Livro de Lições de Nórdico Antigo

Prévia do material em texto

Old Norse Lesson Book
Table of Contents
Page 3: The Norse and English Tongues
Page 7: Some Common Features of Old Norse and German
Page 10: Pronunciation of Old Norse
Page 18: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson One
Page 30: Norse Toon: The Spearman
Page 31: Solutions to Lesson One
Page 36: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Two
Page 54: Norse Toon: The Thieves
Page 55: Norse Toon: King Olaf’s Dream
Page 56: Solutions to Lesson Two
Page 61: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Three
Page 74: Norse Toon: King Olaf’s Cheese
Page 75: Solutions to Lesson Three
Page 78: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Four
Page 90: Solutions to Lesson Four
Page 92: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Five
Page 105: Solutions to Lesson Five
Page 109: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Six
Page 133: Solutions to Lesson Six
Page 135: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Seven
Page 149: Solutions to Lesson Seven
Page 150: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Eight
Page 170: Solutions to Lesson Eight
Page 175: Old Norse for Beginners: Lesson Nine
Page 187: Solutions to Lesson Nine
The Norse and English Tongues
by Óskar Guðlaugsson and Haukur Þorgeirsson 2000-2003
As most, or all, anglophone students of Old Norse will be aware of, Norse and English
are closely related languages. Apart from a common Germanic ancestry, the languages
came in intimate contact later, during the Viking age, when Nordic people invaded 
and settled the north and east of England in great quantity. Many Old Norse words 
will appear familiar, or even completely intelligible, to an English-speaker. Such as 
"góð" (good), "blóð" (blood), "goð" (god), and "taka" (take). The last word, "taka" is 
an example of a direct Old Norse loan-word in the English language, a word which 
did not exist in the English language prior to the Viking influence.
There is no need to go into complex etymological comparisons or endless rows of 
sound changes to make practical use of this; the practically inclined student can easily 
learn a few handy "equations" without necessarily understanding the whole extent of 
the phonological development. Also, it is just as much a matter of spelling differences 
as a matter of pronunciation differences. Many Old English and Modern English 
words are pronounced alike, though spelled differently, OE featuring "æ" "ð" "þ" and 
vowel length marks. Whichever reason for the difference, the most practical equations
are below. Note that they sometimes contradict and are by no means applicable in all 
cases. They are not equations in the mathematical sense, but rather a set of reoccuring 
patterns that are helpful for guessing and remembering ON words.
Key:
C- an initial consonant (or cluster of consonants), i.e. at the start of a word
-C- an intervocalic consonant (cluster), i.e. between two vowels
-C a final consonant (cluster), i.e. at the end of a word
MnE ON
MnE
sample
ON
sample
Notes
wh hv what hvat Old English spelled it 'hw'. Norman scribes had it 
changed to their own fancy. Back in ON and OE 
times, both languages pronounced it pretty much 
the same (as the unvoiced 'w' heard in various 
American English dialects and other English 
speechforms around the world)
w v wit vit spelling difference
c k call kall spelling difference
th- þ- thick þykk
spelling difference; 'þ' was replaced with 'th' in 
medieval times in English, because of it resembled
too closely another letter in the gothic script of 
that time
-d ð red rauð
to some degree a matter of spelling; ON didn't 
always use 'ð' and it's use fell out early on.
-th- ð father faðir spelling difference
-ay -ag, -eg day, way
dagr, 
vegr
these English words have had the same changes as
the 'gh' words, only their spelling doesn't reflect it.
'Day' used to end in a 'g' but then the 'g' become a 
'gh' (in pronunciation) and finally a glide ('y'
-nk -kk
thank, 
frank
þakka, 
frakkr
in ON, the 'n' disappeared and lengthened the 'k'
sh sk
ship, 
shall, 
fish
skip, 
skal, 
fiskr
this reflects a very old development in English; 
even in OE it was pronounced as today
y- g-
yarn, 
yard
garn, 
garðr
a development related to the sk > sh above.
wr- r- wrath reið(i)
this cluster had simplified in the (Western) ON 
studied in this course, though it remains in Eastern
Norse even today; it is long gone in English too, 
though it remains in spelling
w- [nothing] wolf úlfr
the 'w' disappeared in Norse very early before 
'back vowels' e.g. 'o, ó, u, ú' cf. was = var, Woden 
= Óðinn
y- [nothing] young ungr
the same phenomenon as the w- > Ø above, but 
before any vowel
e- j- earth jörð
as all j- disappeared in ON (see above), new j- 
rolled in
-th -nn
sooth, 
tooth
sannr, 
tönn
Proto-Germanic 'nþ' changed to 'nn' in ON and to 
'þ' in OE
The following is a similar list of vowel equations; it is to be noted, however, that such 
equations between languages are much more fickle than what regards consonants, as 
vowels are the sounds that change most rapidly in languages. These are the general 
tendencies, or the most useful equations:
oo ó blood blóð may be considered a spelling difference
ou ú out út
the long u became a diphthong in West Germanic (English, Dutch, 
German) early on, but remained in the northern languages; note the 
old pronunciation in North England and Scotland
ee é tree tré may be considered a spelling difference
Old Norse -> Articles -> Some Common Features of Old Norse and German
Some Common Features of Old Norse and
German
https://notendur.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
https://notendur.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/articles/articles.html
by Óskar Guðlaugsson 2000
Case System: 
ON and German have the same four cases standard to Germanic case languages, 
nominate, accusative, dative, and genitive. They differ considerably in the usage of 
the latter two, though.
German tends to be very reserved in the usage of dative and especially genitive; 
genitive in German is used only to mark possession. ON has, however, a much more 
evenly spread case usage, with dative and genitive seeing much use; genitive can be 
observed to follow prepositions and even verbs. Dative also follows many verbs 
whose meanings would seem direct enough to call for a simple accusative. Some 
examples of all this:
 ; ; hrinda + dat = to push someone (note how it doesn't take accusative, which would 
seem logical) 
 tvístra + dat = to scatter something 
 óska + gen = to wish for something (takes genitive, which never happens in 
German) 
 unna + gen = to love someone/something 
 sakna + gen = to miss someone/something 
 njóta + gen = to enjoy something 
Verbs will also often take either accusative or dative, with different meanings for each 
case: 
 fela + acc = to hide someone/something 
 fela + dat (+ acc) = to give someone (something) for specific use 
 taka + acc = to take something 
 taka + dat = to to receive someone 
Some prepositions even take genitive: 
 til + gen = to (allative) 
 án + gen = without 
 vegna + gen = because of 
Some prepositions take either accusative or dative, with different meanings for each 
case: 
 á + acc = onto (allative) 
 á + dat = on (locative) 
 við + acc = to (only with verbs), beside, against 
 við + dat = against 
Prepositions are also very common elements in phrasal verbs: 
 koma at = arrive 
 koma við = relate to, touch, pertain, bring up (as a subject) 
Sound Changes (Umlaut): 
In German, umlaut is comparatively easy and convenient to deal with. ON features a 
much more extensive umlaut; in fact, umlaut pervades the whole morphological 
system of the language. The ON orthography also does not account as well for the 
umlaut as German does. ON umlauts are of two types, i-umlaut and u-umlaut, 
identified by which sound originates the umlaut. The u-umlaut is simple, only 
effecting the change a > ö, but can appear unpredictably, because in many cases the u 
that originated the umlaut is no longer present. Examples of u-umlaut:
 hafa(to have) ~ vér höfum (we have) 
 vala (a pebble) ~ völurVér sjám manninn kalla. We see the man shout.
Hann heyrir drauginn mæla. He hears the ghost speak.
Modern English speakers will often say "I see it coming." instead of "come." The ON 
construction may be translated either way.
1.3 Usage - auxiliary verbs
ON has much in common with English in its use of auxiliaries. To begin with, some 
examples of English auxiliary constructions with infinitive:
It wants to go.
He has to go.
The man does see.
Birds can fly.
The dogs must leave.
The beast will sleep.
The auxiliary verbs are the ones that conjugate, 'want', 'can', etc, always coming first 
in an English sentence (but not necessarily in ON). The other verbs are all in 
infinitive.
Note how some of the infinitives are marked with 'to', but some not. This is a feature 
of English as well as ON. It is inherent in the auxiliaries themselves, if the following 
infinitive is marked or not. Among the auxiliaries above only 'want' and 'have' take a 
marker. ON verbs that have no infinitive marker, are easily recognized because they 
all belong to a special conjugation group. Below you will learn 'vilja', meaning 'want', 
which is one of those "special" auxiliaries.
Konungrinn vill vega mennina. The king wants to kill the men.
Þeir vilja taka hestinn. They want to take the horse.
Ek vil mæla. I want to speak.
Eta vil ek eigi. I don't want to eat.
1.4 The masculine article
It may annoy speakers of many languages that the definite article is attached to the 
end of words rather than being a seperate word in front. It may be some consolation 
that it is originally a separate word. Its declension (in the cases and gender we have 
learnt so far) follows:
sg pl
nom inn inir
acc inn ina
When we tack the article on to words it sometimes appears in its full majesty:
maðr + inn = maðrinn
menn + inir = menninir
But if the noun ends with a vowel or 'r' the 'i' of the article is dropped:
ormar + inir = ormarnir
orma + ina = ormana
And now a masculine noun from a declension group (the weak one) which you 
haven't learnt.
(nom sg) hani + inn = haninn
(acc sg) hana + inn = hanann
Though it is a separate word, 'inn' cannot be freely put in front of a word as an article; 
it always follows the noun (with some important exceptions to be learnt later).
2. Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
matr food (always in singular)
fiskr fish
ostr cheese
Names:
Svartr
Kormákr
2.2 Pronouns
There is a group of pronouns called 'indefinite' pronouns; here are two useful ones:
allr all, whole
margr many, multitudinous
As said above, many pronouns decline like the indefinite adjectives that have been 
presented. Thus, 'allr' is declined (in masculine):
sg pl
nom allr allir
acc allan alla
Exactly like the adjectives above.
But since 'allr' is available both in singular and plural, how would each translate in 
English? The plural form translates directly to the English cognate 'all', while the 
singular means 'all of', 'whole'. Examples:
Allir menninir eru norskir. All the men are Norwegian.
Hann sér allan manninn He sees all of the man.
'Margr' declines in the same way. Its singular form means 'one of many', while the 
plural means 'many'. To explain the singular, consider this example:
Margr maðr á hest. Many a man has got a horse.
What students should perhaps realize, is that there is little difference between these 
so-called pronouns on the one hand, and adjectives on the other. For other adjectives 
can stand independently just as these pronouns can; examples:
Allir eru glaðir. All are happy.
Hræddir eru ok ragir. Scared [ones] are also cowardly.
Dauðir sjá dauða. Dead [ones] see dead [ones].
Ef blindr leiðir blindan falla báðir í gryfju.
If a blind [one] guides a blind [one], both fall into a pit.
However, traditional grammar defines these so-called pronouns as such, and other 
adjectives as such; we will adhere to this system in our lessons, in order not to confuse
students refer to other sources.
Regarding word order, adjectives usually postcede personal pronouns; thus:
Ek et hann allan. I eat all of it.
2.3 Adjectives
danskr Danish
dauðr dead
góðr good
hræddr afraid
illr evil
íslenzkr Icelandic
norskr Norwegian
reiðr angry
ragr cowardly
stórr big (note that the first r is part of the stem)
svangr hungry
2.4 Verbs
Regular verbs:
eta, et eat
veiða, veiði hunt/fish
flýja, flý flee, run away
spyrja, spyr ask
svara, svara answer
kenna, kenni recognize, know (a person, place, or object)
elta, elti follow, chase
heyra, heyri hear
fara, fer go
deyja, dey die
Note that ON has different words for the English concept "know"; "kenna" above 
indicates familiarity, while "vita", mentioned above, is the "absolute" knowing, i.e. it 
means awareness of a fact or event.
An irregular verb - vilja:
This irregular verb, meaning "want", is the second in a small group of verbs with an 
anomalous conjugation (the first being "vera"), but also highly useful meanings. It is a
cognate of English "will", and behaves in similar ways as that English verb (e.g. in 
auxiliary constructions, see 1.3 above). It conjugates thus:
Infinitive: (at) vilja
ek vil vit/vér viljum
þú vilt þit/þér vilið
hann/hon/þat vill þeir/þær/þau vilja
2.5 Adverbs
brátt soon
oft often
hví? why? (word-order: hví + verb + subject)
mjök very, very much, greatly
'Mjök', being an adverb, can also be used with verbs, in which case it means 'very 
much'. For example,
Óláfr hatar mjök úlfa. Olaf hates wolves very much.
Another example, from a real text, Völuspá:
Geyr nú garmr mjök. Now [the] dog howls greatly.
2.6 Conjunctions
því at because (word-order: því at + subject + verb)
er when
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the sentences into English
Ragir menn sjá reiðan úlf koma.
"Ek sé svangan mann taka ost."
"Hvárt sér þú íslenzka menn koma?"
Maðrinn er oft hræddr.
Illir menn vilja vega góða menn.
Allir vilja bátinn taka því at Óláfr á hann.
Íslendingar eru eigi menn ragir. Þeir eru ok góðir en eigi illir.
Maðrinn veiðir fisk ok etr hann brátt allan.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
"Do you two eat the whole cheese?"
"We see hungry wolves chase the man."
"The ravens want to eat all of him, for they are very hungry."
King Olaf sees the thieves take the boat.
"I see many thieves! I want to kill them all!"
Olaf wants to kill the thieves, but they see him coming.
As the thieves hear Olaf speak, they all flee. The king chases them.
"Many a thief wants to take the boat."
3.3 Translate the texts into English
Illr draugr vill vega Óláf konung. Hann eltir konunginn ok er hann sér hann, kallar 
draugrinn, "Óláfr, þú ert maðr illr mjök ok ragr. Ek hata þik, því at þú vegr góða 
menn." Óláfr er hræddr ok flýr.
Svartr heitir danskr maðr. Hann veiðir oft fiska ok etr þá því at fiskar eru matr góðr. 
Svartr ferr ok veiðir marga stóra fiska er hann vill eta. Er Svartr veiðir fiskana, kømr 
maðr. Er maðrinn sér Svart veiða fiskana, segir hann, "Heill, ek heiti Kormákr." Svartr
heyrir Kormák mæla ok svarar, "Heill. Svartr heiti ek ok em danskr maðr." Kormákr 
spyrr Svart, "Hvárt veiðir þú fiska, Svartr?" "Marga stóra fiska veiði ek, því at þeir eru
góðr matr." Kormákr segir, "Ostr er ok góðr matr, Svartr. Ek hefi hér ost góðan. Hvárt 
vilt þú ost eta?" "- Ek vil fisk ok ost eta, því at ostr er ok góðr matr. Hvárt vilt þú fisk 
eta, Kormákr?" "- Fiskr er góðr," svarar Kormákr ok tekr fisk. Svartr tekr ok ost ok etr.
Menninir eru mjök svangir. Þeir eta nú alla fiskana ok allan ostinn, ok eru brátt glaðir 
menn en eigi svangir.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
A worm sees a wolf coming. When it sees the wolf, it says, "Sss - wolf, why do you 
come? I own the fish here, which you want to take." The wolf is not scared and 
replies, "hail worm, I'm a hungry wolf now and I want to eat fish. You have much fish 
(many fishes) there, which you aren't eating (don't eat)." The worm is angry and says, 
"I own all the fish there, wolf. Wolves who eat the fish all die (deyja allir)!" Now the 
wolf isscared, because an evil worm wants to kill it. "- You are an evil worm! You 
fish (hunt) much fish but do not eat it (them) all. We wolves are very hungry and don't
have fish. We also want to eat fish, worm!" The worm sees the wolf flee. The wolf is 
very angry and shouts, "I hate evil worms!" But the worm does not chase the wolf, for
it is happy but not angry.
4. Looking at real texts
4.1 A strophe from Völuspá
In this course we use standardised Old Icelandic spelling, geared to the 13th century. 
In this format we would give one of the last strophes of Völuspá like this.
"Sér hon upp koma
öðru sinni
jörð ór ægi
iðjagroena;
falla forsar,
flýgr örn yfir,
sá er á fjalli
fiska veiðir."
This, however, is not what how the main manuscript of Völuspá, Codex Regius, reads.
The same strophe is spelled in the following way in the manuscript (I change e with 
tail to æ and o with tail to ö).
Ser hon upp koma avðro siNi iord or ægi iþia gröna. falla
forsar flygr avrn yfir sa er afialli fisca ueiðir.
Lots of interesting points.
 The manuscript doesn't distinguish between short and long vowels.
 It sometimes uses capitals for double consonants.
 It does not differentiate between i and j.
 It does not differentiate between u and v.
 It uses c for k.
 The grammatical ending 'u' is written 'o'.
 It does not split the poem into lines.
 It uses capitalisation and punctuation in a way different from ours.
 It divides words in a way different from ours.
 It writes 'ð' as 'þ', 'd' or 'ð'.
 It uses 'av' for 'ö'.
In all those respects Codex Regius is quite normal. Indeed, the standardised spelling is
by no means an average of the spelling systems in the various manuscripts. Rather, it 
is intended to write Old Norse in a way that distinguishes its different sounds.
We can now look at the same strophe respelled into modern Icelandic.
"Sér hún upp koma
öðru sinni
jörð úr ægi
iðjagræna;
falla fossar,
flýgur örn yfir,
sá er á fjalli
fiska veiðir."
Not many changes because the spelling of Old Icelandic and the spelling of Modern 
Icelandic are based on the same basic system. You should note that the ending 'r' has 
changed to 'ur'.
We have now shown you the same strophe in three different spellings. All of them are 
quite plausible and many more. The morale? When you encounter a text 'in the 
original Old Norse' be sure to notice which spelling is used.
Glossary:
opna, opna = open
munnr (muðr is another form) = mouth
smár = small
fagr = fair, beautiful
nom. fagr fagrir
acc. fagran fagra
dat. fögrum fögrum
gen. fagrs fagra
Note that "smáan" should probably be contracted to 
"smán".
Solutions to Lesson Three
by Óskar Guðlaugsson 2001
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
a) Ragir menn sjá reiðan úlf koma.
Cowardly men see an angry wolf come.
b) "Ek sé svangan mann taka ost." 
"I see a hungry man take some cheese."
c) "Hvárt sér þú íslenzka menn koma?" 
"Do you see Icelandic men coming?"
d) Maðrinn er oft hræddr. 
The man is often scared.
e) Illir menn vilja vega góða menn. 
Evil men want to kill good men.
f) Allir vilja bátinn taka því at Óláfr á hann. 
Everybody wants to take the boat because Olaf owns it.
g) Íslendingar eru eigi menn ragir. Þeir eru ok góðir en eigi illir. 
Icelanders are not cowardly men. They are good but not evil.
h) Maðrinn veiðir fisk ok etr hann brátt allan. 
The man catches a fish and soon eats it all.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
a) "Do you two eat the whole cheese?" 
"Hvárt etið þit allan ostinn?"
b) "We see hungry wolves chase the man." 
"Vér sjám svanga úlfa elta manninn."
c) The ravens want to eat all of him, for they are very hungry. 
Hrafnarnir vilja eta hann allan, því at þeir eru mjök svangir.
d) King Olaf sees the thieves take the boat. 
Óláfr konungr sér þjófana taka bátinn.
e) "I see many thieves! I want to kill them all!" 
"Ek sé marga þjófa! Ek vil vega þá alla!"
f) Olaf wants to kill the thieves, but they see him coming. 
Óláfr vill vega þjófana, en þeir sjá hann koma.
g) As the thieves hear Olaf speak, they all flee. The king chases them. 
Er þjófarnir heyra Óláf mæla, flýja þeir allir. Konungrinn eltir þá.
h) "Many a thief wants to take the boat." 
"Margr þjófr vill taka bátinn."
3.3 Translate the texts into English
Illr draugr vill vega Óláf konung. Hann eltir konunginn ok er hann sér hann, kallar 
draugrinn, "Óláfr, þú ert maðr illr mjök ok ragr. Ek hata þik, því at þú vegr góða 
menn." Óláfr er hræddr ok flýr.
Svartr heitir danskr maðr. Hann veiðir oft fiska ok etr þá því at fiskar eru matr góðr. 
Svartr ferr ok veiðir marga stóra fiska er hann vill eta. Er Svartr veiðir fiskana, kømr 
maðr. Er maðrinn sér Svart veiða fiskana, segir hann, "Heill, ek heiti Kormákr." Svartr
heyrir Kormák mæla ok svarar, "Heill. Svartr heiti ek ok em danskr maðr." Kormákr 
spyrr Svart, "Hvárt veiðir þú fiska, Svartr?" "Marga stóra fiska veiði ek, því at þeir eru
góðr matr." Kormákr segir, "Ostr er ok góðr matr, Svartr. Ek hefi hér ost góðan. Hvárt 
vilt þú ost eta?" "- Ek vil fisk ok ost eta, því at ostr er ok góðr matr. Hvárt vilt þú fisk 
eta, Kormákr?" "- Fiskr er góðr," svarar Kormákr ok tekr fisk. Svartr tekr ok ost ok etr.
Menninir eru mjök svangir. Þeir eta nú alla fiskana ok allan ostinn, ok eru brátt glaðir 
menn en eigi svangir.
An evil ghost wants to kill King Olaf. It chases the king and when it sees him, the 
ghost shouts "Olaf, you are a very evil man and cowardly. I hate you, for you kill good
men." Olaf is afraid and flees.
A Danish man is named Swart. He often catches fish and eats them, because fish are 
good food. Swart goes and catches many big fish which he wants to eat. As Swart 
catches the fish, a man comes. When the man sees Swart catching the fish, he says 
"Hail, my name is Cormack." Swart hears Cormack speak and replies, "Hail. My 
name is Swart and I am a Danish man." Cormack asks Swart "Do you catch fish, 
Swart?" "I catch many big fish, for they are good food." Cormack says "Cheese is 
also good food, Swart. Here I have some good cheese. Do you want to eat cheese?" "-
I want to eat fish and cheese, for cheese is also good food. Do you want to eat fish, 
Cormack?" "- Fish is also good," Cormack replies and takes some fish. Swart takes 
some cheese and eats. The men are very hungry. Now they eat all the fish and all the 
cheese, and are soon happy men but not hungry.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
A worm sees a wolf coming. When it sees the wolf, it says, "Sss - wolf, why do you 
come? I own the fish here, which you want to take." The wolf is not scared and 
replies, "hail worm, I'm a hungry wolf now and I want to eat fish. You have much fish 
(many fishes) there, which you aren't eating (don't eat)." The worm is angry and says, 
"I own all the fish there, wolf. Wolves who eat the fish all die (deyja allir)!" Now the 
wolf is scared, because an evil worm wants to kill it. "- You are an evil worm! You 
fish (hunt) much fish but do not eat it (them) all. We wolves are very hungry and don't
have fish. We also want to eat fish, worm!" The worm sees the wolf flee. The wolf is 
very angry and shouts, "I hate evil worms!" But the worm does not chase the wolf, for
it is happy but not angry.
Ormr sér úlf koma. Er ormrinn sér úlfinn, segir hann, "Sss - úlfr, hví kømr þú? Ek á 
fiskana hér, er þú vilt taka." Úlfrinn er eigi hræddr ok svarar, "Heill ormr, nú em ek 
svangr úlfr ok vil eta fisk. Þú hefir þar marga fiska, er þú etr eigi." Ormrinn er reiðr 
ok segir, "Ek á alla fiskana þar, úlfr. Úlfar er eta fiskana deyja allir!" Nú er úlfrinn 
hræddr, því at illr ormr vill vega hann. "- Þú ert illr ormr! Þú ert illr ormr! Þú veiðir 
marga fiska en etr þá eigi alla. Vér úlfar erum mjök svangir ok höfum eigi fiska. Vér 
viljum ok eta fiska, ormr!" Ormrinn sér úlfinn flýja. Úlfrinn er mjök reiðr ok kallar, 
"Ek hata illa orma!" En ormrinn eltir eigi úlfinn, því at hann er glaðr en eigi reiðr.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Four
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson1. Grammar
1. Dative Case: Giving & Receiving
2. Dative Case: Forms
3. Word Order: Indirect Objects
4. Verb Imperative
5. Pronoun trick - We Olaf slay a worm
2. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Adjectives
3. Verbs
4. Adverbs
3. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
4. Looking at real texts
1. A stanza from the Höfuðlausn
1. Grammar
1.1 Dative Case: Giving & Receiving
Until now, we have been working with two opposing cases: nominative and 
accusative. By now you should understand clearly the concept behind them and the 
difference between them. Consider this English sentence,
John tells a story.
