Viking Language 1 Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas (Viking Language Old Norse Icelandic Series) (Volume 1)

I am a language teacher (Chinese and Latin) who am teaching myself Old Norse. Dr. Jesse Byock's "Viking Language 1" (VL-1) is a wonderful textbook for learning Old Norse (ON) on your own, though it is completely suitable for classroom use. The textbook is extremely user-friendly and is especially so for those who would like to study ON on their own but do not have a background in foreign languages, old or modern. The book takes the student through carefully thought-out steps with detailed explanations of both grammar and vocabulary. Earlier texts (e.g., Sweet's Primer of Old Icelandic, and even E. V. Gordon's "Old Norse") are often difficult for the modern learner, assuming a knowledge of basic linguistics (which can no longer be assumed) or a familiarity with German or some inflected language. Certainly a knowledge of another language is very helpful (I have a comfortable familiarity with Old English and know Latin well, and have studied a bit of modern German), but Dr. Byock's book is eminently suitable for both the experienced linguist as well for an absolute beginner in the language. With the patience that is needed for the study of any language, the student should make good progress in the study of this beautiful and fascinating language. The selections introduced for reading are interesting (and fun!), and each chapter is interspersed with history, word study, and fascinating facts about Viking culture, including maps. I personally enjoy this sort of holistic approach to language learning where vocabulary, grammar, history and culture are woven together, greatly increasing the high-interest content and presenting the language in its real-world setting. The exercises are good, and there is a fine glossary at the back of the book. This makes for a quality textbook at a very affordable price. As others have mentioned, I highly recommend buying "Viking Language 2" to accompany VL-1, giving the student a solid grounding in ON and providing a wide variety of reading material. I have found that VL-2 makes excellent supplementary reading even while working through VL-1 and provides wonderful opportunities for gauging one's progress and achieving a sense of accomplishment, two things which increase the enjoyment of language study. One thing I especially appreciate is Dr. Byock's use of word-frequency lists such as those found in Mounce's Greek texts. He shows how a relatively small number of words accounts for the lion's share of words one encounters in actual reading. These lists occur in each chapter and are separate from the vocabulary lists given for the reading passages, which are necessarily longer (though the two lists overlap). The introduction of the most frequently used ON words at regular intervals is immensely helpful. In addition, the vocabulary given for the reading sections is very manageable in itself. These lists are not overlong (as vocabulary often tends to be in far too many language textbooks, something which can discourage any learner). Since the reading selections for each chapter are not long, the student really learns the vocabulary in context, by FAR the best way to fix it in the memory. And by learning in small chunks the most frequently used ON words, rapid progress can be made which is so helpful in maintaining the student's interest. A word about ON vocabulary. If your English vocabulary is good (and even better, if you know some German or---however unlikely---Old English [Anglo-Saxon]), the number of cognate words is extremely high (these are, after all, members of the same linguistic family), and the student can make progress even faster. None of that is necessary, of course, to learn and enjoy ON, but it does facilitate mastery of both vocabulary and grammar. As to pronunciation, a guide is given (rather oddly, in an appendix towards the back of the book rather than at the beginning) which enables the student to learn either the reconstructed ON pronunciation or the modern Icelandic pronunciation (for those with an eye to learning the latter as well). There are also accompanying MP3 files for help with this. The pronunciation segments of these are especially helpful for those new to a language such as ON. The readings are good but read by a native Icelandic speaker at natural speed, which can seem very fast to the beginner but which, with exposure, becomes more manageable in time. The Viking Language series is a very attractive and welcome set of textbooks, and from what I have seen, by far the most user-friendly to newcomers to any language. Highly, highly recommended!

