From: Ian Ragsdale
Message: 9749
Date: 2008-11-21
On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 8:09 AM, S <drakaran@...> wrote:
> If the Gordon book is what I'm thinking it is (small, dark blue cover),
> it basically assumes that you know a Scandinavian language already. The
> dictionary/glossary in the back only gives one tense of verbs, and only
> proper nouns, and also doesn't include words that haven't changed since
> those days. So, yes, studying a modern Scandinavian would be helpful.
> Especially Icelandic, as I hear it's not much different from the OI. I
> studied Swedish myself, thinking that the ON references would be more
> helpful to understanding the old ways.
>
> S
>
> Justin Farwell wrote:
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
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