That's complete. It's clear to you that John is the subject and the story is the object; if 
it were ON, John would be in nominative form and the story would be in accusative 
form.
John tells a story to Mary.
John's still the subject, the story's still the object; but the new participant, Mary, serves
an as yet unidentified role. Let's consider the following incomplete sentence,
John gives the dog...
As stated above, the sentence is not complete; we need to know to whom John gives 
the dog. So,
John gives the dog to Mary.
Again, Mary's a third participant in the sentence; but how does Mary relate do John 
and the dog? Again, before we answer that, let's consider what word order has to do 
with it;
John gives to Mary the dog.
To Mary the dog gives John.
The first version is not obviously incorrect, merely unconventional; the second one is 
wrong, especially for our purposes, because it makes it seem like the dog is giving 
John away, and thereby being the subject.
In any case, it is clear that Mary has a different role from the dog, and John clearly has
a different role from both of them. We know that John is the subject and the dog is the 
object, so what does that make Mary? She's an object all right, but not in the same 
way as the dog. The dog's a direct object; it's being directly affected by John. Mary is 
an indirect object; she's merely being affected by John's actions involving the dog.
The bottom line is, Mary's role is special, and it is practical to mark this role in a 
separate way. How does English mark this role? Usually, in sentences like the ones 
above, by fixing "to" to the indirect object. Note how the "to" would stay with Mary 
no matter how the word order got arranged.
You might have figured out by now that we're dealing with a new case. You might 
also have guessed that ON marks this case with special endings, not merely with 
words like "to" and a special word order. This case is called the dative case; the "da" 
part of the word is the stem of the Latin word "give", which is the logic behind the 
term for the primary usage of the dative case is to mark the receiver of a "gift" (note, 
though, that "gifts" can also be thrown, shoved, transmitted, told, etc to their 
receivers).
1.2 Dative Case: Forms
Now that you understand the basic idea behind the dative, you require only the ON 
endings to start using it.
First, the strong masculine noun declension:
Sg Pl
Nom dvergr dvergar
Acc dverg dverga
Dat dvergi dvergum
The -i ending there is characteristic of the dative in the strong masculine; some words 
in this declension don't have it (i.e. they are the same in acc and dat), e.g. "matr", but 
you should not worry about it now. The -um in the dative plural is characteristic of all 
declensions; it is thus important that you learn to recognize it.
Next, the pronouns:
Sg Du Pl
Nom ek vit vér
Acc mik okkr oss
Dat mér okkr oss
Sg Du Pl
Nom þú þit þér
Acc þik ykkr yðr
Dat þér ykkr yðr
he it they (masc) they (neut)
nom hann þat þeir þau
acc hann þat þá þau
dat hánum því þeim þeim
You may find it disconcerting that "hánum" has an -um ending (coupled with a minor 
stem change), similar to the plural of nouns; that is however characteristic of 
masculine pronouns in general. Since the article is originally a pronoun, its masculine 
form also features this, see a strong masculine word declined with the article attached:
Sg Pl
Nom dvergrinn dvergarnir
Acc dverginn dvergana
Dat dverginum dvergunum
The main anomaly here is the plural dative form; you might, systematically speaking, 
expect something like "dvergumnum". Roughly speaking, that's the original form, but 
a combination like "mn" in that position would very easily get simplified to a more 
convenient "n"; which is what happened.
Finally, adjectives in masculine:
Sg Pl
Nom reiðr reiðir
Acc reiðan reiða
Dat reiðum reiðum
Again, same pattern as with the pronouns, since the boundary between pronouns and 
adjectives is often not that clear in ON.
As you have seen happen with verbs, endings like -um that have an u in them, will 
modify any a in the immediately preceding syllable, changing it to ö. This is called u-
umlaut, or u-mutation ("umlaut" is a German term; "um" is a preposition meaning 
"about/around", while "laut" means "sound" - "sound-about" if you like). Practically 
speaking, this means that you must take care with words containing an "a" in the root. 
For example,
(Example noun)
Sing Pl
Nom maðr menn
Acc mann menn
Dat manni mönnum
(Example adjective)
Sing Pl
Nom glaðr glaðir
Acc glaðan glaða
Dat glöðum glöðum
(Example pronoun)
Sg Pl
Nom allr allir
Acc allan alla
Dat öllum öllum
Note the "a > ö" changes where the -um ending is present (always in dative plural and 
In dative singular of masculine adjectives and pronouns).
1.3 Word Order: Indirect Objects
The most conventional order in ON prose, is to put the indirect object *before* the 
direct object.
Maðrinn gefr konunginum bátinn.
You should stick to this word order, though you can expect just about any word order 
to appear in skaldic poetry.
1.4 Verb Imperative
We commonly command or suggest for people to do something:
Leave, find the car and then bring it here.
All the verbs there are in "imperative". English verbs do not have any separate form 
for the imperative. ON verbs do not have any endings for the imperative, but rather 
the infinitive stem is used without the -a ending. For example,
Veg þú orminn ok tak bauginn er hann hefir.
An exception is verbs that end with -a in 1st person singular present, "kalla". Those 
keep their a in the imperative.
Kalla þú mik Hauk!
(From the verb infinitives "vega" and "taka")
As can be seen, the pronoun "þú" (or "þit" or "þér") may be inserted and usually is, 
especially in spoken language. It need not be repeated for the following imperative 
verbs, though it may be done ("...ok tak þú bauginn...").
To command more than one person, the "-ið" ending (as in the verb active) is used:
Vegið þér orminn ok takið bauginn er hann hefir.
The imperative is seen in some greetings:
Ver (þú) heill! be whole/healthy
Verið heilir! be whole/healthy (plural)
Far vel! go well (fare well)
But "negative commands" are also used, as in English
Don't go!
In ON, this is simply expressed by adding a negative adverb such as "eigi".
Far þú eigi!
1.5 Pronoun trick - We Olaf slay a worm
In English we can say sentences like this:
Olaf and I are slaying a worm.
Old Norse has an idiomatic way of expressing the same:
Vit Óláfr vegum orm.
We could also have:
Vér Óláfr vegum orm.
Meaning:
Olaf, I, and some other people are slaying a worm.
Some more examples:
Þeir Óláfr vega orm.
Þit Óláfr vegið orm.
Þér Óláfr vegið orm.
2. Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
hattr hat
grautr porridge
Names:
Einarr
Fjalarr (dwarf-name)
Gandálfr (dwarf-name)
2.2 Adjectives
glaðr happy, glad
langr long
gylltr golden, gilted
2.3 Verbs
gefa, gef give
foera, foeri bring
finna, finn find
hlæja, hlæ laugh
2.4 Adverbs
þá then
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
 Svartr gefr Kormáki fiska. Þá er Kormákr glaðr.
 Menninir foera þeim góðan mat.
 "Vit foerum góðum manni ost."
 Svartr spyrr, "Hví gefr þú mér eigi ost, Kormákr?"
 Kormákrsvarar, "Ek gef þér eigi ost, því at ek hefi hann eigi."
 Kormákr etr allan ostinn en gefr Svarti hann eigi.
 Konungrinn foerir Norðmönnunum knífa ok geira.
 Þá gefa Norðmenninir hánum langan bát ok gylltan baug.
 Maðrinn gefr hánum hatt góðan.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
 Then they give a golden ring to an evil king.
 The dwarves bring the king a golden ring.
 The king says "You are good dwarves."
 The king takes the ring and gives the dwarves a big cheese.
 The dwarves don't want any cheese, but they take it and go.
 "Why do I give them cheese which they don't eat?" King Olaf asks the ghost.
 The ghost replies "Olaf, you're a good man. But do not give cheese to 
dwarves."
3.3 Translate the text into English
Óláfr gefr Svarti hatt, kníf ok hest góðan. Hann segir, "Far þú nú, Svartr, ok finn 
bauginn er dvergarnir Fjalarr ok Gandálfr hafa." Svartr svarar, "En Óláfr, hví gefr þú 
mér eigi mat? Ek em svangr ok vil mat eta."Óláfr gefr hánum ost, graut, ok fisk ok 
segir, "Hér hefir þú mat. Far nú ok finn bauginn."
Svartr etr matinn er Óláfr gefr hánum. Hann segir, "grautrinn er þú gefr mér er góðr, 
Óláfr. Þú ert góðr konungr."
Svartr ferr nú ok finnr dvergana er hafa bauginn. Hann segir, "Dvergar, gefið mér 
bauginn. Óláfr konungr vill hann." Dvergarnir svara, "Vit viljum eigi gefa Óláfi 
konungi bauginn. Hann er illr konungr." Svartr er reiðr ok segir, "Gefið mér bauginn 
eða ek veg ykkr!" Dvergarnir eru eigi hræddir. Þeir hlæja ok Fjalarr segir, "Þú ert ragr 
maðr, Svartr. Þú vegr okkr Gandálf eigi. Vit gefum ykkr Óláfi eigi bauginn, ok far þú 
nú!" Svartr hefir eigi brand. Hann hefir kníf, en knífrinn er eigi stórr. Hann vegr eigi 
dvergana ok foerir Óláfi eigi bauginn.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
Eric, a thief, sees some men eat. They eat good porridge, many fish, and a big cheese. 
Eric wants the food, for he is hungry. He says "Hail, I am hungry. Will you (use "þér")
give some good food to a hungry man?" They reply "Take some food. We give it to 
you. But the elves are hungry too. Take some porridge and give it to them. Eric finds 
some elves. He brings hungry elves food, for he is a good man.
4. Looking at real texts
4.1 A stanza from the Höfuðlausn
Again we practice our etymology but in a less verbose manner than before.
A stanza from the Höfuðlausn:
Beit fleinn floginn
þá var friðr loginn
var álmr dreginn
varð úlfr feginn.
Stózk fólk-hagi
við fjör-lagi
gall ý-bogi
at egg-togi.
The main etymological lesson here is that g inside a word is gone in modern English; 
resulting in a change of the original vowel.
floginn flown
loginn lied
dreginn drawn
feginn fain
lagi (dative) lay
Other cognates:
álmr elm (bows were made of elm)
stózk (middle voice) stood
beit bit (bíta = bite)
gall yelled (Old English "geall", the 'g' is pronounced as 'y' in ME)
egg- edge (Old English "ecg" was pronounced "edge")
ý- yew-
Words without English cognates:
fleinn arrow
friðr peace
fjör life
I have included most of the cognates in this translation but enclosed them in quotation
marks when they didn't seem to fit the context.
A flown arrow bit
then peace was "lied" [broken]
the elm [bow] was drawn
the wolf became fain.
The folk-leader stood against
a "lay" [blow] to his life
a yew bow "yelled" [twung]
at the "tow" [pull] of edges.
Solutions to Lesson Four
by Óskar Guðlaugsson 2001
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
Svartr gefr Kormáki fiska. Þá er Kormákr glaðr.
Swart gives Cormack the fish. Then Cormack is happy.
Menninir foera þeim góðan mat.
The men bring them good food.
"Vit foerum góðum manni ost."
"We bring cheese to a good man."
Svartr spyrr, "Hví gefr þú mér eigi ost, Kormákr?"
Swart asks, "Why do you not give me cheese, Cormack?"
Kormákr svarar, "Ek gef þér eigi ost, því at ek hefi hann eigi."
Cormack replies, "I do not give you cheese, for I do not have it."
Kormákr etr allan ostinn en gefr Svarti hann eigi.
Cormack eats all the cheese but does not give it to Swart
Konungrinn foerir Norðmönnunum knífa ok geira.
The king brings knives and spears to the Norwegians
Þá gefa Norðmenninir hánum langan bát ok gylltan baug.
Then the Norwegians give him a long boat and a golden ring.
Maðrinn gefr hánum hatt góðan.
The man gives him a good hat.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
Then they give a golden ring to an evil king.
Þá gefa þeir illum konungi gylltan baug.
The dwarves bring the king a golden ring.
Dvergarnir foera konunginum gylltan baug.
The king says "You are good dwarves."
Konungrinn segir, "Þér eruð góðir dvergar."
The king takes the ring and gives the dwarves a big cheese.
Konungrinn tekr bauginn ok gefr dvergunum stóran ost.
The dwarves don't want any cheese, but they take it and go.
Dvergarnir vilja eigi ost, en þeir taka hann ok fara.
"Why do I give them cheese which they don't eat?" King Olaf asks the ghost.
"Hví gef ek þeim ost er þeir eta eigi?" spyrr Óláfr konungr drauginn.
The ghost replies "Olaf, you're a good man. But do not give cheese to dwarves."
Draugrinn svarar, "Óláfr, þú ert góðr maðr. En gef eigi dvergum ost."
3.3 Translate the text into English
Óláfr gefr Svarti hatt, kníf ok hest góðan. Hann segir, "Far þú nú, Svartr, ok finn 
bauginn er dvergarnir Fjalarr ok Gandálfr hafa." Svartr svarar, "En Óláfr, hví gefr þú 
mér eigi mat? Ek em svangr ok vil mat eta." Óláfr gefr hánum ost, graut, ok fisk ok 
segir, "Hér hefir þú mat. Far nú ok finn bauginn."
Svartr etr matinn er Óláfr gefr hánum. Hann segir, "grautrinn er þú gefr mér er góðr, 
Óláfr. Þú ert góðr konungr."
Svartr ferr nú ok finnr dvergana er hafa bauginn. Hann segir, "Dvergar, gefið mér 
bauginn. Óláfr konungr vill hann." Dvergarnir svara, "Vit viljum eigi gefa Óláfi 
konungi bauginn. Hann er illr konungr." Svartr er reiðr ok segir, "Gefið mér bauginn 
eða ek veg ykkr!" Dvergarnir eru eigi hraeddir. Þeir hlaeja ok Fjalarr segir, "Þú ert 
ragr maðr, Svartr. Þú vegr okkr Gandálf eigi. Vit gefum ykkr Óláfi eigi bauginn, ok far
þú nú!" Svartr hefir eigi brand. Hann hefir kníf, en knífrinn er eigi stórr. Hann vegr 
eigi dvergana ok foerir Óláfi eigi bauginn.
Olaf gives Swart a hat, a knife and a good horse. He says "Go now, Swart, and find 
the ring which the dwarves Fjalar and Gandalf have." Swart replies, "But Olaf, why 
don't you give me some food? I'm hungry and I want to eat some food." Olaf gives him
cheese, porridge, and fish and says "Here you have some food. Now go and find the 
ring."
Swart eats the food that Olaf gives to him. He says "The porridge that you give to me 
is good, Olaf. You are a good king."
Swart now goes and finds the dwarves who have the ring. He says, "Dwarves, give me
the ring. King Olaf wants it." The dwarves answer "We don't want to give Olaf the 
ring. He's an evil king." Swart is angry and says "Give me the ring or I will slay you!"
The dwarves are not afraid. They laugh and Fjalar says "You are a cowardly man, 
Swart. You won't kill me and Gandalf. We won't give the ring to you and Olaf, and 
leave now!" Swart doesn't have a sword. He has a knife, but the knife isn't big. He 
won't defeat the dwarves and doesn't bring Olaf the ring.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
Eric, a thief, sees some men eat. They eat good porridge, many fish, and a big cheese. 
Eric wants the food, for he is hungry. He says "Hail, I am hungry. Will you (use "þér")
give some good food to a hungry man?" They reply "Take some food. We give it to 
you. But the elves are hungry too. Take some porridge and give it to them. Eric finds 
some elves. He brings hungry elves food, for he is a good man.
Eiríkr, þjófr, sér menn eta. Þeir eta góðan graut, marga fiska, ok stóran ost. Eiríkr vill
matinn, því at hann er svangr. Hann segir, "Heilir, ek em svangr. Hvárt gefið þér 
svöngum manni mat?" Þeir svara, "Tak þú mat. Vér gefum þér hann. En álfarnir eru 
ok svangir. Tak grautinn ok gef þeim hann. Eiríkr finnr álfa. Hann foerir svöngum 
álfum mat, því at hann er góðr maðr.
Old Norse for Beginners- Lesson Five
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson
1. Grammar
1. Prepositions and Case Usage
2. Dative Case: Command
3. Accusative Case: Qualifying
4. Assimilative Verb Conjugation
2. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Conjunctions
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Prepositions
7. Pronouns
8. Phrases
3. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
1. Grammar
1.1 Prepositions
So far we have been managing entirely without prepositions. But prepositions are an 
important part of ON as well as English, and not using them calls for much 
unnecessary circumlocution and paraphrasing. ON prepositions, however, largely 
involve use of the dative case, which is why we have not started using them until now.
Why would prepositions involve the dative case? Our first acquaintance with this case
introduced it as a case for "giving & receiving". But the dative case has many 
different functions in ON. The reason is that ON's dative case was (and is, in Icelandic
and Faroese) the final result of a fusion of many different cases. In the farthest 
"known" (projected by comparative linguistics) ancestral language of both ON and 
English, "Indo-European" (so called because it is the ancestor of most European 
languages and Persian and North-Indian languages as well), all those different cases 
served one specific purpose only. Four Indo- European cases served as the basis for 
the ON dative:
· Locative: The case for marking places or objects where the subject of the sentence is
positioned; associated with prepositions meaning 'in', 'on', 'at', etc.
· Ablative: Marks places or objects whence the subject comes; associated with 
prepositions meaning 'from', 'out of', etc.
· Instrumental: Marks objects that are being used in the verb action; e.g. a sentence 
meaning 'he weighed the book with a scale', would mark the word 'scale' with the 
instrumental; English primarily marks the instrumental with the preposition 'with', 
but sometimes with 'by', e.g. 'he came by ship'.
· Dative: Marks the indirect object, usually the receiver of a gift of some kind 
(whether negative or positive); English usually marks this with 'to', e.g. "he gave it to 
him" or simply by word order, e.g. "he gave the man a chance", where "the man" 
would be in dative.
In Indo-European, those cases (supposedly) had separate forms, i.e. separate endings, 
for each of them. But ON had united all those cases into one form, while retaining all 
of those different uses for that single case.
It may be evident by now why the dative case is so strongly affiliated with 
prepositions in ON. Most prepositions have meanings that would be associated with 
the locative and ablative cases mentioned above.
You might wonder what case category prepositions like 'into' and 'onto' fit. While 
locative answers 'where?', and ablative answers 'whence?/where from?', the 'into' case 
would answer 'whither?/'where to?'. This case is called "allative" by grammarians, and
is the opposite of the 'ablative'. Even Indo-European did not have a separate form for 
this case; instead, it was assigned to the accusative case. This is significant, because 
some ON cases involve accusative, and they are all essentially allative in meaning.
From now on, prepositions are introduced in the Vocabulary section in the following 
format:
með + dat with, by, using
Or that is, the prepositions are shown with a "+ [case]" following it. It is very 
important to note the case that a preposition takes, especially because a few ON 
prepositions may take either accusative or dative, with different meanings according 
to which case follows. These are cases of prepositions with either locative or allative 
meanings; compare English "in", locative, which would take dative in ON, to "into", 
allative, which would take accusative. Both are represented by the ON preposition "í",
but the meaning differs according to the case that follows.
1.2 Dative Case: Command
Now that you have learnt how to mark the dative case in all words we have yet 
introduced, it is time to learn more useful ways of using it. One useful construction 
involves verbs meaning "tell" or "command".
Consider this English sentence,
I told him to stop.
As opposed to,
I gave him a watch.
And then consider
I told it to him.
I gave it to him.
The sentences both exhibit the same pattern, at close inspection. We already 
understand that the second sentence, involving giving, has an indirect object, and 
therefore a dative case. By re-arranging the sentence, the abstract "to" preposition 
pops up, which is a sure sign of the dative in English. "He" is the indirect object, the 
receiver of the "gift", and is marked with the dative.
What we are interested in now, however, is that the first sentence, not obviously 
involving any "giving", merely "telling", behaves in the same way. "He" is also an 
indirect object, and is marked with dative. What does he receive? "To stop". Hardly a 
noun, but verb infinitives are tricky in that they often behave as nouns. Without 
dwelling on that, we have at least found that this is a significant "new" way of using 
the dative, although it is in principle the same as the "giving" usage we already know.
Common English verbs that can function in this way are "tell", "command", "order", 
and others of similar meanings.
The good news is that ON does the exact same thing. In ON, we know the verb 
"segja"; it means "say", but it also means "tell", since ON does not distinguish 
between those two meanings. Let's make ON constructions analogous to the ones 
above:
Ek gef hánum mat.
Is already familiar. Using the command-type construction,
Ek segi hánum at eta.
However, in examining 13th century Icelandic texts, it seems to us that such 
constructions with "segja" were not altogether usual, though not wrong. The idiomatic
usage of the text writers was to use the verb "bjóða, býð" = 'offer'. Thus, they'd rather 
say:
Ek býð hánum at eta.
But Nordic men of authority often made "offers" that couldn't be refused; 'bjóða' 
sometimes means simply 'order'/'command'.
Evidently, verb infinitives can function like nouns in other dative contexts than 
commanding, both in English and ON. English says,
I give him to eat. (usually elaborated to, say, "I give him something to eat")
ON would say,
Ek gef hánum at eta.
1.3 Accusative Case: Qualifying
There still remain some useful ways of employing accusative in ON. One common 
construction is what we off-hand dub "qualifying". Again, being closely related to 
ON, English has an analogous construction:
I call him cowardly.
In ON, both "him" and "cowardly" come in accusative:
Ek kalla hann ragan.
ON often uses the verb "segja" in this way:
Ek segi hann ragan.
Another use is with the verb "vilja", as English uses "want":
Ek vil hann dauðan. I want him dead.
1.4 Assimilative Verb Conjugation
Verbs that do not conjugate with a vowel ending, and whose stems have a long vowel 
(acutes, diphthongs, ae and oe) and end in 's' or 'n' never have an -r ending; instead, 
the -r assimilates to the 's' or 'n' and becomes an -s/-n ending:
blása, blaes to blow
ek Blæs
þú Blæss
hann Blæss
skína, skín to shine
ek skín
þú skínn
hann skínn
But verbs that end in vowels are of course not affected:
reisa, reisi to construct, to raise something/someone (to vertical position)
ek reisi
þú reisir
Hann reisir
2. Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
skógr Forest
vágr small bay, cove
hólmr isle, small island
garðr palisade/stone wall, city, city-state, garden, yard
haugr mound, dung, pile, grave (see below)
eldr Fire
vindr Wind
vangr field (not farming), meadow, clear patch of ground
brunnr Well
heimr home, homeland, world
oddr point, spike
fors Waterfall
sandr Sand
 Norse people made great piles over the graves of important men.
Ragnarr
Hjálmarr
Oddr
Úlfarr
Noregr Norway
Geirshólmr "Geir's Isle"
Geirshaugr "Geir'sGrave"
Heiðvangr "Clear Field"
Skógarfors "Forest's Falls"
Úlfarsheimr "Úlfar's Home"
Hólmgarðr
"Island City", a Nordic (Swedish) colony in Russia, now called 
Novgorod ("gorod" = "garðr")
Austrvegr "Eastway" (Russia)
2.2 Conjunctions
ef If
þar er where (relative)
2.3 Adjectives
djúpr Deep
ungr Young
ríkr Rich
heiðr Clear
bjartr bright, fair (of light complexion and/or blonde hair)
sterkr Strong
víðr wide, extensive
breiðr Broad
feigr doomed to die, "dead already", fey
spakr Wise
2.4 Verbs
sigla, sigli Sail
ganga, geng walk
bjóða, býð offer (sometimes 'command', see 1.2)
sýna, sýni show
búa, bý live in, inhabit
brenna, brennr be burning
blása, blæs blow
falla, fell Fall
skína, skín shine
standa, stend stand
lifa, lifi Live
2.5 Adverbs
meðan While
svá so, such, then (immediately following)
heim Homewards
vel Well
sem as, like
2.6 Prepositions
í + acc Into
í + dat in(side)
á + acc Onto
á + dat on (top of)
ór + dat out of
með + dat with, by, using; with, accompanying
2.7 Pronouns
fáir (pl) few (note: "fám" in pl dat, not "fáum")
sumir (pl) some
báðir (pl) both
hvat? what?
