Speak Viking! | Introduction to Old Norse/Modern Icelandic Language and Literature
Heill! In this series, you will learn the Old Norse language spoken by the medieval Northern European people (yes, including the Vikings!), and how to read the expansive literary tradition that they left behind.
Every week, we'll study a piece of Old Norse grammar, phonology, and linguistic history along with accompanying on-level Old Norse literature and vocabulary. There will be lecture notes and assigned homework to accompany lectures. In studying literature, we will additionally analyze the sociological and philosophical themes in the texts and what classical literature can tell us about an entire people, a way of life, and even about ourselves. Classical literature is alive and important, and my primary goal in this course is to help you see that for yourself.
By the end of the course, the motivated student will be able to read an expansive amount of Old Norse literature with the assistance of a glossary.
*Although we will focus primarily on Old Norse/Old Icelandic, this course is extremely useful to the student of modern Icelandic as well, as they are lexically mutually intelligible languages and have nearly identical grammatical systems.
