit obtuse.. I learned a poem from the edda..
> recite in old norse.. I'd like to have more CD's to listen to.

No need to apologise! The amount of difference between Modern
Icelandic and the medieval Icelandic variety of Old Norse is maybe
similar to the amount of difference between Present-day English and
Early Modern English (Shakespeare, The King James Bible, Samuel Pepys
Diaries, stuff like that).

The morphology (inflections, word-endings and the way words change
their form depending on their role in the sentence) is pretty much
identical with only a few small changes. The syntax is very similar,
although with lots of minor changes. The vocabulary has expanded
massively to deal with modern concepts. The pronunciation of
consonants hasn't changed much. Pronunciation of vowels has changed a
lot, although this isn't reflected in the spelling. Long vowels have
mostly changed in quantity and become diphthongs, while short vowels
have been lengthened in open syllables and a few other contexts. But
although individual vowel phonemes (meaningfully distinctive sounds)
have changed, most of the same distinctions are made as in Old Norse.

> is there an "old norse on CD" anywhere?

There's one available from the Viking Society for Northern Research,
although I haven't heard it myself, so I don't know what it's like or
whether it uses Modern Icelandic prounciation (as usual in an academic
context) or attempts a reconstructed pronunciation:

Selected Readings from A New Introduction to Old Norse. CD. Produced
by A. Finlay. The Chaucer Studio, 2004. £6.

(British distribution) http://www.le.ac.uk/ee/viking/publications.htm
(US distribution) http://asu.edu/clas/acmrs/publications/mrts/vsnr.html

Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson's performance of some Eddic poems (modern
pronunciation), including Völuspá and extracts from Hávamál is
available on CD [
http://brainwashed.com/common/htdocs/discog/durtro005.php?site=c93 ].
There are samples of this recording on YouTube:

From Hávamál: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLxjBGlyI4I
From Völuspá: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5HADl8J6A

> Please don't burn me for asking an elementary question.. I have been
> lurking on the site for a couple months now.
> I have a fascination with language.. so although I might not be able to
> translate fully.. I like learning while commuting, I have one CD of Old
> Norse...

Just out of curiosity, which CD have you got? You might also like to
listen to Haukur's recordings at the Norse Course homepage [
http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ ], if you haven't already found them...