2.8 Phrases
"gefa grið" grant/give mercy, spare, pardon (from death)
Example: "illr maðr gefr mér eigi grið." (an evil man gives me no mercy)
Dictionaries will reveal that "grið" is a plural neuter, but do not let that disconcert you.
It will not need to be declined to any form not known to you. Just use the phrase.
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
a. Úlfrinn gengr í skóginn.
b. Úlfrinn gengr í skóginum.
c. Eldr mjök bjartr brennr í garðinum.
d. Ragnarr ferr með víkingum í váginn.
e. Þar vegr hann úlfana með geirinum.
f. Ragnarr kømr í Eiríksheim með bátinum.
g. Með hánum eru fáir menn.
h. "Hví eru sumir eigi glaðir?" spyrr Oddr.
i. "Fám mönnum, er mik feigan vilja, gef ek grið," segir Úlfarr jarl.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
a. A young man sails in the cove.
b. He walks out of the boat and into the isle.
c. The vikings wait with the earl in a big forest, in the isle.
d. The man finds the vikings and the earl in the forest.
e. The earl says: "Some men want me dead. Do you want so?"
f. "That I do (so I want), earl. Here I stand and fall."
g. "Few men do I spare. If you do not leave (go), I kill you."
h. The vikings say: "Go home, or be doomed."
3.3 Translate the text into English
Oddr ok Ragnarr heita menn. Oddr er maðr ungr ok bjartr, ok sterkr mjök. Ragnarr er 
maðr mjök ríkr. Ragnarr á bát góðan ok langan mjök. Þeir eru báðir Norðmenn ok búa
í Noregi.
Ragnarr býðr Oddi ok mörgum víkingum at fara í bátinn. Þeir fara nú allir ok sigla. 
Þeir sigla í stórum vági. Ór bátinum sjá þeir hólm. Þar er sandr ok skógr. "Hólmrinn 
heitir Geirshólmr," segir Ragnarr Oddi. "Í skóginum þar er ok Geirshaugr, en þar býr 
Geirr, illr draugr." Þeir sjá ok vang mjök víðan ok heiðan. Oddr spyrr, "Hvat heitir þá 
vangrinn, svá heiðr?" "Hann heitir Heiðvangr. Þar blása vindar sterkir," svarar Ragnarr
hánum. "Þar á ek marga hesta, ok eta þeir vel í vanginum. Í Heiðvangi er ok brunnr 
mjök djúpr," segir hann. Oddr sér fors breiðan ok spyrr, "Hvat heitir forsinn, er þar 
fellr?" Ragnarr svarar hánum, "Forsinn heitir Skógarfors, ok er breiðr mjök." Ragnarr 
sýnir Oddi vága, hólma, skóga, sanda, forsa, ok vanga, meðan þeir sigla. Oddr segir, 
"Þú ert maðr mjök spakr ok mælir vel, Ragnarr, ok kenni ek nú marga vága ok vanga 
hér í Noregi."
Brátt koma þeir í Úlfarsheim, þar er Úlfarr jarl býr. Úlfar hatar mjök Ragnarr ok vill 
hann feigan. Er þeir ganga ór bátinum ok á sandinn, segir hann, "Hér í Úlfarsheimi 
býr Úlfarr, jarl illr ok ríkr. Hann gefr eigi góðum mönnum grið."
Þeir ganga nú í Úlfarsheim ok sjá stóran garð. Ragnar maelir, "Garðrinn er mjök stórr. 
Hann er svá stórr sem Hólmgarðr." Þá svarar Oddr, "Eigi kenni ek Hólmgarð." 
Ragnarr segir hánum, "Þú ert ungr maðr, Oddr, ok eigi spakr. Hólmgarðr er stórr garðr
í Austrvegi. Þar eru margir vargar í víðum skógum."
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
When Úlfar sees Ragnar coming with a young man and many vikings, he says, "Many
fires burn in me, while Ragnar lives. I grant him no mercy if he does not leave (go) 
[out of] Úlfarsheim soon." The men are afraid, who are with him, as they hear him 
speak so. Úlfar takes a sword and a horse, and leaves.
As they walk, Oddr asks Ragnar much (= many questions, use "mjök"). But Ragnar 
does not answer him. He says: "Úlfar comes soon. Do not speak, he wants all of us 
("oss alla") dead." But Oddr and the vikings do not speak. They stand and are afraid. 
Now Ragnar also sees what they see.
He sees Úlfar on a horse. The wind blows as he speaks: "You are all dead ("feigir") 
men. I don't spare men like you." As he is coming, they see the fire [that is] burning in
him.
Oddr and the vikings flee. They do not want to die in Úlfarsheim. Ragnar sees them 
flee and shouts: "You are all cowardly! But now I flee too, for Úlfar grants no mercy." 
Then he flees with the men. Úlfar does not pursue them. He says: "Some men I do 
grant mercy - cowardly men."
4. Looking at real texts
4.1 A few words from the Heimskringla
Þá varð Óláfr konungr reiðr mjök ok mælti bráðliga: "Hví mun ek vilja eiga þik 
hundheiðna?"
varð became
bráðliga angrily
mun will (conjugated in lesson 8)
eiga own, marry
hund-heiðna dog-heathen, heathen like a dog
Then king Olaf became very angry and spoke angrily:
"Why will I want to marry you {when you are} heathen like a dog?"
4.2 A question and an answer from Brennu-Njáls saga
Hann spyrr hvat þeim væri þar gefit. 
"Ostr," segja þær.
væri gefit = was given
He asks what was given there to them.
"Cheese," they say.
4.3 Half a strophe from Helgakviða Hundingsbana:
Hvárt eru þat svik ein
er ek sjá þykkjumk?
Eða Ragnarök?
Ríða menn dauðir!
svik (plural noun) = betrayal, illusion
ein = one, only
þykkjumk = seem to
ríða = ride
Ragnarök = "the fate of the gods", the end of the world
Are that only illusions
which I seem to see?
Or the end of the world?
There are dead men riding!
Solutions to Lesson Five
by Óskar Guðlaugsson 2001
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
Úlfrinn gengr í skóginn.
The wolf walks into the forest.
Úlfrinn gengr í skóginum.
The wolf walks in the forest.
Eldr mjök bjartr brennr í garðinum.
A bright fire burns in the yard.
Ragnarr ferr með víkingum í váginn.
Ragnar goes with vikings into the creek.
Þar vegr hann úlfana með geirinum.
There he kills the wolves with the spear.
Ragnarr kømr í Eiríksheim með bátinum.
Ragnar comes into Ericsheim by the boat.
Með hánum eru fáir menn.
[There are] few men with him.
"Hví eru sumir eigi glaðir?" spyrr Oddr.
"Why are some [people] not happy?" Odd asks.
"Fám mönnum, er mik feigan vilja, gef ek grið," segir Úlfarr jarl.
"Few men, who want me dead, do I spare." says Earl Ulfar.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
A young man sails in the cove.
Ungr maðr siglir í váginum.
He walks out of the boat and into the isle.
Hann gengr ór bátinum ok í hólminn.
The vikings wait with the earl in a big forest, in the isle.
Víkingarnir bíða með jarlinum í stórum skógi, í hólminum.
The man finds the vikings and the earl in the forest.
Maðrinn finnr víkingana ok jarlinn í skóginum.
The earl says: "Some men want me dead. Do you want so?"
Jarlinn segir, "Sumir vilja mik feigan. Hvárt vilt þú svá?"
"That I do (so I want), earl. Here I stand and fall."
"Svá vil ek, jarl. Hér stend ek ok fell."
"Few men do I spare. If you do not leave (go), I kill you."
"Fám mönnum gef ek grið. Ef þú ferr eigi, veg ek þik."
The vikings say: "Go home, or be doomed."
Víkingarnir segja, "Far heim, eða ver feigr."
3.3 Translate the text into English
Oddr ok Ragnarr heita menn. Oddr er maðr ungr ok bjartr, ok sterkr mjök. Ragnarr er 
maðr mjök ríkr. Ragnarr á bát góðan ok langan mjök. Þeir eru báðir Norðmenn ok búa
í Noregi.
Ragnarr býðr Oddi ok mörgum víkingum at fara í bátinn. Þeir fara nú allir ok sigla. 
Þeir sigla í stórum vági. Ór bátinum sjá þeir hólm. Þar ersandr ok skógr. "Hólmrinn 
heitir Geirshólmr," segir Ragnarr Oddi. "Í skóginum þar er ok Geirshaugr, en þar býr 
Geirr, illr draugr." Þeir sjá ok vang mjök víðan ok heiðan. Oddr spyrr, "Hvat heitir þá 
vangrinn, svá heiðr?" "Hann heitir Heiðvangr. Þar blása vindar sterkir," svarar Ragnarr
hánum. "Þar á ek marga hesta, ok eta þeir vel í vanginum. Í Heiðvangi er ok brunnr 
mjök djúpr," segir hann. Oddr sér fors breiðan ok spyrr, "Hvat heitir forsinn, er þar 
fellr?" Ragnarr svarar hánum, "Forsinn heitir Skógarfors, ok er breiðr mjök." Ragnarr 
sýnir Oddi vága, hólma, skóga, sanda, forsa, ok vanga, meðan þeir sigla. Oddr segir, 
"Þú ert maðr mjök spakr ok mælir vel, Ragnarr, ok kenni ek nú marga vága ok vanga 
hér í Noregi."
Brátt koma þeir í Úlfarsheim, þar er Úlfarr jarl býr. Úlfar hatar mjök Ragnarr ok vill 
hann feigan. Er þeir ganga ór bátinum ok á sandinn, segir hann, "Hér í Úlfarsheimi 
býr Úlfarr, jarl illr ok ríkr. Hann gefr eigi góðum mönnum grið."
Þeir ganga nú í Úlfarsheim ok sjá stóran garð. Ragnar maelir, "Garðrinn er mjök stórr. 
Hann er svá stórr sem Hólmgarðr." Þá svarar Oddr, "Eigi kenni ek Hólmgarð." 
Ragnarr segir hánum, "Þú ert ungr maðr, Oddr, ok eigi spakr. Hólmgarðr er stórr garðr
í Austrvegi. Þar eru margir vargar í víðum skógum."
[Two] men are called Odd and Ragnar. Odd is a young man and fair, and very strong.
Ragnar is a very wealthy man. Ragnar has a good boat, and very long. They are both 
Norwegians and live in Norway.
Ragnar asks Odd and many vikings to enter the boat. Now they all go sailing. They 
sail in a large creek. [From] out of the boat they see an isle. There is some sand and a
forest. "The isle is called Geir's Isle." Ragnar says to Odd. They also see a wide, clear
meadow. Odd asks "What is the meadow then called, so clear?" "It is called Clear 
Meadow. Strong winds blow there." Ragnar replies him. "There I have many horses, 
and they eat well in the meadow. In Clear Meadow there's also a well, very deep." he 
says. Odd sees a broad waterfall and asks "What's the waterfall called, which falls 
there?" Ragnar answers him "The waterfall is called Forest's Fall, and is very 
broad." Ragnar shows Odd creeks, isles, forests, sands, waterfalls, and meadows, 
while they sail. Odd says "You are a man most wise and speak well, Ragnar, and now 
I know many creeks and meadows here in Norway."
Soon they come to (in) Ulfarsheim, where Earl Ulfar lives. Ragnar hates Ulfar very 
much and wants him dead. As they walk out of the boat and onto the sand, he says 
"Ulfar lives here in Ulfarsheim, an earl most evil and rich. He does not spare good 
men."
Now they walk in Ulfarsheim and soon see a large town. Ragnar speaks "The town is 
very big. It is as big as Isle City." Then Odd replies "I do not know Isle City." Ragnar 
tells him "You're a young man, Odd, and not wise. Isle City is a large city in Eastway. 
[There,] there are many wolves in extensive forests.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
When Úlfar sees Ragnar coming with a young man and many vikings, he says, "Many
fires burn in me, while Ragnar lives. I grant him no mercy if he does not leave (go) 
[out of] Úlfarsheim soon." The men are afraid, who are with him, as they hear him 
speak so. Úlfar takes a sword and a horse, and leaves.
As they walk, Oddr asks Ragnar much (= many questions, use "mjök"). But Ragnar 
does not answer him. He says: "Úlfar comes soon. Do not speak, he wants all of us 
("oss alla") dead." But Oddr and the vikings do not speak. They stand and are afraid. 
Now Ragnar also sees what they see.
He sees Úlfar on a horse. The wind blows as he speaks: "You are all dead ("feigir") 
men. I do spare men like you." As he is coming, they see the fire [that is] burning in 
him.
Oddr and the vikings flee. They do not want to die in Úlfarsheim. Ragnar sees them 
flee and shouts: "You are all cowardly! But now I flee too, for Úlfar grants no mercy." 
Then he flees with the men. Úlfar does not pursue them. He says: "Some men I do 
grant mercy - cowardly men."
Er Úlfarr sér Ragnar koma með ungum manni ok mörgum víkingum, segir hann, 
"Margir eldar brenna í mér, meðan Ragnarr lifir. Ek gef hánum eigi grið ef hann ferr 
eigi brátt ór Úlfarsheimi." Menninir eru hræddir, er eru með hánum, er þeir heyra 
hann mæla svá. Úlfarr tekr brand ok hest, ok ferr.
Er þeir ganga, spyrr Oddr mjök Ragnar. En Ragnarr svarar hánum eigi. Hann segir, 
"Úlfarr kømr brátt. Mæl eigi, hann vill oss alla feiga." En Oddr ok víkingarnir mæla 
eigi. Þeir standa ok eru hræddir. Nú sér Ragnarr ok þat er þeir sjá.
Hann sér Úlfar á hesti. Vindrinn blæss er hann mælir, "Þér eruð allir feigir menn. Ek 
gef eigi mönnum sem yðr grið." Er hann kømr, sjá þeir eldinn er brennr í hánum.
Oddr ok víkingarnir flýja. Þeir vilja eigi deyja í Úlfarsheimi. Ragnarr sér þá flýja ok 
kallar, "Þér eruð allir ragir! En nú flý ek ok, því at Úlfarr gefr eigi grið." Svá flýr 
hann með mönnunum. Úlfarr eltir þá eigi. Hann segir, "Sumum mönnum gef ek grið - 
rögum mönnum."
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Six
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson
1. Grammar
1. Umlauts
2. Article Usage
3. Word Order
4. Reference
2. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions
8. Phrases
3. Exercises
1. Translate the text into English
1. Grammar
1.1 Umlauts
"Umlaut" is a feature of Old Norse, and other Germanic languages; it potentially 
causes the greatest difficulty to foreign learners, of all the features in the language. It 
may be best, in order to thoroughly tackle this phenomenon, to understand its origin, 
workings, occurrence, and function. First, perhaps, we need to understand the term; 
"umlaut" is a "nonsensical" (German) term that probably adds to the difficulty 
experienced by English speakers. In German, "um" is a preposition meaning "about, 
around" (just as the corresponding ON word); "laut" is a noun, meaning "sound". 
"Umlaut" means, roughly, "sound change/shift/mutation" (or, for better memorization,
"sound-about"!), and is often called by one of those terms in English literature.
The umlaut was, to begin with, a pattern of changes within the Germanic languages, 
where their speakers sought to reduce the bulk of the endings, by dropping them and 
replacing them with vowels of changed quality (the 'quality' of vowels is simply their 
nature, like 'a' vs 'i' vs 'u', etc, while 'quantity' is their length). Until then, the Germanic
vowels systems are thought to have been simple, with (approximately) the 5 basic 
vowels as in Latin, 'a, i, u, e, o', and various diphthong combinations of those. 
Through umlaut, a vowel ending might be dropped, but its preceding stem vowel 
would be affected by it in a certain way, changing to a new type of vowel. This 
introduced many new vowels to the language, called the "umlaut vowels". The umlaut
vowels in ON are 'y, ý, æ, ø, oe, ö'. In older Norse, the ON 'e' was two different 
vowels, one of which was an umlaut; but they merged to yield the ON 'e', which is 
then "only sometimes" a case of umlaut.
There are three basic umlauts: a-, i-, and u-umlaut, according to the vowel of the 
disappearing ending which caused the sound change. They were not active all at the 
same time, but rather appeared in the order given above. A-umlaut is not important to 
us, and only one type of u-umlaut is significant. The details of those will therefore be 
left out here.
I-umlaut caused vowels to become fronted, and in that way, drawn towards the 'i'. This
umlaut is of great functional importance, because in many declensions and 
conjugations, the stem alternates between having it and not having it. In orthographic 
terms, these are the i-umlauts:
a > e
á > æ
o > ø
ó > oe
u > y
o > y
ú > ý
jú > ý
jó > ý
au > ey
We have some examples from verbs that we have been using:
hafa > hef
blása > blæs
koma > køm
róa > roe
búa > bý
bjóða > býð
And also in noun declensions:
áss, áss, æsir
maðr, manns, menn
The i-umlaut is a prominentfeature in verb conjugations, some noun declensions, 
adjective comparisons, and finally, in word derivations. This will be encountered and 
further discussed in future lessons.
The u-umlaut, then, has only one form that we need concern ourselves with:
a > ö
We have seen this in the verb conjugation, especially in the 1p pl, such as "höfum" or 
"tökum". Also in the dative forms, where the -um ending is common, e.g "rögum 
mönnum". This is called "preserved" u-umlaut, because the ending that caused it is 
still present, making it easy to predict.
Other types of u-umlauts, which need to be explained, are to be encountered, but since
they occur in declension forms that we have not yet dealt with, they will be discussed 
later.
1.2 Article Usage
As it happens, a concept in one language seldom corresponds exactly to the same 
concept in another. In that way, the concept of the definite article in ON is by no 
means an exact counterpart of the same concept in English. Let's consider some of the 
special ways in which the ON article is used.
To begin with, the ON article is used considerably less, overall, than the English one. 
In poetry, it's not used at all. As a rule of thumb, if you are in doubt whether to use the 
article when writing ON, do not use it. When translating ON to good English, you 
must thus be ready to add the article into your translation where you see it fit.
Our definite article is a complex concept to define. Generally speaking, it is used to 
make a reference to something familiar to the reader, either from a previous sentence 
within the text, or from outside sources (i.e. the author presumes the reader to know it,
e.g. "the Santa Claus"). An English sequence of introduction and reference might go 
like this:
1. There is an earl in Norway. (introduction)
2. The earl is rich. (reference)
If it were:
2. An earl is rich. (another introduction)
The reader would be confused, because this would indicate another, wholly unrelated, 
earl, leaving the sentences irrelevant to each other. Continuing the text:
3. The earl is called Ragnar.
Now we have another way to refer to the earl, apart from 'he' of course, which would 
normally have been used in the third sentence; but we'll leave personal pronouns out 
of this, for convenience. At this point, the language will find it preferable to refer to 
this earl by his name, instead of "the earl"; compare how we might continue:
4. One day, the earl goes hunting.
5. One day, Ragnar goes hunting.
Having introduced the earl's name, we have reached a "third level" of reference. We 
might identify three such levels of "familiarity":
1. unknown (indefinite article used)
2. introduced (definite article used)
3. known by name (name used)
This is the English pattern. Applying this system to ON, we find slight differences; 
consider a similar sequence of introduction in ON:
1. "Í Noregi býr jarl." (introduction)
2. "Jarlinn heitir Eiríkr." (reference)
Now we have reached the third level of familiarity with Eric, since we know him by 
name; from now on, we can refer to him by name:
3. "Gengr nú Eiríkr í skóg." 
However, unlike English, we can also refer to him by his "title", but without an article:
3. "Gengr nú jarl í skóg."
This is very common in ON texts; it should be translated into English with an article. 
By "title" in this context, anything relatively specific is meant. "Maðr" will rarely be 
used in this way, but anything more specific, such as "sveinn" (young man) or "karl" 
(older man) will commonly be used for close reference, instead of names.
1.3 Word Order
We have hitherto stated, loosely, that Old Norse has a "free" word order. This is true, 
as opposed to English, of the relation between the "noun phrases" (= the noun with all 
attached to it, such as adjectives and prepositions, or = a pronoun). In English, the 
order of the noun phrases is a strong indication of their case, i.e. which of them is the 
subject and which the object (direct or indirect). ON leaves the word order free there, 
indicating the case by changing the endings of the noun phrase's components.
'Syntax' is the study of word order. There is more to the syntax of a language than the 
relation between its noun phrases ("noun syntax"); going from noun syntax to verb 
syntax, we find that ON has a rigid set of word order rules, in the relation between the 
verb phrase and the rest of the sentence's components. We need to start dealing with 
this phenomenon's immediate implications.
(Technically, the noun phrase containing the object is subordinate, or contained 
within, the verb phrase; for our practical purposes, that is irrelevant.)
Consider these sentences:
"The wolf walks out of the forest." 
"Then the wolf walks out of the forest."
The order of the sentences is identical; we merely add "then" in the beginning of the 
latter. But this won't work in ON:
"Úlfrinn gengr ór skóginum."
"Nú gengr úlfrinn ór skóginum."
Not *"Nú úlfrinn gengr ór skóginum."
As we add the adverb "nú", the verb shifts in its relation to the other words, and 
"insists" on maintaining its position as the second component of the sentence, 
following the adverbial phrase ("nú").
In that sentence, the verb phrase is composed of only one word, "gengr". Consider a 
sentence with a more complicated verb phrase:
"Nú vill Úlfrinn ganga ór skóginum."
The verb phrase here is "vill ganga"; "ganga" is a verb infinitive, while "vill" is 
conjugated, and therefore called the "finite" verb.
But you notice that in this sentence, only "vill" stubbornly maintains its position, 
while "ganga" maintains its relation to the noun phrases; thus, the verb phrase has 
been split up.
A practical rule may be deduced, which, if well understood and thoughtfully applied, 
will result in correct word order in most cases:
The finite verb within an Old Norse sentence must always be the first or the second 
component, while the rest of the verb phrase retains its relation to the noun phrases 
even if that involves splitting it away from the finite verb.
This is admittedly complicated; but a student who keeps this in mind while reading 
ON texts, should get a feel for this.
This phenomenon is called "Verb-Second", or "V/2"; all Germanic languages except 
for English remain V/2 languages today, more or less. The origin and inner cause of 
the V/2 phenomenon is not all too well understood by linguists, though their 
knowledge of its function will suffice for our practical purposes. The V/2 
characteristics has different manifestations within the Germanic family, however, so 
speakers of German or even modern Scandinavian languages should not always trust 
ON to have the same rules of verb syntax as their native languages do.
An important fact in the V/2 procedure is that conjunctions are not members of the 
sentences which follow them; consider these examples:
"Menninir vilja flýja."
"Svá vilja menninir flýja."
"Því at menninir vilja flýja."
"Svá" is an adverbial phrase, while "því at" is a conjunctive phrase. As can be seen by 
the finite verb's position in the third sentence, "því at" has no effect on its position; 
sentence-wise, the third sentence is identical to the first, but with a conjunction tacked
in front (which doesn't count into the sentence).
It is therefore important to note whether such "structural words" (like "þá" and "ok", 
etc) are conjunctions or adverbs; note that "ok", for instance, may either be an adverb 
(when it means 'also') or a conjunction (when it means 'and'):
"­ok þú ert maðr feigr, jarl." (conjunction) "­and 
you are a doomed man, earl."
"Þú ert ok maðr feigr, jarl." (adverb)
"You're also a doomed man, earl."
Also note that in a string of sentences which "share" some components, i.e. when the 
latter sentences omit one or more of their noun or adverbial phrases when it is clear 
that they are the same as in the first sentence, V/2 applies as in the first sentence, 
which may be confusing. Best displayed in an example:
"Þá ferr hann, ok [þá] vegr hannmarga menn."
"Þá" is being omitted in the second sentence (after the "ok" conjunction), but it still 
affects the word order as if it were there. In the same way:
"Ef maðrinn sér úlfa, [þá] flýr hann."
Often the "þá" will be omitted from "if-then" sentences, even while the V/2 effects of 
it remain.
