hey man! history! way to go!

well, if you've taken Latin, at least you are aware of noun declensions, which is always confusing to new folk (although the form of Latin noun declensions wont help you much with Old Norse).

first of all, the standard intro that universities use is Gordon's "Introduction to Old Norse" and many other Old Norse books resemble it; its basically a selection of readings followed by a grammar followed by a glossary. unfortunately you are not going to find any textbooks that are chapter-by-chapter easy grammar lessons; though you can probably find a lot of such things online: http://www3.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/

here's a smaller, classic textbook, Sweet's "Old Icelandic Primer" http://books.google.com/books?id=hWoJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP9&dq=old+icelandic+primer#PPP5,M1 , the dictionary (a HUGE dictionary) http://books.google.com/books?id=RnEJAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=icelandic+dictionary and a site with lots of Old Norse texts: http://www.heimskringla.no/original/index.php

you could also consider learning modern Icelandic first; Old Norse and Old Icelandic are pretty much synonymous, and Old Norse/Icelandic grammar is almost EXACTLY the same as modern Icelandic, and of course about 80% of the mundane vocab is the same (except for poetic words, obviously). you could try Einarsson Icelandic http://www.amazon.com/Icelandic-Grammar-Glossary-Stefan-Einarsson/dp/0801863570/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226861263&sr=8-3 or Colloquial Icelandic (less authoritative and professional, but slightly easier to use): http://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Icelandic-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/041542707X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226861263&sr=8-2

another thought: Old Norse/Icelandic is probably the toughest of the historical germanic languages (though it also has the biggest corpus); have you considered starting with Old english? old english grammar is a good bit easier, the vocab is even more familiar as it is the root of English, and there are A LOT more learning resources out there for Old English.

final thought: learn German! naturally, German is related to modern and Old Icelandic since it is also a Germanic language, but also most of the most important grammars and studies on historical Germanic stuff are written in German

lots of luck mate! -Justin

--- On Sun, 11/16/08, orkboyz4000 <orkboyz4000@...> wrote:
From: orkboyz4000 <orkboyz4000@...>
Subject: [norse_course] On Getting Started
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 7:44 AM

Hello,
I am an undergraduate history student. I have a great love for
Norse mythology and would very much like to focus on the study of
these myths as a means of better understanding Norse culture.
Unfortunately my only experience with other languages have been
Spanish (at the Intermediate level) and Latin (at something of a
Beginner level). How hard do you think it will be for me to learn old
Norse? Also, are there any resources that you may recommend for me to
attempt to familiarize myself with the subject and possibly better
prepare myself for study of the Norse at the graduate level? Thank you
for your help.

Manuel