This is taken from an online ancient Greek tutorial, but it sums up the difference between active, passive and middle verbs, and I believe it applies to Old Norse:

A verb is in the active voice when the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb which affects the direct object:

• John defends Mary
• the women wash the body

When the sentence is turned round so that the object is the subject and the passive recipient of the action, then the verb is in the passive voice :


• Mary is defended by John
• the body is washed by the women


When the action of the verb returns to the subject, directly as reflexive:


• John defends himself
• the women wash themselves

or more indirectly:


• the athlete carries off - for himself - the prize

then the verb is in the middle voice.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edgar Widlund" <edgarwidlund@...>
To: "norse course" <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 7:26:27 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [norse_course] Middle forms of verbs strong and weak

I just about finished the final lesson in the Norse Course and I was looking at the middle forms of
different verbs,both strong and weak.Could someone define the middle forms of a verb?
The primary course does not cover many topics such as the above,the past tense, the subjunctive tense both present and past and other topics like weak nouns,feminine nouns,etc.

It must take years to absorb much of all this detailed info.

I am only a recent participant and would appreciate any comments.


Ed