Direct speech is, for syntactic purposes, an adverbial phrase within the "frame 
sentence". A whole paragraph of direct speech can be the adverbial phrase of a "he 
says"-type sentence:
"Maðr heitir Haukr. "Eigi em ek norskr maðr,"", 
segir Haukr.
It cannot be
 * "...", Haukr segir.
since that would violate the V/2 rules just as much as
* "Nú Haukr segir."
1.4 Reference
Strong masculine nouns:
(without article)
sg pl
nom haukr haukar
acc hauk hauka
dat hauki haukum
(with article)
sg pl
nom haukrinn haukarnir
acc haukinn haukana
dat haukinum haukunum
Stems that end in "consonant + 'n', 'r', 'l', 's'" don't add -r in nom sg:
sg pl
nom jarl jarlar
acc jarl jarla
dat jarli jörlum
Note u-umlaut: 'a' becomes 'ö' before endings with 'u' (such as the -um in dat pl)
Irregular:
maðr (man)
(without article)
sg pl
nom maðr menn
acc mann menn
dat manni mönnum
(with article)
sg pl
nom maðrinn menninir
acc manninn mennina
dat manninum mönnunum
Personal pronouns:
1st person:
sg dual pl
nom ek vit vér
acc mik okkr oss
dat mér okkr oss
2nd person:
sg dual pl
nom þú þit þér
acc þik ykkr yðr
dat þér ykkr yðr
3rd person :
(masc)
sg pl
nom hann þeir
acc hann þá
dat hánum þeim
(neut)
sg pl
nom þat þau
acc þat þau
dat því þeim
Adjectives, indefinite (strong) masculine:
sg pl
nom ragr ragir
acc ragan raga
dat rögum rögum
Verbs:
hafa, hef (have)
infinitive: haf­a
imperative: haf! (sg) hafið! (pl)
sg pl
1p hef-i höfum
2p hefir hafið
3p hefir hafa
kenna, kenni (know)
inf: kenn­a
imp: kenn! (sg) kennið! (pl)
sg pl
1p kenni kennum
2p kennir kennið
3p kennir kenna
kalla, kalla (call, shout)
inf: kall­a
imp: kall­a! (sg) kall­ið! (pl)
sg pl
1p kalla köllum
2p kallar kallið
3p kallar kalla
In some verbs with long vowels (acute, diphthong, 'æ' or 'oe'), whose stems end in 'n' 
or 's', assimilation of the -r ending occurs:
blása, blæs (blow)
inf: blás­a
imp: blás!
sg pl
1p blæs blásum
2p blæss blásið
3p blæss blása
skína, skín (shine)
inf: skín­a
imp: skín!
sg pl
1p skín skínum
2p skínn skínið
3p skínn skína
Irregular verbs:
vera (be)
inf: ver-a
imp: ver!
sg pl
1p em erum
2p ert eruð
3p er eru
vilja (want)
inf: vil­j­a
imp: (vil!) (N/A)
sg pl
1p vil viljum
2p vilt vilið
3p vill vilja
sjá (see)
inf: sjá
imp: sjá!
sg pl
1p sé sjá-m
2p sér sé-ð
3p sér sjá
2. Vocabulary
This vocabulary section will introduce very few new words (specially noted), but 
rather only list all the words introduced so far (in lessons 1-5).
2.1 Nouns
(No new)
álfr elf
bátr boat
baugr ring
brandr sword
brunnr well
dvergr dwarf
draugr ghost
eldr fire
fiskr fish
fors waterfall
garðr palisade/stone wall, city,
city-state, garden, yard
geirr spear
grautr porridge
hattr hat
haugr mound, dung, pile, grave
haukr hawk
heimr home, homeland, world
hestr horse
hjálmr helmet
hólmr isle, small island
hrafn raven
jarl earl
konungr king
knífr knife
maðr person, man, human being
matr food (always in singular)
oddr point, spike
ormr worm, serpent
ostr cheese
sandr sand
skógr forest
úlfr wolf
vágr small bay, cove, creek
vangr field (not farming), meadow,
clear patch of ground
vargr wolf
víkingr viking
vindr wind
þjófr thief
Íslendingr Icelander
Norðmaðr
Einarr
Eiríkr
Erlingr
Fjalarr (dwarf-name)
Gandálfr (dwarf-name)
Haukr
Hjálmarr
Kormákr
Oddr
Óláfr
Ragnarr
Sigurðr
Svartr
Tyrfingr
Úlfarr
Austrvegr "Eastway" (Russia)
Noregr Norway
Geirshólmr "Geir's Isle" (made up name)
Geirshaugr "Geir's Grave" (made up name)
Heiðvangr "Clear Field" (made up name)
Hólmgarðr "Island City", a Nordic (Swedish) colony in
Russia, now called Novgorod ("gorod" = "garðr")
Skógarfors "Forest's Falls"
Úlfarsheimr "Úlfar's Home" (made up name)
2.2 Pronouns
(No new)
See the reference in 1.3 for personal pronouns.
allir (pl) all
báðir (pl) both
er that, which, who, whom
fáir (pl) few
hvat? what?
margir (pl) many
sumir (pl) some
2.3 Adjectives
(No new)
bjartr bright, fair (of light complexion and/or blonde hair)
breiðr broad
danskr Danish
dauðr dead
djúpr deep
góðr good
glaðr happy, glad
gylltr golden, gilted
feigr doomed to die, "dead already", fey
heiðr clear
hræddr afraid
illr evil
íslenzkr Icelandic
langr long
norskr Norwegian
ragr cowardly
reiðr angry
ríkr rich
stórr big (note that the first r is part of the stem)
spakr wise
sterkr strong
svangr hungry
ungr young
víðr wide, extensive
2.4 Verbs
New:
elda, elda cook
á owns (only form of this verb yet presented)
bíða, bíð wait
bjóða, býð offer; command
blása, blæs blow
brenna, brennr be burning
búa, bý live in, inhabit
deyja, dey die
elta, elti follow, chase
eta, et eat
falla, fell fall
fara, fer go, leave
finna, finn find
flýja, flý flee, run away
foera, foeri bring
ganga, geng walk
gefa, gef give
hafa, hefi have; hold; wear
hata, hata hate
heita, heiti be called
heyra, heyri hear
hlæja, hlæ laugh
kenna, kenni recognize, know (a person, place, or object)
koma, køm come
lifa, lifi live
mæla, mæli talk
sjá, sé see
vega, veg slay
segja, segi says
sigla, sigli sail
sjá (irregular) see
skína, skín shine
spyrja, spyr ask
standa, stend stand
svara, svara answer
sýna, sýni show
taka, tek take
vera (irregular) be
veiða, veiði hunt, fish
vilja (irregular) want
2.5 Adverbs
brátt soon
eigi not
heim homewards
hví? why?
hér here
meðan while
mjök very, very much, greatly
nú now
oft often
ok also
sem as, like
svá so, such, then (immediately following)
vel well
þá then
þar there
2.6 Prepositions
í + acc into
í + dat in(side)
á + acc onto
á + dat on (top of)
ór + dat out of
með + dat with, by, using; with, accompanying
2.7 Conjunctions
ef if
en but
er when
ok and
þar er where (relative)
því at because, for
2.8 Phrases
"gefa grið" grant/give mercy, spare, pardon (from death)
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the text into English
Í Noregi eru margir vágar, sumir djúpir, sumir langir. Norskir víkingar sigla í vágana, í
löngum bátum. Í vágunum eru ok oft hólmar. Í hólmunum vega víkingarnir menn. Þar 
eru ok haugar, þar er illir draugar búa. Draugarnir eru oft reiðir, ok hata alla menn.
Í Noregi eru ok skógar víðir, vangar heiðir ok forsar breiðir. Í skógunum búa góðir 
álfar, en ok illir vargar. Menn er ganga í skóga eru oft hræddir, því at vargarnir vilja 
vega þá ok eta. Ef vargar finna menn í skógunum, eru menninir feigir. Í vöngunum eru
hestar, er eta þar ok lifa vel. Í forsunum er falla eru margir fiskar, er menn veiða.
Dvergar eru þar ok, er hafa gyllta bauga. Dvergarnir vilja eigi gefa mönnum baugana.
Þar í Noregi búa margir menn. Sumir eru jarlar mjök ríkir, sumir víkingar sterkir. Fáir 
eru konungar, fáir eru illir ok fáir ragir. Sumir menn eru spakir mjök, ok mæla vel. 
Spakir kenna marga heima ok marga menn.
Fiskr er norskum mönnum ("for Norwegian men") góðr matr. Þeir fara í vágana ok 
forsana ok veiða fisk. Svá elda þeir fiskinn í eldi, er brennr. Meðan þeir elda hann, 
mæla þeir ok hlæja. Ostr er ok góðr matr, ok eta menninir ok ost með fiskinum. Góðir 
menn gefa svöngum ost ok fisk at eta. Svangir eta allan mat, er góðir gefa þeim.
Ragnarr er jarl spakr. Hann kennir Austrveg, heim mjök stóran. Í Austrvegi eru margir 
garðar, víðir skógar ok vargar mjökillir. Garðr í Austrvegi heitir Hólmgarðr. Fáir 
garðar eru svá stórir, sem Hólmgarðr er. Í Noregi eru eigi garðar svá stórir. Í Hólmgarð
sigla víkingar er vilja vera ríkir. Því at í Hólmgarði eru margir ríkir.
Solutions to Lesson Six
by Haukur Þorgeirsson 2001
3.1 Translate the text into English
Í Noregi eru margir vágar, sumir djúpir, sumir langir. Norskir víkingar sigla í vágana, í
löngum bátum. Í vágunum eru ok oft hólmar. Í hólmunum vega víkingarnir menn. Þar 
eru ok haugar, þar er illir draugar búa. Draugarnir eru oft reiðir, ok hata alla menn.
In Norway there are many bays, some deep, some long. Norse vikings sail into the 
bays in long boats. In the bays there are also often islets. In the islets vikings kill 
people. There are also mounds there, where evil ghosts dwell. The ghosts are often 
angry and hate all people.
Í Noregi eru ok skógar víðir, vangar heiðir ok forsar breiðir. Í skógunum búa góðir 
álfar, en ok illir vargar. Menn er ganga í skóga eru oft hræddir, því at vargarnir vilja 
vega þá ok eta. Ef vargar finna menn í skógunum, eru menninir feigir. Í vöngunum eru
hestar, er eta þar ok lifa vel. Í forsunum er falla eru margir fiskar, er menn veiða.
In Norway there are also wide woods, clear meadows and broad waterfalls. In the 
forests good elves dwell, but also evil wolves. People who walk into forests are often 
afraid because the wolves want to kill them and eat them. If wolves find people in the 
forests the people are as good as dead. In the meadows there are horses who eat there
and live well. In the waterfalls that fall there are many fish, that people fish.
Dvergar eru þar ok, er hafa gyllta bauga. Dvergarnir vilja eigi gefa mönnum baugana.
There are also dwarves there, who have golden rings. The dwarves do not want to 
give their rings to people.
Þar í Noregi búa margir menn. Sumir eru jarlar mjök ríkir, sumir víkingar sterkir. Fáir 
eru konungar, fáir eru illir ok fáir ragir. Sumir menn eru spakir mjök, ok mæla vel. 
Spakir kenna marga heima ok marga menn.
In Norway many people live. Some of them are are very powerful earls, some are 
strong vikings. Few are kings, few are evil and few cowardly. Some people are very 
wise and speak well. Those that are wise know many worlds and many people.
Fiskr er norskum mönnum ("for Norwegian men") góðr matr. Þeir fara í vágana ok 
forsana ok veiða fisk. Svá elda þeir fiskinn í eldi, er brennr. Meðan þeir elda hann, 
mæla þeir ok hlæja. Ostr er ok góðr matr, ok eta menninir ok ost með fiskinum. Góðir 
menn gefa svöngum ost ok fisk at eta. Svangir eta allan mat, er góðir gefa þeim.
Fish is good food for Norwegian people. They go into the coves and the waterfalls 
and catch fish. Then they cook the fish in fire that burns. While they cook it they speak
and laugh. Cheese is also good food and the people also eat cheese along with the 
fish. Good people give those that are hungry cheese and fish to eat. Those that are 
hungry eat all food that good people give them.
Ragnarr er jarl spakr. Hann kennir Austrveg, heim mjök stóran. Í Austrvegi eru margir 
garðar, víðir skógar ok vargar mjök illir. Garðr í Austrvegi heitir Hólmgarðr. Fáir 
garðar eru svá stórir, sem Hólmgarðr er. Í Noregi eru eigi garðar svá stórir. Í Hólmgarð
sigla víkingar er vilja vera ríkir. Því at í Hólmgarði eru margir ríkir.
Ragnarr is a wise earl. He knows Eastway, a big world. In Eastway there are many 
city-states, wide forests and very evil wolves. A city-state in Eastway is called 
Hólmgarðr. Few city-states are as big as Hólmgarðr. In Norway there are not so big 
cities. Vikings who want to be rich sail to Hólmgarðr because in Hólmgarðr many are
rich.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Seven
by Óskar Guðlaugsson and Haukur Þorgeirsson
1. Supplement
1. Alternative forms
2. Grammar
1. Genitive Case: Possession
2. Genitive Case: Forms
3. Article Usage with the Genitive
4. Reflexive Pronouns
5. 3rd Person Possessives
3. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions
8. Phrases
4. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
0. Supplement
0.1 Alternative forms
We have stated that the language taught in this course is "standardised" 13th century 
Icelandic. People using other material to supplement this course (or using this course 
to supplement other material) often find that their books do not always use the same 
spelling or form of every word. It is perhaps high time that some of those variants be 
discussed.
To begin with it is difficult to "pin down" a language as it was at any particular time 
and location. We say that we're teaching the Icelandic language 13th century but even 
that is not all too precise - Icelandic underwent many changes in the 13th century. 
Some of our forms may reflect early 13th century language while others mirror that of
the late part of the century. Perfect consistency is very hard to achieve (and is 
certainly not in evidence in any manuscript - even the same scribe would often spell 
the same word in more than one way) but we prefer to have some kind of standard. 
Thus our choices are arbitrary here and there and may not exactly reflect that of any 
other study material. Don't panic.
That said the interested student may find a discussion of variant forms to be of some 
value. The variations can be grouped into two categories.
1. Variations in space
We have already mentioned that the West Norse language forms are different from 
those of East Norse. But how different are they? This question is best answered by 
providing examples. One of the better known East Norse texts is "The Legendary 
History of Gutland". It starts with those words:
Gutland hitti fyrsti maþr þan sum þieluar hit. þa war gutland so eluist at þet daghum 
sanc Oc natum war uppj. En þann maþr quam fyrsti eldi a land Oc siþan sanc þet 
aldri.
Translated word for word into English this produces: "Gutland found first {a man} 
that who Thieluar {was called}. Then was Gautland so bewitched that it {during 
days} sank and {during nights} was up. But that man put first fire on [the] land and 
since sank it never."
Note that the spelling is that of the original manuscript. No normalisation has been 
undertaken. This is in line with the usual trend that Old Icelandic texts are normalised 
but other Old Norse texts are not - or to a lesser extent. This makes comparison with 
our "standardised" language more difficult but we will attempt it nevertheless. So here
we provide those lines as they would look in our Norse Course spelling:
Gautland hitti fyrst maðr sá sem Þjalarr hét. Þá var Gautland svá *elvíst at þat 
dögum sökk ok náttum var uppi. En sá maðr kvám fyrst eldi á land ok síðan sökk þat 
aldri.
Most of the differences are insignificant differences between manuscript spelling and 
normalised spelling - but some of them are quite interesting. Let's take a better look at 
those:
Old Gutnish Old Icelandic
þan sá
daghum dögum
sanc sökk
The word "þann" is actually not as far from "sá" as it might seem. The declension 
paradigm of "sá" is like this:
nom sá
acc þann
dat þeim
gen þess
In essence, what has happened in Old Gutnish is that the accusative form has been 
generalised to include the nominative. As a side note it might be mentioned that the 
exact same thing happened in English. This pronoun is the origin of the English 
definite article, 'the'. The Old English paradigm was like this:
nom se
acc þone
dat þám
gen þæs
The "irregular" s-form was thrown out in favor of the þ-forms to (eventually) yield 
"the".
The next word on our list is "daghum", as opposed to "dögum". First we note that the 
'gh' is a common East Norse way of spelling the "soft" g (see pronunciation guide). It 
also sometimes occurs in Icelandic manuscripts. In any case the difference between 
'gh' and 'g' is merely one of spelling. The other difference is much(pebbles) 
 haf (a sea) ~ höf (seas) 
 (older forms marked the plural with -u, which caused the 
 umlaut and subsequently disappeared) 
 röð (a row, nom) ~ raðar (gen) 
 (feminine nouns like these originally had a -u ending in the 
 nominative, which effected an umlaut and then disappeared) 
I-umlaut is considerably more extensive; the basic list of umlauts is: 
á > ae 
a > e 
 (correspond to German a > ä) 
ú > ý 
jú > ý 
u > y 
o > y (some u had changed to o, but retained the umlaut) 
 (correspond to German u > ü) 
ó > oe 
o > ø 
 (correspond to German o > ö) 
au > ey 
 (corresponds to German au > äu) 
In fact, the main difficulties with this is how inadequately the orthography 
accommodates the umlaut, compared to German orthography.
ON umlaut appears just about anywhere. There are many correspondences with 
German here, such as plurals, derived verbs, adjective comparatives, all having i-
umlaut. But generally the occurrences are too many for me to attempt to relate here; 
the umlaut will have to be tackled as it appears.
Old Norse -> Articles -> Pronunciation of Old Norse (standard)
Pronunciation of Old Norse
by Óskar Guðlaugsson 2000
The most effective way of identifying sound values in brevity is the use of phonetic 
alphabets such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which uses various 
characters from the Latin and Greek alphabets, capital and small, to represent all the 
different sounds enunciable by human beings. There are sounds in the IPA chart that 
most people will never have heard of, as the range of sounds used in human speech is 
enormous.
The main problem with the IPA system is that, with its heavy use of unconventional 
characters, phoneticizing with it is practically impossible in computer documents; no 
normal keyboards support the less conventional IPA characters, and even if one 
downloads the fonts available for it, the sheer amount of different IPA symbols makes 
it impossible to type it fast enough. Not to mention problems with converting the 
results onto other people's computer screens.
The solution to this has been the adoption of a new version of IPA, one whose 
characters are all available on "normal" keyboards (such as American ones). Instead of
interchanging Greek, Latin, and various arcane letters, this new computer standard, 
called SAMPA, fully exploits differentiation by capitals and small caps, and also uses 
special characters such as { } @ & etc, as well as numbers.
For the purposes of this course, we will only present here relevant characters, i.e. 
those representing sounds in Modern English and Old Norse. To begin with, here are 
"standard" English sounds (both General American (GA) and Received Pronunciation 
(RP)): 
(in phonetics, [] is always used to contain phonetic transcriptions) 
[:] following a vowel represents that vowel being long, i.e. of roughly double duration
to short of vowels (do not confuse with common English definitions of 'long a as in 
date, short as in cat'). Diphthongs (two different vowels combined) are long by 
default.
Orthographic as in... SAMPA Notes
'a', 'ai', 'date'
 or 'ay' 'wait' [eI]
https://notendur.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/articles/articles.html
https://notendur.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
'day'
'a', 'ai' 'fair' 
'hair' [E:]
'e', 'ee', 'Pete'
 'ea', etc 'feet' [i:]
'pea'                    
'i' or 'igh'    'bite'
'high' [aI]
'o' or 'oa' 'note'
'boat' [@U]
'u' or 'ew' 'cute'
'few' [ju:]
'u' or 'ew' 'Sue'
'sew' [u:] after [s, n, l, r]
'oo' 'tool' [U:]
'oo' 'foot [U]
'ou' or 'ow' 'louse'
'brown' [AU]
'oi' or 'oy' 'void'
'boy' [OI]
'au' 'cause' [O:]
'a' 'pat' [{]
'e' 'pet' [e]
'i' 'pit' [I]
'o' 'pot' [Q]
'u' 'cut' [V]
any vowel 'a' in "schwa"; the weak 
'another' [@] unstressed vowel that
people have trouble
spelling
'ur' 'fur' [3:] in non­rhotic
dialect (without final
'r' sound, as in RP)
'ar' 'star' [A:] non­rhotic dialect
'ere' or 'ear' 'ear' [I@]   non­rhotic
'air' 'air' [e@] non­rhotic
'ure' 'cure' [jU@] non­rhotic
I will not go into the proper transcription of the last few cases in rhotic dialects; it is 
not relevant to the study of Old Norse.
It is very important to differentiate capitals vs small-caps in SAMPA (cannot be said 
too often). [A] for example is a different sound to [a] (the latter being closer to [O]). It
is also very important to note that anything within [] represents phonetic transcription;
that must therefore not be read as English orthography!
You will probably be finding the SAMPA transcription for English rather "bulky" or 
inconvenient; that is normal, since the transcription would not do well to define itself 
by English sounds, which aren't necessarily "standard" in comparison to other 
languages. Remember, phonetics is the science of all languages, not only English.
Regarding some English consonants:
Orthographic as in... SAMPA description
'p' 'pick' [p^h] [^h] represents 
aspiration
'p' 'spoil' [p] not aspirated 
after [s]
't' 'tick' [t^h]
't' 'store' [t]
'c' or 'k' 'cat' [k^h]
'c' or 'k' 'skull' [k]
'k' before 'kin' [c^h] "palatalized" 'k', i.e.
  'i' or 'e' pronounced more 
forward
'k' before 'skin' [c]
  'i' or 'e'
'b' 'bay' [b] voiced
'd' 'day' [d] "
'g' 'good' [g] "
'g'             'gill'  [C]             voiced 
("soft") version of [c]
'g' 'gin' [dZ] voiced version of 'ch' 
[tS]
'ch' 'chin' [tS] unvoiced affricate
'th'            'that'          [D]             voiced
'th'            'thick'         [T]             unvoiced
'j'    'jest'          [dZ] voiced version of 
'ch' [tS]
'y'             'you'           [j]             *note* 
that phonetic [j] is not English 'j'!
'w'             'win'           [w]                
'wh'            'white          [w^0]           unvoiced,
only in some dialects
'v'             'vine'          [v]
'ng'            'young'         [N]
's'             'see'           [s]             unvoiced
's'             'house'         [z] voiced
[^0] as in [w^0] means devoicing.
And now to the sounds of Old Norse, starting with vowels:
Once again, remember that phonetic vowel length, represented by [:], has nothing to 
do with English definitions of long vowels, like 'a as in date'.
Orthographic SAMPA Notes
á              [A:]     note the length mark; not a 
common sound in English
a              [A]      dialects; see 'ar' above, also 
like
Spanish 'a', for example
é              [e:]
e              [e]
í              [i:]
i              [i]
ó              [o:]     does not exist on its own in
English; like 'o' in Spanish, 
o              [o]      French, German, and many others
ú              [u:]
u              [u]
ý              [y:]     this is the dreaded 'rounded
[i]'; if you lack Old Norse
y              [y]      samples for this, look for French
pronunciation of 'u',
                        or German 'ü', which are also
pronounced [y]; it is pronounced by 
rounding
the lips (as when one pronounces [u] or 
[o])
and saying [i]
ö [O]
 (i.e. tailed o)
oe         [2:]    doesn't exist in English; look
for 'eu' as in 'feu' in French
ø               [2]
æ               [E:]
au              [Au]    trivial difference to English 
[AU];
more like Spanish 'au'
ei              [Ei]    similar to Spanish 'ei'
ey              [9y]    once again, look to French: like
'euille' in 'feuille'
On to the consonants:
Orthographic    ...as in... SAMPA Notes
p prestr [p^h] aspirated as in English
p               spá             [p]     same pattern as 
in English,
no aspiration after [s]
p               api             [p]     between vowels, 
also not
aspirated (unlike English)
t               tól             [t^h]
t               standa [t]
t               hata            [t]     not aspirated in 
intervocalic
position, like [p]
k               kúpa            [k^h]
k               ská             [k]
k               aka             [k]
k               kerti           [c^h]
k               skella          [c]
k               hakimore interesting. 
