Jesse L. Byock 
Viking Language 1 
Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas

TABLE of CONTENTS to Viking Language 1 (Introduction and Shortened First Chapters)

INTRODUCTION

Vikings and The Viking Age         22

Sources for the Study of Old Norse          22

The Old Norse Language              24

Norse Speakers at Opposite Ends of the Viking World: Icelanders and the Rus      28

Vikings and History         34

The End of the Viking Age            40

The Norse Alphabet, Spelling, Vowels, and Anglicising Personal Names   41

List of Abbreviations      42

Grammar Index 43

 LESSON 1

SAILING WEST TO ICELAND, GREENLAND, AND NORTH AMERICA             47

1.1 Culture — Atlantic Seafaring 47

1.2 Letters þ, ð, ǫ and Spelling   48

1.3 Old Norse, An Inflected Language     48

1.4 Reading — Ingolf Gives Land to Herjolf (Grœnlendinga saga)  49

1.5 Pronunciation           50

1.6 Word Frequency — ❖ The 246 Most Frequent Words in the Sagas      50

1.7 Word Frequency Vocabulary — List 1. ❖ Most Frequent Words            51

1.8 Grammar Toolbox. Nouns, Personal Pronouns, Gender, Case, and Declensions            51

1.9 Gender of Nouns and Pronouns — Masculine, Feminine, Neuter          52

1.10 Grammar Toolbox, Case. Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives 52

Exercises            56

READING CHAPTER 1

BLA-BLA-BLA     60

RC 1.1 Greenland and Vinland Discovered, from the Book of the Icelanders          60

RC 1.2 Syntax: Clauses and Sentences    61

RC 1.3 Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases   61

RC 1.4 Old Norse and Proto-Norse Words (Stems, Roots, Suffixes, and Endings)  62

NORSE SETTLERS IN GREENLAND AND VINLAND              68

2.1 Culture — Norse Greenland  68

2.2 Reading — ‘Land-taking’ in Greenland (Landnámabók)             69

2.3 Exercise — The Reading Selection from Landnámabók.             70

2.4 Culture — Vinland (Vínland) 70

2.5 Grammar Toolbox. Definite and Indefinite Article      71

2.6 Proper Nouns            71

2.7 Grammar Toolbox. Verbs     72

Exercises            79