I recently dove into Old Norse with Viking Language 1, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the experience! This course is a brilliantly designed introduction to a fascinating language. What Makes It Shine: Engaging Lessons: The material is presented in a clear, digestible, and genuinely interesting way. It doesn't feel like a chore to learn; rather, it feels like an adventure into history and mythology. Structured Approach: The progression from basic vocabulary and grammar to more complex sentence structures is logical and well-paced. I never felt overwhelmed, always guided. Authentic Feel: You really get a sense of the language as it was spoken and written. The inclusion of cultural context and historical insights adds so much depth to the learning process. Practical Application: I was surprised at how quickly I started recognizing words and phrases, and even constructing simple sentences. It truly equips you with a foundational understanding. Highly Recommended! If you have any interest in Norse mythology, Viking history, or simply want to learn a unique and beautiful language, Viking Language 1 is the perfect starting point. It's accessible, effective, and incredibly rewarding!

I started learning ON a few years ago using the Viking Language books. I found them to be a great entry into learning the language. I decided to write this review because in just a couple years I went from having no experience with Old Norse, saga literature or medieval Scandinavian history to studying these subjects at a graduate level. So thank you Jesse Byock!! What I found most useful about the book were the word frequency lists and the pacing of the lessons. Learning the language based around the most common vocabulary felt really natural. The background information in the chapters is also really informative especially if, like me, you haven't studied Scandinavian history before. There are a lot of maps in the book which are great for understanding what was going on in the readings and where everything was that the sagas talk about. Runes were not my focus at all but the runic exercises in this book are also fun to do and explained well. I worked through the book at a pace of about 1 chapter per week. Also I saw another review that was complaining that there were no answers for the problems. No!! That's not true!! The answer keys are up online for free on the oldnorse dot org website. I imagine this is done so teachers assigning the workbook to students don't have the kids just read the answers at the back of the book instead of doing it themselves. The physical book itself has also held up great after heavy use including being dumped at the bottom of my suitcase when I moved overseas. Highly recommend

I have had a very solid experience working through this book so far. The text is aimed at a beginner not just to learning Old Norse, but to someone unfamiliar with the time period as well. The pace is a little slower because of this, especially because the author includes a lot of cultural context for the language and readings. Grammar explanations cover not only ON grammar, but also explain grammar for those unfamiliar with English structure. That being said, I think the explanations still might be a little bit difficult to follow for someone with absolutely no prior knowledge of the vocabulary used to talk about grammar (for example, what declensions are and what the role of each case is). I've had a lot of experience with Latin, so it's hard for me to be totally objective on the difficulty. I would say that if you have had prior language experience, the pace might be a little leisurely, but personally I only have a little bit of time to study ON everyday, so it hasn't been an issue at all. The dictionary in the back of the book is only ON to English, so if you want to look up words that haven't been presented yet in a lesson, you'll have a tough time. I do wonder at how thoroughly edited the book is. I've found multiple (though not frequent) typos so far, including one incorrect answer in the answer key posted online. I've found one instance of a word mentioned in a lesson not being included in the dictionary in the back. There are also occasional formatting issues. For example, many exercises are formatted into columns, and occasionally you'll find an instance where you have exercise 1 and 6 at the bottom of the page, and you have to flip to see 2-5 and 7-10. I've seen a reading similarly formatted, requiring you to flip to the next page in the middle of the text. Sometimes the word glosses for readings are also split and pushed onto the next page. None of these have been deal breakers for me, but it is certainly annoying to have to flip back and forth. Overall, as someone with a lot of language experience and not a ton of time for going through exercises everyday, this book has been great.

Fantastic Book. I wish they offered a separate work book instead of put the space in the text itself. However, it is by far the best book that will teach you Norse/Old Icelandic that I have been able to find. And if you are at all familiar with studying languages, its very easy to self-teach from. That being said, one con that really bothers me. There is no English-Norse dictionary, only a Norse-English dictionary. It's difficult to translate English to Norse because of this oversight. It bothers me so much, I would buy a new edition if they added this change. Or better yet, a supplemental text.