Instead of the umlauted ö-vowel the Gutnish text has the un-umlauted 'a'. This reflects
a general tendency. The u-umlaut effect, while remaining in full force in Icelandic up 
to the present day, was much less prevalent in other Old Norse dialects - and it is 
completely lacking from the dialect of Guta saga.
The third difference is no less interesting. Instead of the Old Icelandic "sökk" we have
the much more English form "sanc". Again we have not an exception but a general 
tendency. The assimilation of 'nk' to 'kk' happened to a lesser extent in East Norse than
in West Norse. In this case English and Old Gutnish maintain the more archaic forms. 
Again the u-umlaut has not taken place in the East Norse form.
There are many small, differences between East Norse and West Norse. One that 
might interest the English reader is that West Norse dropped the 'v' in 'vr' clusters 
early on but East Norse has preserved it to the present day. Where West Norse has 
"reiðr" East Norse had "vréðr" and Modern Danish has "vred". English has preserved 
this consonant in its spelling but dropped it in the pronunciation. The English cognate 
is "wrath".
Now let's turn our attention to Old Norwegian. We already know that Old Norwegian 
and Old Icelandic are collectively known as West Norse. We might wonder what the 
key differences between the two dialects are. For the student of Old Norse the most 
visible difference is that Old Norwegian texts are usually published in their 
manuscript spelling - unlike Old Icelandic texts which are usually normalised. For the 
linguist the difference is mainly that Old Icelandic is in some instances slightly more 
conservative than Old Norwegian.
One example where Old Icelandic is more conservative is in keeping the 'h' in the 
consonant clusters 'hr' and 'hl'. Those were dropped in Old Norwegian before the 
writing age. One stanza from the Norwegian Rune Poem illustrates this.
Reið kveða rossum vesta,
Reginn sló sverðit besta.
(A wagon is said to be worst for horses,
Reginn forged the best sword.)
You notice the alliterative triad reið-rossum-Reginn. This would be destroyed in 
"translating" into Icelandic since rossum would become hrossum.
2. Variations in time
No living language is static and Old Icelandic underwent many changes from 1200 to 
1400. Major changes include the merging of the phonemes ö and ø and æ and oe 
respectively. Both happened in the 13th century.
ö + ø -> ö
æ + oe -> æ
Other noteworthy changes include the "softening" of final 't' and 'k' in several 
common words. Thus:
ok -> og
ek -> eg
þik -> þig
þat -> það
hvat -> hvað
vit -> við
-it -> -ið (neuter article)
The absence of ø and oe and the "soft" consonants in the common words are two 
features that can easily be used to differentiate between Old Icelandic and Modern 
Icelandic spelling at a glance
The forms of many individual words changed with time according to arbitrary rules; 
we have had to decide in each case which form to use as our standard one. Our 
choices are not entirely consistant. In cases where this course gives another form than 
other grammar references you can rest reasonably assured that both forms are correct -
though one may be older than the other. A few common variants are listed below.
it - þit
ér - þér
hon - hón - hún
hánum - honum
ek hef - ek hefi
1. Grammar
1.1 Genitive Case: Possession
The fourth and last remaining case in Old Norse declension is called 'genitive'. 
English has the following relations:
John owns an expensive computer.
John's computer is expensive.
Bill steals John's expensive computer.
The orthographic -'s ending here is one part of the English genitive. It is the 
characteristic role of the genitive to mark the owner of a following item. Words 
marked with the -'s genitive stand in the same position as normal adjectives, as can be 
seen above.
In ON, the strong masculine nouns we have encountered so far are also marked with 
-s in the genitive singular; thus, the full singular declension of a word like 'hestr' is:
nom hestr
acc hest
dat hesti
gen hests
In the plural, the ending is -a for all masculine nouns, and most other nouns as well:
nom hestar
acc hesta
dat hestum
gen hesta
Again, the article must be declined with the noun. Now that we have all the cases, let's
see the full masculine declension of the suffixed article:
sg pl
nom inn inir
acc inn ina
dat inum inum
gen ins anna
And combined with a noun:
sg pl
nom hestrinn hestarnir
acc hestinn hestana
dat hestinum hestunum
gen hestsins hestanna
There! Now you have the full declension of the normal strong masculine noun.
We'll look at the full declension of our only irregular noun to date as well.
sg pl
nom maðr menn
acc mann menn
dat manni mönnum
gen manns manna
1.2 Genitive Case: Forms
Section 1.1 already has the forms of most strong masculine nouns. Here is the full 
declension of most of the personal pronouns encountered so far:
'I' 'you' 'he' 'it' 'we two' 'we' 'you two' 'you'
nom ek þú hann þat vit vér þit þér
acc mik þik hann þat okkr oss ykkr yðr
dat mér þér hánum því okkr oss ykkr yðr
gen mín þín hans þess okkar vár ykkar yðvar
'they' (masc) 'they' (neut) 'they' (fem)
nom þeir þau þær
acc þá þau þær
dat þeim þeim þeim
gen þeira þeira þeira
The personal pronouns all have a special form for the genitive, often a very distinctive
one, so extra attention must be paid here. Note that the 3rd person plural pronouns all 
have the same dative and genitive forms. The only pronoun not presented in this table 
is 'hon' (she), since we won't be using it just yet. The full declension of adjectives in 
masculine form:
sg pl
nom reiðr reiðir
acc reiðan reiða
dat reiðum reiðum
gen reiðs reiðra
Note especially the plural genitive ending: -ra. To students' relief, the plural dative and
genitive forms are the same for all genders, so make sure you learn them well.
1.3 Article Usage with the Genitive
In English "titles", such as:
The king of Norway.
The lord of men.
The sound of battle.
The keel of the ship.
There, the titled entity always has an article attached to it. However, if we 
change the titles to a different type of genitive, the -s marked one, the article 
disappears:
Norway's king.
Men's lord.
Battle's sound.
The ship's keel.
But with titles, it is more customary to use the prepositional genitive (with "of" 
and article). In Old Norse however, the genitive is only marked with an 
inflection, where the same rule applies; i.e. no article should be attached to the 
"titled entity":
Konungr Noregs.
Drottinn mannanna.
But if this were to be paraphrased into a title with a preposition, we would have 
an article just as in English:
Konungrinn í Noregi.
It is merely that such usage is not the norm in ON, unlike in English.
1.4 Reflexive Pronouns
When the object of a sentence is the same as its subject the reflexive pronouns 
come into play. In English it works like this:
I see myself.
You see yourself.
He sees himself.
We see ourselves.
You see yourselves.
They see themselves.
Old Norse, however, is content with letting its first and second person personal 
pronouns perform this duty.
Ek sé mik.
Þú sér þik.
Vit sjám okkr.
Þit séð ykkr.
Vér sjám oss.
Þér séð yðr.
But when it comes to the third person it has a special pronoun.
Hann sér sik.
Hon sér sik.
Þeir sjá sik.
Þær sjá sik.
This 'third person reflexive pronoun' has the following declension:
'himself/herself/itself/themselves'
acc sik
dat sér
gen sín
It observably declines just as 'ek' and 'þú' do. This pronoun has exact equivalents
in many other Indo-European languages that you may be familiar with. German 
has "sich". French, Spanish and Latin have "se".
Let's have more examples of usage:
Hann kallar sik konung. He calls himself a king.
Þeir gefa sér góðan mat. They give themselves [some] good food.
And other reflexive usage:
Ek kalla mik Eirík. I call myself Eric.
Vit teljum okkr Norðmenn. Weconsider ourselves Norwegians.
Ek foeri mik brott. I move myself away. ('foera' = bring, move)
Hví foerir þú þik til mín? Why do you move yourself over to me?
('til' + gen = [over] to)
2. Vocabulary
This lesson is light on vocabulary and exercises - for historical reasons relating 
to the composition of the course.
2.1 Nouns
þegn thane, freeman, subject of a king, "citizen"
sporðr tail of a fish or serpent
2.2 Pronouns
sik himself, herself, itself
2.3 Adjectives
saðr / saddr sated, having had one's full
vándr evil, wicked
fastr fast, firm, stuck
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
a. Hvárt etr ormrinn sjálfan sik?
b. Menn konungs eru þegnar hans.
c. Eigi er sporðr fisks matr góðr.
d. Ragnarr vill vega orm; hann hefir geirinn með sér.
e. Ragnar vegr orminn en oddr geirs hans stendr fastr í honum.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
a. The helm of the dwarf is gilded.
b. The earl's hawk sees itself.
c. People do not eat the tail of the serpent.
d. Ragnarr's spear is broad.
e. The point of Ragnarr's spear is big.
Sentences like the last one with "nested" genitives are actually not idiomatic in 
Old Norse.
Solutions to Lesson Seven
by Haukur Þorgeirsson 2003
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
a) Hvárt etr ormrinn sjálfan sik?
Does the serpent eat itself?
b) Menn konungs eru þegnar hans.
The men of the king are his thanes.
c) Eigi er sporðr fisks matr góðr.
The tail of the fish is not good food.
d) Ragnarr vill vega orm; hann hefir geirinn með sér.
Ragnarr wants to slay a serpent; he carries the spear.
e) Ragnar vegr orminn en oddr geirs hans stendr fastr í honum.
Ragnar slays the worm but the point of his spear is stuck in it.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
a) The helm of the dwarf is gilded.
Gylltr er hjálmr dvergsins.
b) The earl's hawk sees itself.
Haukr jarls sér sjálfan sik.
c) People do not eat the tail of the serpent.
Eigi eta menn sporð ormsins.
d) Ragnarr's spear is broad.
Geirr Ragnars er breiðr.
e) The point of Ragnarr's spear is big.
Stórr er oddr spjóts Ragnars.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Eight
by Óskar Guðlaugsson and Haukur Þorgeirsson
1. Grammar
1. Present-Preterite Verbs
2. Assimilative Nouns and Adjectives
3. Bisyllabic Stems
2. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions
8. Phrases
3. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
1. Grammar
1.1 Present-Preterite Verbs
ON has a small group of verbs that conjugate in a special way. English has the same 
phenomenon, but less noticeable. The verbs are called "present-preterite", because 
their conjugation for the present is imitative of the preterite (= past) conjugation. This 
has to do with a development or shift that is believed to have happened early on in the 
ancestral Proto-Germanic language. To put this all into context we will state that the 
Germanic languages have three kinds of verbs. They are all still represented in 
English.
Strong verbs
1. Preterite formed with ablaut (certain type of vowel change)
2. Certain endings in the present (in English an 's' in third person)
Weak verbs
1. Preterite formed with a dental suffix (in English 'd' or 't')
2. Certain endings in the present (in English an 's' in third person)
Present-preterite verbs
1. Preterite formed like the preterite of a weak verb
2. Present formed like the preterite of a strong verb
We'll demonstrate by comparing a present-preterite verb ('can') with your garden-
variety strong ('come') and weak ('love') verbs.
I come came
you come came
he comes came
I love loved
you love loved
he loves loved
I can could
you can could
he can could
Comparing the actual conjucations with the blurbs above we see that 'can' does not 
add an 's' in the third person of its singular present tense; just like the other verbs don't
have an 's' in their preterite. We also see that it forms its preterite with a 'd'; just like 
the weak verb. The Old Norse cognate of 'can', 'kunna', is also present-preterite.
While the English difference in conjugation is minor, ON present-preterites are more 
divergent. We have learnt two irregular verbs whose conjugation is somewhat similar 
to this class of verbs, 'vera' and 'vilja'; they are not historically present-preterites but it 
may be practical to speak of them in the same context:
vera
Sg. Pl.
1p em erum
2p ert eruð
3p er eru
vilja
Sg. Pl.
1p vil viljum
2p vilt vilið
3p vill vilja
The present-preterite verbs are some of the most useful and common in the language 
so you should be careful to learn their conjugation by heart.
The first verb we'll look at is the auxiliary 'skulu' which is the cognate of English 
'shall' and similar in meaning.
skulu
Sg. Pl.
1p skal skulum
2p skalt skuluð
3p skal skulu
The change of vowels from 'u' to 'a' is not our everyday umlaut but something even 
more arcane called 'ablaut'. We'll look at that again later.
Our next auxiliary verb does not have an English cognate but it is most similar in 
meaning to English 'will'. One of its primary uses is to indicate the future.
munu
Sg. Pl.
1p mun munum
2p munt munuð
3p mun munu
Note the anomalous infinitives, with ending -u instead of -a. The verbs 'skulu' and 
'munu' are the only verbs in the language with this infinitive ending.
In the Völuspá we have a lot of 'munu' where the seeress is speaking of the future. 
One example is "Baldr mun koma" which is easily translated as "Baldr will come".
By now you may have noticed something characteristic about present-preterites; in the
singular, the only endings are -t in the 2nd person. In the plural, they have -uð and -u 
in the 2nd and 3rd persons.
Our next verb has the same ablaut as 'skulu' but now our normal infinitive is back.
kunna
Sg. Pl.
1p kann kunnum
2p kannt kunnuð
3p kann kunnu
The meaning of 'kunna' is related to that of its cognate 'can' but there are some 
differences. While English 'can' means to be able to do something either through 
ability or circumstances, ON describes only ability. Also, English 'can' is always an 
auxiliary, while 'kunna' can be a main verb with a simple direct object:
Ek kann þat. I know [how to do] it, I can do it
One more verb for now, 'eiga' (own):
eiga
Sg. Pl.
1p á eigum
2p átt eiguð
3p á eigu
You should already be familiar with its 3p sg form, 'á', which has been used already. 
The vowel change between 'á' and 'ei' is actually neither ablaut nor umlaut but don't 
worry about it (it has to do with a phenomenon called Verner's law).
The verbs 'skulu', 'munu', and 'kunna' from above are some of the most common 
auxiliaries in the language, just as they are in English (substitute English 'will' for 
'munu'). Just as in English, no infinitive marker is used with them when they are used 
as auxiliaries:
You will go. but not **You will to go
Þú munt koma. but not **Þú munt at koma
1.2 Assimilative Nouns and Adjectives
It often happens in languages that a consonant assimilates to a neighbouring 
consonant. We have already seen some examples of this in the etymological 
ponderings:
*benkr -> bekkr (bench) (the 'n' has been assimilated to the 'k')
*áhta -> átta (eight) (the 'h' has been assimilated to the 't')
One type of assimilation is important in declensions; their nominative -r has been 
assimilated by the final consonant of the stem. This happens with three consonants, 's',
'l' and 'n', and only when the vowel of the stem is long. Let's look at some examples:
*ísr -> íss (ice)
*hólr -> hóll (hill)
*steinr -> steinn (stone)
The complete declension of those nouns is as follows:
Singular
nom íss hóll steinn
acc ís hól stein
dat ísi hóli steini
gen íss hóls steins
Plural
nom ísar hólar steinar
acc ísa hóla steina
dat ísum hólum steinum
gen ísa hóla steina
Quite simply, the nominative -r is replaced by one of the otherconsonants. Nothing 
else happens.
Then there are adjectives with the same feature, declining thus in masculine 
indefinite:
háss hoarse
háll slippery
groenn green
Sg.
nom háss háll groenn
acc hásan hálan groenan
dat hásum hálum groenum
gen háss háls groens
Pl.
nom hásir hálir groenir
acc hása hála groena
dat hásum hálum groenum
gen hássa hálla groenna
Take special notice of the genitive plural, where the assimilation occurs.
Remember that the assimilation only occurs in words with long-vowel stems, but not 
stems of short vowels:
gulr yellow
vanr accustomed
Sg.
nom gulr vanr
acc gulan vanan
dat gulum vönum
gen guls vans
Pl.
nom gulir vanir
acc gula vana
dat gulum vönum
gen gulsa vanla
1.5 Bisyllabic Stems
Some strong masculine nouns have a bisyllabic stem; observe their pattern of 
conjugation:
hamarr hammer (stem: hamar)
himinn sky (stem: himin)
sg pl
nom ham-ar-r ham-r-ar
acc ham-ar ham-r-a
dat ham-r-i höm-r-um
gen ham-ar-s ham-r-a
sg pl
nom him-in-n him-n-ar
acc him-in him-n-a
dat him-n-i him-n-um
gen him-in-s him-n-um
First off, 'himinn' is assimilative. What is happening in these nouns is that whenever 
there is an ending with a vowel in it, the vowel of the second stem syllable is deleted:
(sg dat) hamar + i > *hamari > hamri
Note that bisyllabic names, such as Ragnarr or Einarr, completely ignore this rule and 
decline normally.
Some adjectives are bisyllabic; they commonly have assimilation:
gamall old (stem: gamal)
sg pl
nom gam-al-l gam-l-ir
acc gam-l-an gam-l-a
dat göm-l-um göm-l-um
gen gam-al-s gam-al-la
2. Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
áss ace, god, one of the Æsir
íss ice
þræll slave
vagn wagon, chariot
hamarr hammer
himinn sky
jötunn ettin, giant (mythological)
drottinn lord (or usually, "the Lord")
hringr ring, circle
hundr dog
níðingr villain, oppressor
viðr wood
Þórr Thor, the thundergod
Þórshamarr Thor's hammer
Ásgarðr Asgard, the world of gods (Æsir)
Miðgarðr Midgard, the world of men
Miðgarðsormr Midgard's Serpent (the serpent that encircles Midgard)
Jötunheimr Gianthome (the mythological home of the giants)
Vestrvegr "Westway" (west across the North Sea; the British Isles)
2.2 Pronouns
annarr other, another
hverr? who, what (masc)?
hverr each
hinn the other
'Annarr' is a bisyllabic pronoun, with an irregular declension:
sg pl
nom ann-ar-r að-r-ir
acc ann-an að-r-a
dat öð-r-um öð-r-um
gen ann-ar-s ann-ar-ra
As happens in 'maðr', the sequence 'nnr' becomes 'ðr'. The main irregularity in the 
word is its sg acc form, 'annan', where we'd expect '*aðran'.
'Hverr' declines like an adjective with j-insertion:
sg pl
nom hverr hverir
acc hvern hverja
dat hverjum hverjum
gen hvers hverra
An alternative (old) form of sg. acc. is the more regular 'hverjan'.
'Hverr' is the interrogative that refers to masculine nouns or persons. It can also mean 
'each':
"Hverr þeira segir þá öðrum..." Each of them then says to another...
sg pl
nom hinn hinir
acc hinn hina
dat hinum hinum
gen hins hinna
Declines just like the article ending; in fact, it is just a modification of the pronoun 
from which the article is derived.
2.3 Adjectives
sjálfr (him)self
írskr Irish
slíkr such
groenn green
háll slippery
heill whole, healthy, "hail" (greeting)
víss wise
gamall old
gulr yellow
vanr accustomed
2.4 Verbs
gjøra, gjøri do
aka, ek + dat drive
hringa, hringa wind around (as serpents do)
hjálpa, help help
róa, roe row (a boat)
leiða, leiði lead
vernda, vernda protect
reka, rek drive out, drive sth forward from behind (such as cattle)
verða, verðr + nom become
'verða' is followed by a compliment, i.e. a noun in nominative.
The object of 'aka' is in dative rather than accusative.
2.5 Adverbs
aftr again
saman together
bæði both
því næst then, thereafter, subsequently
né nor
2.6 Prepositions
við + acc by, next to
um + acc about, around, through
af + dat off
yfir + dat over
gegn + dat against, in front of
hjá + dat by, with, in the company of
til + gen to
2.7 Conjunctions
at that
svá at so [that]
"svá at" is sometimes contracted to "svát"
2.8 Phrases
[It seems to me that some modern phrases have crept into Óskar's text; I'll check on 
this later. - Haukur]
standa saman stick together, stand united
standa með + dat stick with someone, help someone
gefa sik give in, surrender
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
a. Þeir ganga saman um víðan vang.
b. Þeir sjá menn standa við forsinn.
c. Annarr spyrr, "Hverir standa þar, við forsinn?"
d. Þá svarar hinn, "Þeir kalla sik Eirík ok Hauk, ok eru norskir."
e. "Hvat gjøra slíkir menn hér?", spyrr annarr hinn.
f. Jarlar Noregs eigu marga hunda ok þræla írska.
g. Í Noregi er oft íss í vágum, svá at vísir menn sigla þar eigi.
h. Hann gengr til groenna skóga, þar er álfarnir búa.
i. Þeir ganga saman á hálum ísi, en falla eigi.
j. "Hér er háll íss. Ek vil eigi ganga hér um."
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
a. "Lord, protect us," an Irish man says.
b. "I am lord here, and protect you," says the earl.
c. "[The] Lord in Heaven ("Drottinn á himni") will not help."
d. "[The] Lord himself is with us," another Irish man says.
e. "But is he not in Heaven? ("á himni?")", the earl asks.
f. [The] Lord in Heaven protects the men while they sail.
g. The earl calls (says) himself the lord of the slaves.
h. Icelandic men protect themselves ("vernda sik sjálfa") against Norwegian 
kings.
i. They take (go with) an old man to the boat.
3.3 Translate the texts into English
Þórr heitir áss, ok er sterkr mjök ok oft reiðr. Hann á hamar góðan. Þórr ferr oft til 
Jötunheima ok vegr þar marga jötna með hamrinum. Þórr á ok vagn er flýgr. Hann ekr
vagninum um himininn. Þar er Þórr ekr, er stormr.
Þórr kennir orm, er menn kalla Miðgarðsorm. Ormrinn er langr ok hringar sik allan 
um heim manna, Miðgarð. Þórr vill veiða orminn ok vega hann, því at hann er illr.
Þórr kennir ok jötun er á bát. Þórr tekr vagninn ok ekr. Hann ekr vagninum ór Ásgarði
ok um himininn. Hann ferr til jötunsins. Er hann finnr jötuninn kallar hann til hans, 
"Jötunn, þú skalt taka bátinn er þú átt ok hjálpa mér. Vit munum fara ok veiða sjálfan 
Miðgarðsorm." Jötunninn er mjök hræddr, ok svarar, "Ek skal gjøra sem þú býðr, Þórr,
því at ef ek gjøri eigi svá, vegr þú mik. En ormrinn mun eta okkr báða, því at hann er 
stórr ok illr." En Þórr er áss bæði djarfr ok reiðr ok vill fara gegn Miðgarðsormi.
Því næst róa þeir saman á báti jötunsins. Þá kømr slíkr stormr, at jötunninn verðr 
hræddr mjök. Er Þórr sér hann svá hræddan, mælir hann, "Sjá, jötunn, hér er 
hamarrinn er vegr þik ef þú roer eigi," ok sýnir hánum reiðr hamarinn.
Óláfr kallar sik konung alls Noregs. Jarlar Noregs skulu ok kalla hann konung. Ef jarl 
gjørir eigi svá, ferr Óláfr konungr gegn hánum ok rekr hann ór Noregi. En margir 
jarlar vilja eigi kalla Óláf konung, svá at þeir standa saman gegn hánum.
Jarl heitir Ragnarr, er kallar Óláf eigi konung. Óláfr konungr foerir marga menn gegn 
hánum ok segir: "Heill, Ragnarr jarl. Kalla þú mik Drottin, eða ek mun reka þik ór 
Noregi." Svá býðr konungr jarli (translate: "the earl"). Ragnarr svarar, "Heill, Óláfr. 
Vit skulum eigi leiða svá marga menn hverja gegn öðrum. Ek skal nú fara ok leiða alla
er standa með mér. Vér skulum sigla brott í bátunum ok vér skulum eigi koma aftr til 
Noregs, meðan þú lifir. En ek mun eigi kalla þik konung, Óláfr, því at þú ert eigi góðr 
maðr ok þú munt eigi góðr konungr verða."
Hinir jarlarnir standa eigi með Ragnari gegn Óláfi. Konungrinn hefir svá marga menn,
at Ragnarr gefr sik hánum ok ferr. Hann segir mönnunum er eru með hánum: "Vér 
skulum nú fara, því at níðingrinn Óláfr leiðir marga menn gegn oss, ok hinir jarlarnir 
standa eigi með oss. Óláfr gefr oss grið, svá at vér skulum sigla brott ok finna oss 
nýjan heim." Margir menn fara með hánum í bátana, en sumir gjøra eigi svá. Þeir fara 
til Óláfs konungs, því at þeir eru norskir menn ok vilja búa í Noregi.
Kormákr heitir þræll ok Svartrannarr. Kormákr er írskr maðr. Svartr er danskr, ok 
ungr mjök ok sterkr. Kormákr er gamall maðr ok spakr.
