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

>
> Can you tell me the word for "bite". I am sure there must be something
> as "spear-bite" or "sword-bite".

'bit' is a neuter noun meaning "bite" in the sense of a "bite" (made
by teeth) or the "sharpness" (of weapons).

'biti' and 'bitlingr' are masculine nouns meaning "bite" in the sense
of "a bite of food, mouthful, morsel".

'bíta' is a verb meaning "to bite" (e.g. food), or "cut, pierce,
penetrate (skin or armour)" (of weapons).

> I have looked in the Poetic Edda. Nor can I find an old norse to
> english "dictionary"
> I did find the translation site for the Poetic Edda and english, thank
> you.
>
> Is there a site for old norse / english translation?

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/%7Ekurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html#images%20
http://norse.ulver.com/ondict/zoega/

The first of these links (Cleasby & Vigfússon) is a fairly
comprehensive dictionary of Old Norse prose. The second (Zoega) is an
abridgment of the first and might be easier to search quickly in for
more common words. Old Icelandic (in the title of these dictionaries)
means the same thing as Old Norse; most of the surviving medieval
texts were written in Iceland, but it wasn't till the later Middle
Ages that significant differences started to develop between Norwegian
and Icelandic.

> I am probably being really stupid here but I am only on lesson one.
> thanks

Not at all. Feel free to ask any more questions. And good luck with
the rest of the course!