John McWhorter uses the phrase "bristling morphology" to label languages like Old Norse. You like ending? O.N. has 'em. (BTW, 'em is the Old English form of the word 'them', borrowed from O.N., not a contraction). Let me just list the features I like - I took a course in O.N. with a buddy and we still talk about what a great course it was having nothing to do with anything else we were studying. We affectionately call it our "Old Norse Course." Nothing is neglected. A good excursion into runes will delight some readers. Most interesting to me whose interest lies in language learning and teaching (SLA) is the approach to vocabulary: to go by word frequency in presenting it. Along with carefully crafted samples of O.N., explanations of how the poetry worked as well as an immense amount of cultural and historical background abound to give it all context. That background is filled out with good illustrations in pen and ink, photos, diagrams, maps, including those that clarify the linguistic background of O.N. in Indo-European linguistic and cultural history. And not just history but contemporary mates of O.N. in Modern Icelandic. The list goes on. Pronunciation is presented which is necessary to appreciate the poetry and the prose because of the many epics represented in O.N. An example of cultural background is that naming practices are explained, a topic that each culture tends to treat uniquely (cf. Spanish, Russian, Korean, etc.). And for those besotted by all this, there are follow up books! Purchase with confidence.

Edit: The answer key has now been made available on the publisher's website, so I have adjusted my rating accordingly and the review below should be considered in that light. Thank you Professor Byock! I have been reading Professor Byock's work on the Vikings since college, so needless to say, I was delighted to see this course made available, in my case for self study. I am now two chapters into the book, and I think it incorporates a wonderful strategy and method and has tremendous potential. However, I have two criticisms that prevent this from being a 5 star purchase: the first is that the answer key really needs to be made available *now.* I understand that perhaps the book is intended for college courses and oftentimes the answer key is presented in a "teacher's only" reader, but for those of us doing self-study, it is absolutely crippling and seriously hampers the ability to use the book effectively. It's boggling to my mind that they would release this book at all without making the key available as a download on the website. I believe the intention is to have the key in Viking Reader 2, which I would be happy to buy, but it is not available and may not be for quite some time. The two books should have been published simultaneously. My advice if your are considering purchasing this book is to wait until the Viking Language 2 book comes out. My second criticism of this course is that the audio accompaniment, which you will have to pay for separately, is very fast and not terribly user friendly. It is not read in such a way that it is useful for a student unfamiliar with Icelandic and very difficult to emulate or to parse in accompaniment with the reading. All in all, this is still however the best option on the market for learning Old Norse!

Excellent book describing clearly the history of the Vikings and their pursuit to expanding their territory. It also teaches the Old Norse language while telling the story of the Vikings.

This is an excellent book! I originally picked up this book as I had a passing interest in the Poetic Edda and I wanted to be able to read it, at least a little, in the original. At the same time, being an EFL teacher, I was curious about the approach this book used in teaching Old Norse (ON). I read a large chunk of the beginning of this book and then memorized a few vocabulary words (about 50 or so) and read many of the ON stories within the book. I found the "word lists / gloss" and translations that were available in the first 1/2 of the book very useful. IF I were going to study ON seriously, then this book would be perfect. It's an ideal blend of history, culture, and language. The basic pattern appears to be a section of history and explanation, then a reading passage in ON, followed by various grammar and vocabulary exercises based on that reading passage. Again, it is done excellently and anyone with a passing interest in the language and culture, AND anyone who wishes to seriously learn ON as a language will not be disappointed!

Well structurede

nice book with plenty of exercices to learn it as well as possible

Este libro definitivamente es la mejor guía para empezar a estudiar la lengua de los antiguos vikingos. Combina historia, descripciones, mapas y una que otra runa con los ejercicios necesarios para comenzar el estudio del nórdico antiguo. Los expertos explican que estudiar una nueva lengua implica estudiar la cultura en la cual ésta se desarrolla; este libro hace caso de tal recomendación. También hay audios en línea que pueden usarse para practicar pronunciación. Ojo aquí, está en inglés, necesitas saber esta otra lengua para poder sacarle todo el partido.

The author takes a political stance and falsifies history. Projecting modern stereotypes and biased vision to the past is lamentable.