Jarl býðr nú bæði Kormáki ok Svarti at fara í skóginn ok finna við. Viðinn skal brenna
hjá jarli.
Þeir fara nú báðir í skóginn. Við skóginn er stórr hóll, ok háll íss í vangi. Svartr segir 
við Kormák ("to Cormack"), "Vit skulum ganga yfir ísinn." Kormákr mælir þá Svarti, 
"Eigi skal þat svá, því at yfir ís svá hálan, sem þú sér þar, skal eigi ganga. Þar falla 
menn í ísinn, ok deyja. Kom þú með mér, ok göngum vér nú á hólinn."
Ganga þeir svá á hólinn ok af hánum í skóginn. Kormákr mælir, "Í skógum eru oft illir
vargar. En ver eigi hræddr, því at Drottinn himna verndar okkr." Svartr segir þá, 
"himna-drottin kenni ek, er hefir hamar góðan ok flýgr í vagni um himininn. Sjá, 
Kormákr, hér hefi ek Þórshamar, en meðan ek hefi hann mun Þórr vernda okkr báða." 
Kormákr segir, "Eigi verndar okkr Þórr né hamarrinn; Drottinn á himni er með okkr, 
ok mun vernda okkr gegn illum vörgum." Finna þeir nú viðinn ok foera hann jarli.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
Ragnar now leads many vikings into the boats and sails away. "We have no slaves, for
Olaf the Oppressor takes them all. We shall go and find Irish slaves, in Westway. Then
we shall find another homeland and live there." The vikings say "You shall lead us, 
Earl Ragnar, to Westway ("í Vestrveg"), and we will do as ("svá er") you bid."
As they sail away, out of the cove, they see many green meadows, broad cascades, and
forests wide. Ragnar speaks, "Evil is the oppressor Olaf, to ("at") drive us out of 
Norway, with such green meadows and forests. We will not find such cascades in 
another home."
4. Looking at real texts
4.1 Half a strophe from Þrymskviða
Loki suggests the following to Þórr:
Mun ek ok með þér
ambátt vera.
Vit skulum aka tvau
í Jötunheima.
Notice the plural of 'Jötunheimr'.
ambátt female slave
tvau two
Notice the difference between 'munu' and 'skulu'. The first is a statement of fact (as far
as a statement about the future can be) while the second is more like a suggestion. But
in reality the verbs could be interchanged here with no real change in meaning. 
Thorpe, for example, translates both with 'will':
I will with thee
as a servant go:
we two will drive
to Jötunheim.
4.2 An answer from Gylfaginning
Hár segir: "Þat eru tveir úlfar, ok heitir sá er eftir henni ferr Skoll. Hann hræðisk hon 
ok hann mun taka hana. En sá heitir Hati Hróðvitnisson er fyrir henni hleypr ok vill 
hann taka tunglit, ok svá mun verða."
Remember the feminine pronoun, 'she':
nom. hon
acc. hana
dat. henni
gen. hennar
tveir two
eftir + dat behind, after
fyrir + dat in front of
hræðisk fears
tunglit the moon
sá the one
ferr goes, fares
Solutions to Lesson Eight
by Haukur Þorgeirsson 2003
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
Þeir ganga saman um víðan vang.
They walk together over a wide meadow.
Þeir sjá menn standa við forsinn.
They see a man standing by the waterfall.
Annarr spyrr, "Hverir standa þar, við forsinn?"
One of them asks, "Who are standing there by the waterfall?"
Þá svarar hinn, "Þeir kalla sik Eirík ok Hauk, ok eru norskir."
Then the other one replies, "They call themselves Eric and Hawk and [they] are 
Norwegian.
"Hvat gøra slíkir menn hér?", spyrr annarr hinn. "What are such men doing here?", 
one asks the other.A
Jarlar Noregs eigu marga hunda ok þræla írska.
The earls of Norway own many dogs and Irish slaves.
Í Noregi er oft íss í vágum, svá at vísir menn sigla þar eigi.
In Norway there's often ice in the coves, so that wise people do not sail there.
Hann gengr til groenna skóga, þar er álfarnir búa.
He goes to green woods, where the elves dwell.
Þeir ganga saman á hálum ísi, en falla eigi.
They walk together on slippery ice but they do not fall.
"Hér er háll íss. Ek vil eigi ganga hér um."
"Here's slippery ice. I don't want to walk around here."
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
"Lord, protect us," an Irish man says.
"Drottinn, vernda oss," segir írksr maðr.
"I am lord here, and protect you," says the earl.
"Ek em drottinn hér ok vernda yðr," segir jarl.
"Lord in Heaven will not help."
"Drottinn á himni hjálpar eigi."
"Lord himself is with us," another Irish man says.
"Drottin sjálfr er með oss," segir annarr írskr maðr.
"But is he not in Heaven?", the earl asks.
"En er hann eigi á himni?", spyrr jarl.
Lord in Heaven protects the men while they sail.
Drottinn á himni verndar mennina meðan þeir sigla.
The earl calls (says) himself the lord of the slaves.
Jarlinn segir sik drottin þræla.
Icelandic men protect themselves against Norwegian kings.
Íslenzkir menn vernda sik gegn norskum konungum.
They take (go with) an old man to the boat.
Þeir fara með gamlan mann í bátinn.
3.3 Translate the text into English
Þórr heitir áss, ok er sterkr mjök ok oft reiðr. Hann á hamar góðan. Þórr ferr oft til 
Jötunheima ok vegr þar marga jötna með hamrinum. Þórr á ok vagn er flýgr. Hann ekr
vagninum um himininn. Þar er Þórr ekr, er stormr.
A god is named Thor. He is very strong and often angry. He has a good hammer. Thor 
often goes to Gianthome and slays many giants there with the hammer. Thor also has 
a carriage that flies. He drives the carriage through the sky. Where Thor drives there 
is storm.
Þórr kennir orm, er menn kalla Miðgarðsorm. Ormrinn er langr ok hringar sik allan 
um heim manna, Miðgarð. Þórr vill veiða orminn ok vega hann, því at hann er illr.
Thor knows a serpent that people call the Midgard Serpent. The serpent is long and 
coils all of itself around the world of people, Midgard. Thor wants to catch the 
serpent and slay it, for it is evil.
Þórr kennir ok jötun er á bát. Þórr tekr vagninn ok ekr. Hann ekr vagninum ór Ásgarði
ok um himininn. Hann ferr til jötunsins. Er hann finnr jötuninn kallar hann til hans, 
"Jötunn, þú skalt taka bátinn er þú átt ok hjálpa mér. Vit munum fara ok veiða sjálfan 
Miðgarðsorm." Jötunninn er mjök hræddr, ok svarar, "Ek skal gjøra sem þú býðr, Þórr,
því at ef ek gjøri eigi svá, vegr þú mik. En ormrinn mun eta okkr báða, því at hann er 
stórr ok illr." En Þórr er áss bæði djarfr ok reiðr ok vill fara gegn Miðgarðsormi.
Thor also knows a giant that has a boat. Thor takes the wagon and drives. He drives 
the wagon from Asgard and through the sky. He goes to the giant. When he finds the 
giant he calls to him, "Giant, you will take the boat that you have and help me. We 
two will go and catch the Midgard Serpent itself." The giant is very fearful and 
replies, "I will do as you ask, Thor, because if I don't you'll slay me. But the serpent 
will eat both of us for he is large and evil." But Thor is both a courageous and angry 
god and wants to go against the Midgard Serpent.
Því næst róa þeir saman á báti jötunsins. Þá kømr slíkr stormr, at jötunninn verðr 
hræddr mjök. Er Þórr sér hann svá hræddan, mælir hann, "Sjá, jötunn, hér er 
hamarrinn er vegr þik ef þú roer eigi," ok sýnir hánum reiðr hamarinn.
Next they row together on the giant's boat. Then there comes such a storm that the 
giant becomes very scared. When Thor sees the giant so afraid he speaks, "Look, 
giant, here's the hammer that will slay you if you don't row," and angry he shows him 
the hammer.
Óláfr kallar sik konung alls Noregs. Jarlar Noregs skulu ok kalla hann konung. Ef jarl 
gørir eigi svá, ferr Óláfr konungr gegn hánum ok rekr hann ór Noregi. En margir jarlar
vilja eigi kalla Óláf konung, svá at þeir standa saman gegn hánum.
Olaf calls himself the king of all Norway. The earls of Norway shall also call him 
king. If an earl doesn't do that, king Olaf goes against him and chases him out of 
Norway. But many earls don't want to call Olaf king so they stick together against 
him.
Jarl heitir Ragnarr, er kallar Óláf eigi konung. Óláfr konungr foerir marga menn gegn 
hánum ok segir: "Heill, Ragnarr jarl. Kalla þú mik Drottin, eða ek mun reka þik ór 
Noregi." Svá býðr konungr jarli (translate: "the earl"). Ragnarr svarar, "Heill, Óláfr. 
Vit skulum eigileiða svá marga menn hverja gegn öðrum. Ek skal nú fara ok leiða alla
er standa með mér. Vér skulum sigla brott í bátunum ok vér skulum eigi koma aftr til 
Noregs, meðan þú lifir. En ek mun eigi kalla þik konung, Óláfr, því at þú ert eigi góðr 
maðr ok þú munt eigi góðr konungr verða."
An earl is called Ragnar. He doesn't call Olaf king. King Olaf brings many men 
against him and says: "Hail, earl Ragnar. Call me Lord or I'll chase you out of 
Norway." This the king offers the earl. Ragnar replies, "Hail, Olaf. We two shall not 
lead so many men against one another. I'll go now and lead all who followers. We'll 
sail away in the boats and we won't come back to Norway while you are alive. But I 
will not call you king, Olaf, because you are not a good man and you will not make a 
good king."
Hinir jarlarnir standa eigi með Ragnari gegn Óláfi. Konungrinn hefir svá marga menn,
at Ragnarr gefr sik hánum ok ferr. Hann segir mönnunum er eru með hánum: "Vér 
skulum nú fara, því at níðingrinn Óláfr leiðir marga menn gegn oss, ok hinir jarlarnir 
standa eigi með oss. Óláfr gefr oss grið, svá at vér skulum sigla brott ok finna oss 
nýjan heim." Margir menn fara með hánum í bátana, en sumir gøra eigi svá. Þeir fara 
til Óláfs konungs, því at þeir eru norskir menn ok vilja búa í Noregi.
The other earls don't stand with Ragnar against Olaf. The king has so many men that 
Ragnarr gives in [I'm not sure where Óskar was going with this] and goes. He tells 
the men that are with im: "Now we shall go for the oppressor Olaf leads many men 
against us and the other earls don't stand with us. Olaf spares us so we shall sail 
away and find ourselves a new home." Many men go with him to the boats but some 
don't. They go to king Olaf for they are Norwegian men and wan't to live in Norway.
Kormákr heitir þræll ok Svartr annarr. Kormákr er írskr maðr. Svartr er danskr, ok 
ungr mjök ok sterkr. Kormákr er gamall maðr ok spakr.
A slave is called Cormac and another Svart. Cormac is an Irish man. Svart is Danish,
very young and strong. Cormac is an old and wise man.
Jarl býðr nú bæði Kormáki ok Svarti at fara í skóginn ok finna við. Viðinn skal brenna
hjá jarli.
Now the earl commands Cormack and Svart to go into the forest and find wood. The 
wood will be burnt at the earl's.
Þeir fara nú báðir í skóginn. Við skóginn er stórr hóll, ok háll íss í vangi. Svartr segir 
við Kormák ("to Cormack"), "Vit skulum ganga yfir ísinn." Kormákr mælir þá Svarti, 
"Eigi skal þat svá, því at yfir ís svá hálan, sem þú sér þar, skal eigi ganga. Þar falla 
menn í ísinn, ok deyja. Kom þú með mér, ok göngum vér nú á hólinn."
Now both of them go into the forest. By the forest is a large hill and slippery ice in the
meadow. Svart says to Cormack, "We two shall walk over the ice." Cormack then tells 
Svart, "That's not gonna happen for over such slippery ice as you see there one 
should not walk. There people fall into the ice and die. Come with me and now we'll 
walk upon the hill."
Ganga þeir svá á hólinn ok af hánum í skóginn. Kormákr mælir, "Í skógum eru oft illir
vargar. En ver eigi hræddr, því at Drottinn himna verndar okkr." Svartr segir þá, 
"himna-drottin kenni ek, er hefir hamar góðan ok flýgr í vagni um himininn. Sjá, 
Kormákr, hér hefi ek Þórshamar, en meðan ek hefi hann mun Þórr vernda okkr báða." 
Kormákr segir, "Eigi verndar okkr Þórr né hamarrinn; Drottinn á himni er með okkr, 
ok mun vernda okkr gegn illum vörgum." Finna þeir nú viðinn ok foera hann jarli.
Then they walk upon the hill and off the hill into the forest. Cormack speaks, "In 
forests there are often evil wolfs. But don't be afraid for the lord of heaven protects 
us." Then Svart says: "I know a lord of the sky that flies around the sky in a wagon. 
Look, Cormack, here I have a Thor's hammer and while I have it Thor will protect us 
both." Cormack says, "Neither Thor nor the hammer will protect us; the Lord in 
heaven is with us two and will protect us against evil wolfs." Now they find the wood 
and bring it to the earl.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
Ragnar now leads many vikings into the boats and sails away. "We have no slaves, for
Olaf the Oppressor takes them all. We shall go and find Irish slaves, in Westway. Then
we shall find another homeland and live there." The vikings say "You shall lead us, 
Earl Ragnar, to Westway and we will do as you bid."
Ragnarr leiðir nú marga víkinga í bátana ok siglir brott. "Vér höfum enga þræla því 
at níðingrinn Óláfr tekr þá alla. Vér skulum fara í vestrveg ok finna írska þræla. Þar 
næst skulum vér finna annan heim ok búa þar." Víkingarnir segja, "Þú skalt leiða oss, 
Ragnarr jarl, í Vestrveg, ok vér skulum gøra svá er þú býðr."
As they sail away, out of the cove, they see many green meadows, broad cascades, and
forests wide. Ragnar speaks, "Evil is the oppressor Olaf, to ("at") drive us out of 
Norway, with such green meadows and forests. We will not find such cascades in 
another home."
Sem þeir sigla úr váginum sjá þeir marga groena vanga, breiða fossa ok skóga víða. 
Ragnar mælir, "Illr er Óláfr níðingr at reka oss úr Noregi er hefir svá groena vanga 
ok skóga. Eigi munum vér finna slíka fossa í öðrum heimi.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Nine
by Óskar Guðlaugsson and Haukur Þorgeirsson
1. Grammar
1. Genitive Case: Partition
2. Dative Case: Instrumental
3. Verbs with Dative and Genitive
4. Strong Masculine Declensions
5. Infinitive Clauses
6. Clauses of Purpose, Sequences
2. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions
8. Phrases
3. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
1. Grammar
1.1 Genitive Case: Partition
There are some more uses to the genitive case than possession, presented last lesson. 
This can be seen through observation of the English genitive; in English, this case is 
marked by 's, for possession exclusively, but more commonly by the preposition 'of'. 
Examples:
'Norway's king is called Olaf.''The King of Norway is called Olaf.'
'Peter's car is blue.''The car of Peter is blue.'
Using the 's is normal for possession, except in the case of titles, like 'The King of 
Norway.' But there are other types of genitive, or at least other cases where the 'of' 
preposition is used abstractively:
'Three of us came over.' 'He saw all of them.'
This is called 'partitive genitive'. There we're using the genitive to mark the whole 
whence an amount derives; 'hundreds of men.' - from an undefined mass called 'men', 
'hundreds' are selected. The genitive would seem logical, as the extracted amount 
belongs to the original whole.
Luckily, Old Norse uses the genitive in the exact same way. Except, of course, its 
genitive is marked exclusively through inflection and not by the help of prepositions. 
So, first an example of the possessive usage we already know:
Bátr Óláfs er langr.
Then, an example of the partitive genitive:
Sumir vár vilja eigi vera í Úlfarsheimi. 'Some of us don't want to be in Úlfarsheimr.'
Note, by the way, that the verb conjugates in the third person in this example. Though 
it may seem to be a semantic first person, the verb refers to 'sumir', which is a third 
group. Remember that verbs always agree to the subject in the sentence, and the 
subject is always in nominative (like 'sumir', but unlike 'vár').
1.2 Dative Case: Instrumental
As detailed in lesson 5, section 1.1, the dative case in ON originates from a fusion of 
many different case forms. But the various functions of those originally different cases
still remain in the dative case. One of those functions is called "instrumental", and 
marks the object with which the verb is executed. Examples:
"He slays the dragon with the mighty sword." "He comes to England by ship." "It's a 
Trial by Fire."
In those sentences, "sword", "ship" and "fire" serve instrumental functions, and are 
marked in English by theinstrumental case prepositions "with" and "by".
In ON, we have until now relied on the preposition "með" + dat, which marks 
instruments, among other things. But ON can also omit any preposition, relying on the
naked dative form to identify the instrumental function. Example:
"Þórr vegr jötuninn hamri." Thor slays the giant with a hammer.
This function of the dative is not very common, especially not in prose.
1.3 Verbs with Dative and Genitive
So far, we have used only verbs followed by a direct object marked with accusative. 
However, to complicate matters, the 'patients' of many ON verbs are not marked with 
accusative, but rather with dative or even genitive (rare), as illogical as it may seem:
"Ek kasta steini." 'I throw a stone.' (dative)
"Þeir moeta hánum." 'They meet him.' (dative)
"Hon saknar hans." 'She misses him.' (genitive)
The explanation to this phenomenon probably lies in the etymology of the individual 
verbs; a verb's original meaning may have logically called for such case marking, but 
then changed meaning while retaining the case use. The compulsory dative marking 
would in a great many cases stem from instrumental dative usage (see 1.2 above) 
which has "frozen" (become mandatory). At the same time, other verbs of similar 
meaning may then have changed to model themselves to the anomalous verb, so that 
all verbs of a similar "theme" meaning will govern the same case; e.g. all verbs that 
describe "projectile" meanings (like "kasta" above) tend to govern dative.
In any case, by the time of Old Norse it is no longer practical to consider such 
(perhaps obscure) historical details; it is most practical to say that the grammatic case 
governed by an ON verb is one of its inherent variables, to be learnt as soon as one 
learns the verb itself.
Thus, from now on, verbs will be specifically identified with the case they govern:
vega, veg + acc slay kasta, kasta + dat throw
sakna, sakna + gen miss, feel the loss of
Most verbs learnt so far govern accusative; the only exception is:
sigla, sigli + dat sail
It may be of help to some students, however, to try to assign some minimal logic to 
some of the abnormal case use, perhaps especially with verbs that govern the genitive 
case. For example, with the example above of the verb 'sakna', one may assume 
something like this as an explanation:
"Hon saknar hans." "She misses his [presence]."
But this is only recommended as a mnemonic, for those whom it helps.
1.4 Strong Masculine Declensions
The strong masculine is certainly the most varied declension. Some strong masculines
end in -ir in the nominative. They decline quite easily:
hilmir 'king'
sg pl
nom hilmir hilmar
acc hilmi hilma
dat hilmi hilmum
gen hilmis hilma
The dative cannot be 'hilmii', as 'ii' is not possible in ON.
A very large group of nouns within the declension are declined like this:
staðr 'place'
sg pl
nom staðr staðir
acc stað staði
dat stað stöðum
gen staðar staða
Strong masculines of this type are called 'i-stems'; the ones we know so far are called 
'a-stems'. To summarize, i-stem declension is different in the following ways:
a. a) gen sg -ar, not -s
b. b) nom pl -ir, not -ar
c. c) acc pl -i, not -a
d. d) dat sg -Ø, not -i ('Ø' is commonly used to symbolize "no ending")
A few strong masculines' declension is a mix between i-stem and a-stem declension:
sg pl
nom skógr skógar
acc skóg skóga
dat skógi skógum
gen skógar skóga
That is, i-stem gen sg -ar, but otherwise just like other a-stems. The only such words 
we have encountered so far are 'skógr' and 'matr'.
Some i-stem nouns have -s in the sg gen.
So, as you'll be thinking by now, how do we keep track of all this? We intend to do so 
by using a new way to introduce future vocabulary from the strong masculine 
declension:
hestr, hests, hestar horse
vinr, vinar, vinir friend
skógr, skógar, skógar forest
hilmir, hilmis, hilmar king
áss, áss, æsir god
These three case forms are what characterize and identify the different declensions, 
nom sg (as before), gen sg, and nom pl. From now on, make sure you learn to which 
declension each strong masculine noun belongs, before you continue. Names will also
be presented this way, though not with the plural form, e.g.:
Njáll, Njáls
Haraldr, Haralds
Þorvarðr, Þorvarðar
1.5 Infinitive Clauses
With verbs like 'claim' or 'believe', English can have full clauses following with all its 
main verbs in infinitive. In those clauses, the infinitive is always marked with 'to':
I believe him to be passed away.
I claim her to be may legal heir.
I believe it to have happened already.
In ON, such infinitive clauses are even more prolific. The difference to English is that 
the infinitive marker (at) is never used, and the verb infinitive tends to be 
idiomatically placed last in the sentence. As in the English example sentences above, 
the subject of the infinitive clause is not in nominative, but rather in accusative:
"Ek tel hann góðan mann vera." I believe him to be a good man.
"Ek segi þik illan konung vera." I claim you to be an evil king.
In lesson 3, section 1.2, infinitive clauses with sense words like 'see' and 'hear' were 
taught. They are analogous to the clauses presented above:
"Vér sjám þá ganga um skóginn." We see them walking around the forest.
"Þeir heyra konunginn mæla." They hear the king speak.
And as mentioned there, clauses with the word 'vita' (to know):
"Ask veit ek standa." An ash I know standing.
1.6 Clauses of Purpose, Sequences
Some subordinate clauses express purpose:
"They go to find the wood." ("they go - [in order] to find the wood")
In ON, such clauses are connected to the main clause by "til at":
"Þeir fara til at finna viðinn."
Alternatively, one might say:
"Þeir fara at finna viðinn."
This merely indicates a sequence of events, though purpose is strongly suggested. 
This omission of "til" is quite common.
2. Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
vinr, vinar, vinir friend
áss, áss, æsir ace, god, one of the Æsir
askr, asks, askar ash tree; small wooden pot
sveinn, sveins, sveinar young man
peningr, penings, peningar money
máttr, máttar, mættir power
kaupmaðr, -manns, -menn merchant
dómr, dóms, dómar judgement, -hood ("state of being" suffix)
þrældómr, -dóms, -dómar slavery
Kristr, Krists Christ
Mjölnir, Mjölnis Mjolner, Thor's hammer
Askr Yggdrasils The Ash of Yggdrasil, the World Tree
Útgarðr Outgard, alternate name for Gianthome
Surtr Surt, the Fire Giant
Múspellsheimr Muspellsheim, the World of Fire Giants
Ása-Þór "Thor of [the] Æsir", alternate name for Thor
2.2 Pronouns
Demonstrative pronoun, masculine:
sá that, the one that
sg pl
nom sá þeir
acc þann þá
dat þeim þeim
gen þess þeira
Example of the demonstrative "that" function:
"Hvat heitir sá maðr, er stendr hjá jarli?" "What is that man called, who stands by the 
earl?"
This also serves as a relative pronoun, "the one that"; for example
"Sá er fiska veiðir..." The one who catches fish...
Note how the plural simply uses the masc 3p pl personal pronoun.
2.3 Adjectives
heitr hot
norroenn Nordic
vitr wise
alvitr omniscient, all-knowing
frjáls free
sjúkr sick
blindr blind
2.4 Verbs
smíða, smíð craft, make
trúa, trúi + dat believe; believe in, have faith in
leita, leita + gen search; search for
kaupa, kaupi buy
halda, held + dat hold, keep
velja, vel choose
gjalda, geld + dat pay
sigla, sigli + dat sail
rísa, rís rise
lækna, lækna heal
And one present-preterite verb:
vita know (a fact)
sg pl
1p veit vitum
2p veizt vituð
3p veit vitu
It should be mentioned now that the character 'z' represents a combination of 't','d' or 
'ð' + 's', just as 'x' is a combination of 'k' and 's'. This makes the form 'veizt' more 
understandable, as it essentially the stem 'veit' + the ending '-st'; 'veitst' > 'veizt'. The 
'z' was originally pronounced 'ts', but tended to simplify to 's' in later ON and its 
descendant languages.
