An Introduction to Old Norse

The book itself is so beautiful, and it's so well put together. I'm looking forward to reading through it! The seller I got my copy from, Frey Fine Books, packaged the book so well that it felt like Christmas, so that was definitely an added bonus!

One of the best books, I've ever read. Wanting a second Germanic language for me and considering between Old English and Old Norse, my tutor said that the stories in Old Norse were better.And Gordon's essay on "The Heroic Literature of the North" is magnificent, and, when he states that "...almost all the ancient Germanic literature is lost," devastating.

Had some areas of hard to comprehend instruction BUT my son and I figured it out. It is a book full of good information and the language is easier to learn w/ it :)

Great for the interested. Hard to find sources, so nice to have this reference!

If you want to learn to read Old Norse, this is the text for you! I used it for my Old Norse lecture and I still go back to it every now and then when I need help with my reading.

It’s a little scuffed up but it’s old and it has character. Still very well intact and smells like an old library! Love this book.

As essential to students of Old Norse as Mitchell is to students of Old English. A wonderful starting place, but not for novices.

This is a very nice book and the one we used in my Old Norse class at BYU, and the selections are all very good, very interesting. However, I agree with the reviewer that this is, despite the title, hardly the best introdruction to the language.What I recommend is this: Get yourself Stefán Einarsson's fine book, "Icelandic: Grammar, Texts, Glossary", which is set up in lessons for the beginner and which you can get real cheap here at Amazon. That book is modern Icelandic, so the readings aren't about Egill Skallagrímsson or Snorri's Edda, but not only is the Old Norse spirit very much alive in modern Iceland (and all the people very familiar with the old stories), but the language has changed extraordinarily little in the last thousand years (very very minor things), so that if you learn modern Icelandic even reasonably well (which you will from Einarsson), you can easily pick up the sagas with no problem.Then, when you've finished with his book, you can get Gordon, which will be much more enjoyable then. Alternatively, you can get the texts of lots of the sagas online from Icelandic sites and get hardcopy English versions here at Amazon to use as "ponies". (Hrafnkels saga is a good one to start with, or Snorra Edda.) Good luck!

Preso per l'esame di filologia germanica, questo libro mi ha conquistato. Scritto in un inglese semplicissimo, si fa capire da tutti e la parte introduttiva è veramente notevole: dalla storia dell'espansione vichinga agli studi sulla letteratura norrena in Inghilterra, passando per lo studio delle saghe e della poesia scaldica. Veramente ben fatto.

A useful intruduction for a beginner.

Book looks in good shape...Came very quickly from the UK to Canada...way quicker than expected! Im not sure about content, because its for another person...