2.5 Adverbs
aldregi never
hvar where
hvaðan whence/where fromþaðan thence/there from
héðan hence/here from
heldr but rather
enn still
til more, yet more
2.6 Prepositions
undir + dat under
meðal + gen among(st)
frá + dat from
2.7 Conjunctions
svá sem such as
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
a. "Sumir yðvar fara aldregi heim til Noregs."
b. "Veizt þú eigi, hvárt menninir skulu sigla brott?"
c. "Eigi veit ek, hverir mannanna skulu sigla."
d. "Kristr heitir drottinn sá, er verndar oss."
e. "Ek veit annan, er verndar oss hamri gegn illum jötnum."
f. "Hvárt mun sá Þórr heita, ok hamarrinn Mjölnir?"
g. "Eigi hefir sá Kristr slíkan hamar er Mjölnir er."
h. "Kristr hefir eigi hamra eða branda, því at hann er góðr ok vegr eigi menn né 
jötna."
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
a. There are many villains among Olaf's friends.
b. "That viking is such a villain, that he never spares good men."
c. "Thor's might is in the hammer."
d. "Do you know, slave, whence they come, who they are, and what they call 
themselves?"
e. "They come from Westway, and are Irish men. They call themselves free."
f. "No good men come from there. Take the sword and bring them to me."
g. "Some of you are thieves, who take horses. Who are they?"
h. "Those who know, shall bring me the thieves."
i. "The thieves must give in. If they do not do so, I will kill you all."
3.3 Translate the text into English
Oddr segir við Ragnar jarl, "Seg mér, jarl, af heiminum, af jötnum ok ásum." Ragnarr 
svarar, "Þat skal ek, Oddr."
"Í heimi stendr askr stórr er vér köllum Ask Yggdrasils. Við askinn eru heimar þeir er 
heita Miðgarðr, þar er vér búm; Útgarðr, þar er jötnar búa, en hann heitir ok 
Jötunheimr; ok Ásgarðr, þar er æsir búa. Undir askinum búa dvergar, er smíða bauga 
ok branda."
"Drottin ása köllum vér Óðin, ok er hann áss mjök spakr. Hann hefir hrafna, er heita 
Huginn ok Muninn, ok fljúga þeir hrafnar um heimana. Þat, er hrafnarnir sjá, sér ok 
Óðinn. Því er Óðinn áss alvitr. Í Ásgarði býr ok áss sá er Þórr heitir. Þórr hefir 
hamarinn Mjölni ok flýgr hann oft til Jötunheims ok vegr með hánum jötna. Margir 
æsir búa í Ásgarði, ok vernda þeir allir mennina ok heiminn, gegn illum jötnum."
"Surt veit ek búa í Múspellsheimi. Sá er stórr ok illr jötunn elds. Í heimi þeim brenna 
heitir eldar ok mun Surtr leiða þaðan jötna gegn ásum. Hann mun vega æsi eldi ok 
brandi þeim, er hann hefir. Illr er mjök jötunn sá."
"Í Miðgarði búm vér menninir. Um Miðgarð allan veit ek orm hringa sik, er vér 
köllum Miðgarðsorm. Ormr sá er illr. Ása-Þór vill veiða þann orm ok vega hann 
hamrinum."
Oddr mælir nú, "Kenni ek nú marga æsi. En sumir segja mér af öðrum, er þeir nefna 
Krist. Hvárt er sá meðal ása?" Ragnarr svarar, "Sá er eigi áss, heldr maðr. Menn segja 
hann lækna sjúka ok blinda, rísa aftr dauðr, ok koma af himnum. Margir norroenna 
manna trúa nú hánum, en sjálfr veit ek eigi mátt Krists."
Fara nú Ragnarr ok víkingarnir at leita sér þræla meðal írskra manna. Þeir kaupa þar í 
Vestrvegi marga unga sveina af norroenum kaupmönnum, er halda sveinunum 
þrældómi. Kaupmaðr segir, "Sveinarnir eru sterkir mjök, ok sá kaupir vel er þá velr. 
Tak þú, jarl, þá sveina er þar standa, þá gef ek þér annan til."
Ragnarr telr kaupmanninn bjóða sér vel, ok geldr hánum peningum. Býðr hann svá 
þrælunum at ganga í bátana, ok siglir brott.
Er Svartr ok Kormákr foera viðinn heim til jarls, spyrr Svartr Kormák, "Hvárt eru allir
írskir menn þrælar, sem þú ert, Kormákr?" Kormákr svarar, "Eigi erum vér allir þrælar
en mörgum vár halda norroenir menn í þrældómi."
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
Many (of) Nordic men believe in (the) Æsir, but not all of them. Some believe in 
Christ, Lord of Heaven. Irish men do not believe in the Æsir, but rather in Lord Christ.
The King of Norway commands all Norwegian men to call himself King. He also 
commands them not to have faith in the Æsir, but rather in Christ. Others, such as 
(the) earls of Norway, say that Thor will slay Christ himself ("segja Þór munu vega 
sjálfan Krist..."), with his hammer, Mjolner. Many of (the) Norwegians believe the 
earls.
Solutions to Lesson Nine
by Óskar Guðlaugsson and Haukur Þorgeirsson 2003
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
"Sumir yðvar fara aldregi heim til Noregs."
Some of you will never go back to Norway.
"Veizt þú eigi, hvárt menninir skulu sigla brott?"
Do you not know, whether the men will sail away?
"Eigi veit ek, hverir mannanna skulu sigla."
I do not know, who of the men will sail.
"Kristr heitir drottinn sá, er verndar oss."
The Lord, who protects us, is called Christ.
"Ek veit annan, er verndar oss hamri gegn illum jötnum."
I know of another one, who protects us with a hammer against evil giants.
"Hvárt mun sá Þórr heita, ok hamarrinn Mjölnir?"
Is he called Thor, and the hammer Mjolner?
"Eigi hefir sá Kristr slíkan hamar er Mjölnir er."
That Christ has no hammer like Mjolner.
"Kristr hefir eigi hamra eða branda, því at hann er góðr ok vegr eigi menn né jötna."
Christ does not have hammers or swords, for he is good and kills neither men nor 
giants.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
There are many villains among Olaf's friends.
Þat eru margir níðingar meðal vina Óláfs.
"That viking is such a villain, that he never spares good men."
"Sá víkingr er slíkr níðingr, at hann gefr góðum mönnum aldregi grið."
"Thor's might is in the hammer."
"Máttr Þórs er í hamrinum."
"Do you know, slave, whence they come, who they are, and what they call 
themselves?"
"Hvárt veist þú, þræll, hvaðan þeir koma, hverir þeir eru, ok hvat þeir kalla sik?"
"They come from Westway, and are Irish men. They call themselves free."
"Þeir koma ór Vestrvegi, ok eru írskir menn. Þeir kalla sik frjálsa."
"No good men come from there. Take the sword and bring them to me."
"Engir góðir menn koma þaðan. Tak þú brandinn ok foer mér þá."
"Some of you are thieves, who take horses. Who are they?"
"Sumir yðvar eru þjófar, er taka hesta. Hverir eru þeir?"
"Those who know, shall bring me the thieves."
"Þeir er vita, skulu foera mér þjófana."
"The thieves must give in. If they do not do so, I will kill you all."
"Þjófarnir skulu gefa sik. Ef þeir göra þat eigi, mun ek vega yðr alla."
3.3 Translate the text into English
Oddr segir við Ragnar jarl, "Seg mér, jarl, af heiminum, af jötnum ok ásum." Ragnarr 
svarar, "Þat skal ek, Oddr." "Í heimi stendr askr stórr er vér köllum Ask Yggdrasils. 
Við askinn eru heimar þeir er heita Miðgarðr, þar er vér búm; Útgarðr, þar er jötnar 
búa, en hann heitir ok Jötunheimr; ok Ásgarðr, þar er æsir búa. Undir askinum búa 
dvergar, er smíða bauga ok branda." "Drottin ása köllum vér Óðin, ok er hann áss 
mjök spakr. Hann hefir hrafna, er heita Huginn ok Muninn, ok fljúga þeir hrafnar um 
heimana. Þat, er hrafnarnir sjá, sér ok Óðinn. Því er Óðinn áss alvitr. Í Ásgarði býr ok 
áss sá er Þórr heitir. Þórr hefir hamarinn Mjölni ok flýgr hann oft til Jötunheims ok 
vegr með hánum jötna. Margir æsir búa í Ásgarði, ok vernda þeir allir mennina ok 
heiminn, gegn illum jötnum." "Surt veit ek búa í Múspellsheimi. Sá er stórr ok illr 
jötunn elds. Í heimi þeim brenna heitir eldar ok mun Surtr leiða þaðan jötna gegn 
ásum. Hann mun vega æsi eldi ok brandi þeim, er hann hefir. Illr er mjök jötunn sá." 
"Í Miðgarði búm vér menninir. Um Miðgarð allan veit ek orm hringa sik, er vér 
köllum Miðgarðsorm. Ormr sá er illr. Ása-Þór vill veiða þann orm ok vega hann 
hamrinum." Oddr mælir nú, "Kenni ek nú marga æsi. En sumir segja mér af öðrum, er
þeir nefna Krist. Hvárt er sá meðal ása?" Ragnarr svarar, "Sá er eigi áss, heldr maðr. 
Menn segja hann lækna sjúka ok blinda, rísa aftr dauðr, ok koma af himnum. Margir 
norroenna manna trúa nú hánum, en sjálfr veit ek eigi mátt Krists."
Odd says to Earl Ragnar, "Tell me, earl, of the world, of gods and giants." Ragnar 
replies, "That I shall do, Odd." "There is in the world a great ash tree which we call 
the Ash of Yggdrasil. By the tree there are the worlds called Midgard, where we live; 
Utgard, where the giants live, but itis also called Jotunheim; and Asgard, where the 
Aesir gods live. Under the tree there are dwarves, who craft rings and swords." "Lord 
of the Aesir we call Odin, and he is a very wise god. He has ravens called Hugin and 
Munin, and those ravens fly around the worlds. That which the ravens see, Odin also 
sees. Therefore Odin is an all-knowing god. In Asgard there lives also a god named 
Thor. Thor has the hammer Mjolner and he flies often to Jotunheim and slays giants 
with it. Many gods live in Asgard, and they all protect the people and the world 
against evil giants." "I know of Surt, who lives in Muspellsheim. He is a great and evil
fire giant. In that world hot fires burn and Surt will lead giants from there against the 
gods. He will kill the gods with fire and the sword that he has. That giant is 
exceedingly evil." "In Midgard we humans dwell. Around all of Midgard I know that a
serpent is coiling himself, we call him the Midgard Serpent. That serpent is evil. Thor 
of the Æsir wants to catch that serpent and slay him with the hammer." Now Odd 
speaks, "Now I know many gods. But some tell me of another that they call Christ. Is 
he among the Æsir?" Ragnar replies, "That one is not a god but a man. People say he
cures the sick and blind, that he rises dead and comes from the sky. Many northern 
people now have faith in him but I myself do not know the might of Christ."
Fara nú Ragnarr ok víkingarnir at leita sér þræla meðal írskra manna. Þeir kaupa þar í 
Vestrvegi marga unga sveina af norroenum kaupmönnum, er halda sveinunum 
þrældómi. Kaupmaðr segir, "Sveinarnir eru sterkir mjök, ok sá kaupir vel er þá velr. 
Tak þú, jarl, þá sveina er þar standa, þá gef ek þér annan til." Ragnarr telr 
kaupmanninn bjóða sér vel, ok geldr hánum peningum. Býðr hann svá þrælunum at 
ganga í bátana, ok siglir brott.
Now Ragnar and the vikings go to search for slaves for themselves among Irish 
people. They buy, there in Westway, many young lads from Norse merchants who keep
the lads in slavery. A merchant says, "The lads are very strong and he who chooses 
them makes a good deal. Take, earl, the slaves who stand there and I'll give you one 
extra." Ragnar considers the merchant to offer a good deal and pays him the money. 
Then he commands the slaves to walk into the boats and sails away.
Er Svartr ok Kormákr foera viðinn heim til jarls, spyrr Svartr Kormák, "Hvárt eru allir
írskir menn þrælar, sem þú ert, Kormákr?" Kormákr svarar, "Eigi erum vér allir þrælar
en mörgum vár halda norroenir menn í þrældómi."
When Svart and Cormack bring the wood home to the earl Svart asks Cormack: "Are 
all Irish people slaves, as you are, Cormack?" Cormack replies: "We are not all 
slaves but Norse people keep many of us in slavery.
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
Many (of) Nordic men believe in (the) Æsir, but not all of them. Some believe in 
Christ, Lord of Heaven. Irish men do not believe in the Æsir, but rather in Lord Christ.
The King of Norway commands all Norwegian men to call himself King. He also 
commands them not to have faith in the Æsir, but rather in Christ. Others, such as 
(the) earls of Norway, say that Thor will slay Christ himself ("segja Þór munu vega 
sjálfan Krist..."), with his hammer, Mjolner. Many of (the) Norwegians believe the 
earls.
Margir norrænna manna trúa á Ásu, en eigi allir. Sumir trúa á Krist, drottin himna. 
Írskir menn trúa ekki á Ásu heldur á drottin Krist. Konungr Noregs býðr öllum 
norskum mönnum at kalla sjálfan sik konung. Hann býðr þeim ok at trúa eigi á Ásu 
heldr Krist. Aðrir, sem jarlar Noregs, segja Þór munu vega sjálfan Krist hamri sínum 
Mjölni. Margir Norðmannanna trúa jörlunum.
Óláfr heitir konungr. Hann á brand.
Geirr heitir maðr. Hann er Norðmaðr.
Óláfr sér Geir.
Ó: "Geirr!"
G: "Geirr heiti ek, konungr."
Óláfr tekr geirinn.
Ó: "Geir vil (want) ek!"
Nú hefir Geirr eigi Geir.
	The Norse and English Tongues
	Some Common Features of Old Norse and German
	Pronunciation of Old Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson One
	0. Miscellany
	0.1 About this course
	0.2 On learning languages in general
	0.3 On learning arcane languages
	0.4 Old Norse? Which Old Norse?
	0.5 English grammatical vocabulary
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Declension of pronouns
	1.2 Declension of nouns
	1.3 Article
	1.4 Gender of nouns
	1.5 Notes on word order
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1. Nouns
	2.2 Pronoun
	2.3 Verbs
	2.4 Adverbs
	2.5 Conjunctions
	2.6 Sample sentences
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Mark the pronouns' cases (optional)
	3.2 Translate the phrases into English.
	3.3 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.4 Translate the text into English
	3.5 Translate the text into Old Norse
	4. Looking at real texts
	4.1 A few words from the Snorra-Edda
	4.2 Two lines from the Völuspá
	Solutions to Lesson One
	3.1 Mark the pronouns' cases (optional)
	3.2 Translate the phrases into English.
	3.3 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.4 Translate the text into English
	3.5 Translate the text into Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Two
	1. Grammar
	1.1 First and second person personal pronouns
	1.2 Plural of third person pronouns
	1.3 Plural of nouns
	1.4 Some slightly irregular nouns
	1.5 Maðr - an irregular noun
	1.6 Verbal conjugation
	1.7 "Er" - an all purpose relative pronoun
	1.8 The present tense
	1.9 Word order
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Pronouns
	2.3 Verbs
	2.4 Adverbs
	2.5 A greeting
	2.6 Yes or no questions
	2.7 Sample sentences
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	3.5 Translate the play into English
	3.6 Translate the play into English
	4. Looking at real texts
	4.1 Half a stanza by Snorri Sturluson
	4.2 Two half-strophes from the Sigdrífumál
	Solutions to Lesson Two
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	3.5 Translate the play into English
	3.6 Translate the play into English
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Three
	0. Miscellany
	0.1 Spelling
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Adjectives - indefinite form
	1.2 Usage - accusative with infinitive
	1.3 Usage - auxiliary verbs
	1.4 The masculine article
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Pronouns
	2.3 Adjectives
	2.4 Verbs
	2.5 Adverbs
	2.6 Conjunctions
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the sentences into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the texts into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	4. Looking at real texts
	4.1 A strophe from Völuspá
	Solutions to Lesson Three
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the texts into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Four
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Dative Case: Giving & Receiving
	1.2 Dative Case: Forms
	1.3 Word Order: Indirect Objects
	1.4 Verb Imperative
	1.5 Pronoun trick - We Olaf slay a worm
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Adjectives
	2.3 Verbs
	2.4 Adverbs
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	4. Looking at real texts
	4.1 A stanza from the Höfuðlausn
	Solutions to Lesson Four
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Five
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Prepositions
	1.2 Dative Case: Command
	1.3 Accusative Case: Qualifying
	1.4 Assimilative Verb Conjugation
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Conjunctions
	2.3 Adjectives
	2.4 Verbs
	2.5 Adverbs
	2.6 Prepositions
	2.7 Pronouns
	2.8 Phrases
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	4. Looking at real texts
	4.1 A few words from the Heimskringla
	4.2 A question and an answerfrom Brennu-Njáls saga
	4.3 Half a strophe from Helgakviða Hundingsbana:
	Solutions to Lesson Five
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Six
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Umlauts
	1.2 Article Usage
	1.3 Word Order
	1.4 Reference
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Pronouns
	2.3 Adjectives
	2.4 Verbs
	2.5 Adverbs
	2.6 Prepositions
	2.7 Conjunctions
	2.8 Phrases
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the text into English
	Solutions to Lesson Six
	3.1 Translate the text into English
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Seven
	0. Supplement
	0.1 Alternative forms
	1. Variations in space
	2. Variations in time
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Genitive Case: Possession
	1.2 Genitive Case: Forms
	1.3 Article Usage with the Genitive
	1.4 Reflexive Pronouns
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Pronouns
	2.3 Adjectives
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	Solutions to Lesson Seven
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Eight
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Present-Preterite Verbs
	Strong verbs
	Weak verbs
	Present-preterite verbs
	1.2 Assimilative Nouns and Adjectives
	1.5 Bisyllabic Stems
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Pronouns
	2.3 Adjectives
	2.4 Verbs
	2.5 Adverbs
	2.6 Prepositions
	2.7 Conjunctions
	2.8 Phrases
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the texts into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	4. Looking at real texts
	4.1 Half a strophe from Þrymskviða
	4.2 An answer from Gylfaginning
	Solutions to Lesson Eight
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Nine
	1. Grammar
	1.1 Genitive Case: Partition
	1.2 Dative Case: Instrumental
	1.3 Verbs with Dative and Genitive
	1.4 Strong Masculine Declensions
	1.5 Infinitive Clauses
	1.6 Clauses of Purpose, Sequences
	2. Vocabulary
	2.1 Nouns
	2.2 Pronouns
	2.3 Adjectives
	2.4 Verbs
	2.5 Adverbs
	2.6 Prepositions
	2.7 Conjunctions
	3. Exercises
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
	Solutions to Lesson Nine
	3.1 Translate the phrases into English
	3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
	3.3 Translate the text into English
	3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse[c]
b               borð            [b]
d               dagr            [d]
g               góð             [g]           
g               geta            [C]     like English 
'gill'
gj              gjóta           [C]
g               saga            [G]     between vowels; 
like
'g' in Spanish 'fuego'
þ               þykk            [T]
ð               eða             [D]
j               jól             [j]     not [dZ] as 
English  'j', but [j] as 'y'
v               vandi           [w]     
hv         hvít [w_0]
f               fá           [f]            
f               hafa            [v]
h               hafa            [h]
r               rós             [r]     trilled 'r', as 
in
Spanish; *not* to be 
pronounced
like standard English 'r'
hr              hrós            [r^0]   unvoiced [r]; as 
an
approximation, try saying [r]
exhaling forcefully at the
same time, as if saying [h];
consider also the 
relationship
                                        between [w] and 
[w^0], as
guidance
n               nú              [n]
ng              ung             [Ng]    unlike English, 
the 'g'
is also pronounced
hn              hnefi           [n^0]    same 
relationship as
between [r] and [r^0]
l               ló              [l]     always as Spanish
'l', not like English 'l'
in 'cold'
hl              hló             [l^0]   unvoiced, like 
[r^0]
s               sá              [s]     never [z]
x               sax             [ks]    like English
pt              krapt           [ft]           
kt              rakt            [xt]    [x] is like 'ch' 
in
Scottish 'loch', or 'j'
in Spanish 'ojo'
gt              sagt            [Gt]
gg              hagga           [gg]    
á [A:] [O:] aw (law)
a [A] [A] Brit –ar (star)
é [e:] [e:] e (pet), long
e [e] [e] e (pet)
í [i:] [i:] ee (fee)
i [i] [I] i (pit)
ó [o:] [o:] Germ oh (wohnen)
O [o] [o] Sp o (hijo)
Ú [u:] [u:] ue (Sue)
U [u] [U] oo (foot)
Ý [y:] [y:] Fr u (rue)
Y [y] [Y] Ice u (kuti)
ö (o-tail) [O] [O] aw (law), short
œ [2:] [2:] Fr eu (feu), long
ø [2] [2] Fr eu (feu)
æ [E:] [E:] ai (fair)
ei [Ei] [Ei] ay (day)
ey [9y] [9y] Fr euil (feuille)
au [Au] [Au] ow (brow)
see below
Double consonants: pronounced with double length, i.e. 'alla' is [AllA]. This is not 
normally done in English, though sequences of words may produce double consonants
(geminates), e.g. 'black cow' [bl{k kAU]. If you pronounce 'black cow' as one word, 
you have [kk] in the middle.
Stress in Old Norse always falls on the first syllable, or rather, all stems are stressed. 
ON words are always just + , stems never being more than one 
syllable; longer words, i.e. with more than one stem syllable, are composed. In a 
composed word, e.g. 'fingrbjörg', stress falls primarily on the first syllable (the first 
stem), 'fing', and secondarily on the next stem, 'björg'. Endings only contain the short 
vowels 'a, i, u'; syllables with long (accented) vowels or diphthongs can thus always 
be recognized as stem syllables, and therefore entitled to stress.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson One
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson
1. Miscellany
1. About this course
2. On learning languages in general
3. On learning arcane languages
4. Old Norse? Which Old Norse?
5. English grammatical vocabulary
2. Grammar
1. Declension of pronouns
2. Declension of nouns
3. Article
4. Gender of nouns
5. Notes on word order
3. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronoun
3. Verbs
4. Adverbs
5. Conjunctions
6. Sample sentences
4. Exercises
1. Mark the pronouns' cases (optional)
2. Translate the phrases into English
3. Translate the phrases into Norse
4. Translate the text into English
5. Translate the text into Norse
5. Looking at real texts
1. A few words from Snorra-Edda
2. Two lines from the Völuspá
0. Miscellany
0.1 About this course
This course is designed for speakers of English. No previous knowledge of Old Norse 
or any other language is needed or expected.
The aim of the course is to aid beginning students of Old Norse in building up 
sufficient basic knowledge for the student to be able to start studying on his own after 
the course. The method is to focus on building up a firm understanding of the 
grammatical basics of the language, having the student use the language as much as 
possible.
We will try throughout the course to spice it up with background information, as most 
students of Old Norse have strong interest in Old Norse culture as well as language. 
We will also refrain from using nonsensical sentences, preferring "real" made-up 
sentences or simplified versions of actual texts.
Lessons are organised into four chapters. The first one (0) contains information that is 
not really the core of the matter but can be useful and interesting to read. The next one
(1) contains the new grammar for the lesson, then (2) comes the vocabulary, all of 
which you should memorise, and then (3) exercises to help you get a hands on feeling 
for the subject. In the last chapter (4) we look at real texts or sentences from the 
literature. Do not get discouraged if this is difficult at times, you don't have to 
memorise everything there, just read through it.
0.2 On learning languages in general
The process of learning languages is often somewhat misperceived, especially in 
cultures with little tradition or need for it. Language learning is gradual, piece-by-
piece, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, often rewarding, often frustrating. There is no 
black and white in language learning, no set stage where one "speaks the language", 
before which one understood and spoke nothing, after which one understands and 
speaks everything. It's an open-ended process, from which one can enter and exit at 
will, always benefitting from every minute effort. How this relates to our course, is to 
make you understand that you will not exit from it completely fluent in Old Norse, 
having "finished" that language, because there is no finish line; but neither will you 
have wasted your time, because time invested in language study is never "lost". You 
are to emerge from the course having achieved a certain point, a certain skill level, 
from which you can benefit, even if it cannot be considered fluency. Most importantly,
the end results should be gratifying and the process fun, though unavoidably hard at 
times.
0.3 On learning arcane languages
The study of arcane languages such as Old Norse has certain marked differences to 
the study of modern languages; the most important factor is, naturally, that one can 
never hear anybody speak the language. That can be a significant psychological 
obstacle in memorizing words and reading text. Coming from an experienced 
language learner, the problem with learning arcane languages is that one has no access
to the "sound of the language", its very soul. This makes it more difficult to get a feel 
for its structure, to become comfortable with it, even to develop feelings for it, all 
factors not to be taken lightly.
In studying arcane languages, one must deal with this by "reliving" and "realizing" the
language, by familiarizing oneself with the culture of the language's former speakers 
and imagining the life behind it. One must understand that it was once the native 
language of a whole nation of people of all kinds, to whom it was as dear and natural 
as your first language is to you. Understand that those people thought in this language,
expressed their needs in it, their love, their anger and hate, their first and last words; 
parent to child, friend to friend, husband to wife, foe to foe, any person to any other 
person. It was as living once as any given language of today, complete with slang, 
neologisms, swearing and nonsense, just as well as the more commonly known poetry
and literature. Once one genuinely and truly understands this, one has gained an 
important psychological advantage in the learning process of an arcane language.
0.4 Old Norse? Which Old Norse?
The term OldNorse refers to the language spoken in Scandinavia and Scandinavian 
settlements from about 800 to about 1350. It should be obvious that it was not exactly 
the same language over a vast area and 550 years. It is usually split into two groups, 
which are then split into two dialects.
West Norse East Norse
Old Icelandic Old Norwegian Old Danish Old Swedish
Of all these, the dialect which preserved the most interesting literature is Old 
Icelandic. This course will teach Old Icelandic from the 13th century; when such 
works as Heimskringla and the Edda were composed. The spelling of Old Icelandic 
words is normalised to the accepted standard. When texts that are not from the 13th 
century are quoted we will still use the same spelling.
The term 'Old Norse' is sometimes used to mean specifically what we here call 'West 
Norse' or what we here call 'Old Icelandic'. It is sometimes applied to Icelandic up to 
the 16th century.
0.5 English grammatical vocabulary
It is quite possible to teach and learn languages without the use of grammatical terms. 
Indeed, a child does not learn to speak by first learning what a noun is. Yet, it is our 
opinion that it is practical to use grammatical vocabulary in describing the Old Norse 
language. This course assumes knowledge of the following words for parts of speech. 
Very short descriptions follow.
 Noun: A name of a person, place or thing (book, Paris, John).
 Adjective: A word that describes a noun (good, bad, ugly).
 Pronoun: A word used instead of a noun (he, we, which).
 Verb: A word that describes what someone is doing (do, kill, say).
 Adverb: A word that describes a verb (well, highly, badly).
 Conjunction: A connecting word (and, but, or).
 Preposition: A word placed before a noun to indicate place, direction etc. (to, 
from, in).
As new terms are introduced make an effort at understanding them; it is essential for 
making sense of the text.
1. Grammar
1.1 Declension of pronouns
In Norse, nouns and pronouns are declined in cases. What on earth does that mean? 
We will use English as a starting point to explain. Consider the English sentence: "She
loves me." If you have learnt syntax you will know that the "subject" of this sentence 
is the pronoun "she" and the "object" is the pronoun "me". If you haven't learnt syntax
I'll let you in on the trick; the subject in a sentence is the word that is doing stuff, the 
object is the word stuff is done to. So, in our sentence "she" is doing stuff and it's 
being done to "me". Simple.
Now let's look at another sentence: "I love her." Okay, now "I" is doing stuff, so "I" is 
the subject, and it's being done to "her" which must then be the object. Now consider; 
how does the English language distinguish between subject and object in a sentence? 
As you will see from our example there are two methods:
1. Changing the word order. You will note that the word preceding the verb is the 
subject whereas the word following the verb is the object.
2. Changing the form of the words. Aha! This is where things get interesting. Of 
course the "she" in the first sentence is the same person as the "her" in the second 
sentence, similarly the "I" and "me" refer to the same bloke. We say the word itself 
hasn't changed, only the form of it. We'll make a little table:
Subject: I you he she it
Object: me you him her it
You will note that sometimes the word changes completely when switching between 
the roles of subject and object, like "I" to "me", sometimes it changes but remains 
recognisably the same, like "he" to "him", and sometimes it doesn't change at all, like 
"you" to "you".
Now we have seen that English uses different forms of pronouns to represent subject 
and object but those different forms are also used for other things. Let's look at the 
sentence "I am he." Something strange has happened; preceding the verb there is a 
pronoun in the subject form, well and good, but following the verb is a pronoun that is
also in the subject form. The explanation lies in the verb we're using; the verb "to be" 
doesn't really describe "stuff being done" (as we have so eloquently put it in this 
passage). It's more like an equals sign: "I = he". In such cases the word following the 
verb is called neither object nor subject but "complement".
Now that we've found a new use for our subject form we'll have to redo our table:
Subject, complement: I you he she it
Object: me you him her it
Now we might wonder whether there is another use for the object form as well. 
Indeed there is; consider the sentence "I saved it for him". Here "I" is the subject and 
"it" is the object, as you will have realised, but what about "him"? It's not following a 
verb so it can't be an object but it's still in the object form. We conclude that words 
following a preposition take the object form. Again we have to redo our table:
Subject, complement: I you he she it
Object, prepositional: me you him her it
Now that we've found more than one use for both of our forms we'll name those forms
for easy reference. We'll call them nominative and accusative and we'll refer to them 
collectively as the cases of the pronouns. We'll call this changing of forms by the 
pronouns declension.
Nominative case: I you he she it
Accusative case: me you him her it
Remember what we stated at the beginning of this section? "In Norse, nouns and 
pronouns are declined in cases". Now we can state: "In English, pronouns are declined
in cases". The beauty of it is that the Norse cases of nominative and accusative work 
exactly like the English cases we have been defining. Thus the nominative in Norse 
serves as subject and compliment and the accusative as object and prepositional. The 
Norse table corresponding to the English table above looks like this:
Nominative case: ek þú hann hon þat
Accusative case: mik þik hann hana þat
You notice a slight resemblance between the two tables. You also note that, as with 
English, when the pronouns go from nominative to accusative they sometimes change 
much (ek - mik), sometimes little (hon - hana) and sometimes not at all (hann - hann). 
Now you can do exercise 3.1.
1.2 Declension of nouns
In the Norse language, nouns, like pronouns, are declined in cases. Again we start by 
discussing English. Consider the sentence "Peter calls Maggie." Here the subject is 
"Peter" and the object is "Maggie". Now another sentence: "Maggie calls Peter." The 
roles of subject and object have been switched, but how? Not by changing the forms 
of the words, as with the pronouns, but solely by changing the word order. In contrast,
Norse solves the problem of distinguishing between subject and object with case 
endings and not word order.
Now to the good stuff. Norse nouns are declined in cases. That is, the form of the 
nouns change depending on whether they play the role of nominative or accusative. 
The wonderful science of grammar puts nouns into different groups depending on 
their declension pattern. The first group we will look at is called "strong masculine"; 
accept those terms as arbitrary for now.
The pattern of the strong masculine word is that they have the ending -r in the 
nominative. We'll look at some examples from our vocabulary in 2.1.
Singular of the strong masculine declension:
Nominative: álfr baugr Haukr konungr
Accusative: álf baug Hauk konung
Note that proper names (like Haukr here) are declined in cases like any other nouns.
1.3 Article
In English there are two kinds of articles; the indefinite article "a and an" and the 
definite article "the". The Norse language has no indefinite article, thus "draugr" by 
itself means "a ghost". Norse, however, does have a definite article though it doesn't 
work quite like the English one. Rather than being a small unchanging word preceding
nouns the Norse article is a suffix depending on case, gender and number. For the 
masculine words we've introduced the article in both nominative singular and 
accusative singular is "-inn" tacked on to thewords. Thus:
Indefinite Definite
Nominative álfr álfrinn
Accusative álf álfinn
or in so many words:
álfr = an elf (nominative) álfrinn = the elf (nominative)
álf = an elf (accusative) álfinn = the elf (accusative)
1.4 Gender of nouns
We said before that the group of nouns we're looking at is called strong masculine. 
The "strong" classification is arbitrary but we're going to let you in on the masculine 
thing. Every word in Norse has an arbitrary "gender", masculine, feminine or neuter. 
When we refer to a word with a certain gender we have to use the pronoun with the 
same gender. Thus masculine nouns take the masculine pronoun (hann=he), feminine 
nouns take the feminine pronoun (hon=she) and neuter nouns take the neuter pronoun 
(þat=it). Since all the nouns used in this chapter are masculine you'll be concerned 
with "hann" for now.
1.5 Notes on word order
Word order in English is quite rigid. For a simple sentence it's always "subject-verb-
object". In Norse this is not so, the word order is quite free, mainly because the 
information about which word plays which role is given by grammatical endings 
(cases and more) whereas English relies on word order to convey this information. 
Remember to check the grammatical ending of Norse words to find their place in the 
sentence.
This is not to say that there aren't certain conventions on word order in Norse. Most 
often there is one thing that is most natural but be prepared to meet anything.
In Norse, titles usually follow the name they refer to; thus 'king Óláfr' is 'Óláfr 
konungr'.
2. Vocabulary
2.1. Nouns
All nouns here are of the strong masculine declension.
álfr elf
baugr ring
brandr sword
dvergr dwarf
draugr ghost
hestr horse
haukr hawk
hjálmr helmet
konungr king
knífr knife
ormr worm, serpent
úlfr wolf
Names:
Haukr
Óláfr
Sigurðr
Tyrfingr
2.2 Pronoun
hann he, it
We gloss the word as both "he" and "it" as it can refer both to men and to things with 
masculine gender. Remember that all the nouns given in this lesson are of masculine 
gender.
2.3 Verbs
The forms given here are the third person singular of the verbs. This corresponds with 
the English s-form (like "sees" and "hears"). This is all you need to know for now.
á owns
er is (takes a complement!)
heitir is called (takes a complement!)
sér sees
segir says
tekr takes
vegr kills (usually in battle), slays
Sometimes the subject is dropped and the verb alone gives the meaning. Thus 'vegr' 
alone might mean 'he kills'.
2.4 Adverbs
hér here
eigi not
ok also
2.5 Conjunctions
These conjunctions are used much as in English. Note that 'ok' can be either an adverb
or a conjunction, depending on context.
ok and
en but
2.6 Sample sentences
The following sentences represent one approach to tackling Norse sentences. If you're 
comfortable with it you can employ it yourself in the exercises.
1. Vegr orminn Óláfr.
o Subject: Óláfr [nominative, proper name]
o Object: orminn [accusative, with article]
o Meaning: Óláfr kills the serpent
2. Baug á dvergr
o Subject: dvergr [nominative, without article]
o Object: baug [accusative, without article]
o Meaning: A dwarf has a ring.
3. Draugrinn sér konunginn.
o Subject: draugrinn [nominative, with article]
o Object: konunginn [accusative, with article]
o Meaning: The ghost sees the king.
4. Heitir konungrinn Óláfr.
o Subject: konungrinn [nominative, with article]
o Complement: Óláfr [nominative, proper name]
o Meaning: The king is called Óláfr.
After you finish studying the vocabulary you should take on the remaining exercises.
3. Exercises
3.1 Mark the pronouns' cases (optional)
In the following bible quotes there are many pronouns. Locate them and find out what
case they're in. Also note the reason they are in that case.
 a) I am he that liveth.
 b) Take now thy son whom thou lovest and offer him there for a burnt offering.
 c) And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and 
said unto her: "Come lie with me, my sister".
 d) Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat.
 e) Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
3.2 Translate the phrases into English.
 a) Dvergrinn á baug.
 b) Hjálm á Haukr.
 c) Álfrinn sér draug.
 d) Hann er konungrinn.
 e) Hann sér dverginn.
3.3 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
 a) The ghost kills the king.
 b) The elf kills a wolf.
 c) The king sees a hawk.
 d) Óláfr is a king.
 e) A king is named Óláfr.
3.4 Translate the text into English
Óláfr heitir konungr. Hann á brand. Heitir brandrinn Tyrfingr. Úlf sér Óláfr ok segir: 
"Hér er úlfr!". Óláfr tekr brandinn ok vegr úlfinn. En hér er ok ormr. Óláfr sér hann 
eigi. Óláf vegr ormrinn.
3.5 Translate the text into Old Norse
A king is called Sigurðr. He owns a sword but not a horse. Óláfr is also a king. He 
owns a horse. Sigurðr kills Óláfr and takes the horse.
4. Looking at real texts
4.1 A few words from the Snorra-Edda
En er Jörmunrekkr konungr sá haukinn...
Glossary:
er when
sá saw (past tense of 'sér')
Meaning: "But when king Jörmunrekkr saw the hawk..."
The subject of the sentence 'Jörmunrekkr konungr' is in the nominative case whereas 
the object 'haukinn' is in the accusative case.
To find out just what happened when king Jörmunrekkr saw the hawk you will have to
look up chapter 50 of the Skáldskaparmál.
4.2 Two lines from the Völuspá
In Völuspá (The Prophecy of the Seeress) the seeress says:
Ask veit ek standa.
Heitir Yggdrasill.
Glossary:
askr ash tree
veit ek I know
standa (to) stand
There are some things you should notice here. The first word of the sentence, 'ask', is 
the object. You can see that because it is in the accusative form. Then comes the verb 
'veit' and then the subject 'ek'. Thus the word order is 'object-verb-subject'.
The second sentence has no subject. Instead of 'Hann heitir Yggdrasill.' we have only 
'Heitir Yggdrasill.' It is quite normal in poetry that the subject be dropped.
Meaning:
"I know an ash tree to stand. It is called Yggdrasill."
Óláfr heitir konungr. Hann á brand.
Geirr heitir maðr. Hann er Norðmaðr.
Óláfr sér Geir.
Ó: "Geirr!"
G: "Geirr heiti ek, konungr."
Óláfr tekr geirinn.
Ó: "Geir vil (want) ek!"
Nú hefir Geirr eigi Geir.
Solutions to Lesson One
by Haukur Þorgeirsson 2001
3.1 Mark the pronouns' cases (optional)
 a) I am he that liveth.
 b) Take now thy son whom thou lovest and offer him there for a burnt 
offering.
 c) And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and 
said unto her: "Come lie with me, my sister".
 d) Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat.
 e) Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
 a) I am he that liveth.
I nominative subject
he nominative complement
 b) Take now thy son whom thou lovest and offer him there for a burnt 
offering.
thy genitive (ignore for now)
whom accusative object
thou nominative subject
him accusative object
 c) And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and 
said unto her: "Come lie with me, my sister".
she nominative subject
them accusative object
him accusative prepositional
he nominative subject
her accusative prepositional
her accusative prepositional
me accusative prepositional
my genitive (ignore for now)
 d) Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat.
him accusative object
 e) Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
thou nominative subject
he nominative complement
thy genitive (ignore for now)
In particular note the use 'I am he'. It may be more normal English to say 'I am him' 
but we feel it is important to familiarise you with the idea of a complement in the 
nominative case.
3.2 Translate the phrases into English.
b) Hjálm á Haukr.
c) Álfrinn sér draug.
d) Hann er konungrinn.
e) Hann sér dverginn.
a) Dvergrinn á baug.
The dwarf owns/has a ring.
The verb 'á' is often used where English would use 'owns'. In general, Norse uses 'á' to
indicatepossession and 'hefir' to indicate that something is being held or carried.
b) Hjálm á Haukr.
Haukr owns/has a helmet.
Same case here. If it had been 'Hjálm hefir Haukr.' we would assume not only that 
Haukr had a helmet but that he was wearing it right now.
c) Álfrinn sér draug.
The elf sees a ghost.
The norse mythological creature 'álfr' is perhaps not completely accurately translated 
by 'elf' but the word is of the same root and is usually translated like this. The meaning
of 'draugr' is captured by 'ghost' fairly accurately.
d) Hann er konungrinn.
He is the king.
Notice that since the verb 'er' takes a complement there is a word in nominative on 
both sides.
e) Hann sér dverginn.
He sees the dwarf.
Once more 'dwarf' may mistranslate 'dvergr' but only slightly.
3.3 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
 a) The ghost kills the king.
 b) The elf kills a wolf.
 c) The king sees a hawk.
 d) Óláfr is a king.
 e) A king is named Óláfr.
a) The ghost kills the king.
Draugrinn vegr konunginn. 
Vegr draugrinn konunginn.
Konunginn vegr draugrinn.
Since the subject is the ghost and the object is the king the ghost gets the nominative 
ending but the king doesn't. Word order is irrelevant. The three above are all equally 
possible.
b) The elf kills a wolf.
Álfrinn vegr úlf.
Vegr álfrinn úlf.
Úlf vegr álfrinn.
This case is analogous to the one above, the only difference is that now the object has 
not got the definite article.
c) The king sees a hawk.
Konungrinn sér hauk.
Sér konungrinn hauk.
Hauk sér konungrinn.
More of the same.
d) Óláfr is a king.
Óláfr er konungr. 
Er Óláfr konungr. 
Konungr er Óláfr. 
The verb 'er' doesn't behave like 'sér' and 'vegr' above. Instead of taking an object it 
takes a complement. Complements belong in the nominative case - so does the subject
which means that both words are in nominative.
e) A king is named Óláfr.
Óláfr heitir konungr. 
Konungr heitir Óláfr. 
Heitir konungr Óláfr. 
The verb 'heitir' works like 'er' above. Those verbs work like an equals sign.
3.4 Translate the text into English
Óláfr heitir konungr. Hann á brand. Heitir brandrinn Tyrfingr. Úlf sér Óláfr ok segir: 
"Hér er úlfr!". Óláfr tekr brandinn ok vegr úlfinn. En hér er ok ormr. Óláfr sér hann 
eigi. Óláf vegr ormrinn.
A king is named Óláfr. He has a sword. The sword is called Tyrfingr. Óláfr sees a wolf
and says: "Here is a wolf!". Ólafr takes the sword and slays the wolf. But here is also 
a worm. Óláfr doesn't see it. The worm kills Óláfr.
 When you are writing an English text using an ON name you should always 
keep it in the same case; I chose the nominative but some people prefer the 
accusative. The nominative form is the one you find in dictionaries.
 English has the habit of using 'does' in it's denying sentences; that makes for the
most natural translation here.
 Note that we have "Óláfr sér _hann_ eigi." translated as "Óláfr doesn't see 
_it_." The masculine pronoun can refer to all nouns of the (arbitrarily 
distributed) masculine gender.
3.5 Translate the text into Norse
A king is called Sigurðr. He owns a sword but not a horse. Óláfr is also a king. He 
owns a horse. Sigurðr kills Óláfr and takes the horse.
Heitir konungr Sigurðr. Á hann brand en hest eigi. Óláfr heitir ok konungr. Hest á 
hann. Sigurðr vegr Óláf ok tekr hestinn.
 There are many possibilities in the translation since the word order is free.
 The correspondance between the words 'ok, en' and 'and, but' is not absolute. 
Sometimes 'ok' is best translated as 'but' and 'en' as 'and'.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Two
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson
1. Grammar
1. First and second person personal pronouns
2. Plural of third person pronouns
3. Plural of nouns
4. Slightly irregular nouns
5. Maðr - an irregular noun
6. Verbal conjugation
7. "Er" - an all purpose relative pronoun
8. The present tense
9. Word order
2. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Verbs
4. Adverbs
5. A greeting
6. Yes or no questions
7. Sample sentences
3. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
5. Translate the play into English
6. Translate the play into English
4. Looking at real texts
1. Half a stanza by Snorri Sturluson
2. Two half-strophes from the Sigdrífumál
1. Grammar
1.1 First and second person personal pronouns
Now you have to learn those singular personal pronouns:
1.person 2.person
Nominative ek þú
Accusative mik þik
The corresponding English table looks like this:
1.person 2.person
Nominative I you
Accusative me you
The forms 'þú' and 'þik' are the relatives of the English forms 'thou' and 'thee'.
And then there are the plural pronouns, still fairly similar to English:
1.person 2.person
Nominative vér þér
Accusative oss yðr
1.person 2.person
Nominative we you
Accusative us you
And finally a concept that doesn't exist in Modern English, dual pronouns:
1.person 2.person
Nominative vit þit
Accusative okkr ykkr
1.person 2.person
Nominative we two you two
Accusative us two you two
1.2 Plural of third person pronouns
We will now introduce the plural of the third person pronouns. As before we begin 
with English.
Singular Plural
Nominative he she it they they they
Accusative him her it them them them
The reason for writing "they" out three times is that the plural of "he" is the same as 
the plural of "she" or the plural of "it", unlike Old Norse :
Singular Plural
Nominative hann hon þat þeir þær þau
Accusative hann hana þat þá þær þau
Thus, many "hons" make a "þær" and many "hanns" make a "þeir" (to put it in silly 
terms). We are still only using the masculine pronoun as all nouns we have introduced 
are masculine.
1.3 Plural of nouns
Nouns, of course, have a plural form. The plural form declines in cases and can be 
with or without definitive article. We'll write up a table showing the declension of our 
strong masculine words. This time we will use a {stem + ending} scheme. The 
grammatical stem of a word is the word without grammatical ending.
Without article With article
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom. stem + r stem + ar stem + r + inn stem + ar + nir
Acc. stem stem + a stem + inn stem + a + na
And then with the good old elf as the example.
Without article With article
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom. álfr álfar álfrinn álfarnir
Acc. álf álfa álfinn álfana
Now you know eight different forms of each noun. This might be a bit overwhelming 
at first but if you immediately begin memorising the table above and work hard at the 
exercises it will soon be very familiar.
1.4 Some slightly irregular nouns
Some words of the strong masculine declension lack the nominative singular ending 
'r'.
In order to make it completely clear what we mean we decline a sample word from 
this group. The word is 'jarl' and means 'earl'. The reason is probably that pronouncing
"jarlr" would not be comfortable.
Without article With article
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom. jarl jarlar jarlinn jarlarnir
Acc. jarl jarla jarlinn jarlana
The vocabulary also introduces the word 'geirr'. It is completely regular, so do not get 
confused by the two r's at the end. The first r is part of the stem whereas the second 
one is the nominative singular ending.
1.5 Maðr - an irregular noun
We will now introduce a masculine noun that in its declension does not follow the 
patterns already described. The word is 'maðr' and means 'human being' or 'person'.
Without article With article
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom. maðr menn maðrinn menninir
Acc. mann menn manninn mennina
Notice how the irregularity is similar to that of the corresponding English word, 'man'.
Also notice that the endings for the article are very similar to those for the regular 
words. This is no coincidence, in fact the article declines in the same basic way for 
every word of the same gender.
The word 'maðr' is avery useful one and will help us make more interesting 
sentences.
1.6 Verbal conjugation
The form of a verb depends upon the subject in the sentence, so in Old Norse as it is 
in English. Let us give an example
Infinitive: (to) be
I am we are
thou art you are
he/she/it is they are
We will now give the corresponding Old Norse verb; like its English counterpart, it is 
completely irregular.
Infinitive: (at) vera
ek em vit/vér erum
þú ert þit/þér eruð
hann/hon/þat er þeir/þær/þau eru
Remember what everything means here. The plural of 'hann' is 'þeir' et cetera. Also 
note that the dual pronouns have the same conjugation as the plural ones.
Now we will look at more regular verbs. We don't have to remember every form of 
every verb; for now it will be sufficient for us to remember two; the infinitive and the 
first person singular. The endings are tacked on in the following way.
Infinitive: [form 1]
ek [form 2] vit/vér [form 1] - a + um
þú [form 2] + r þit/þér [form 1] - a + ið
hann/hon/þat [form 2] + r þeir/þær/þau [form 1]
This code may be a bit cryptic. When I say " - a + um" I mean "subtract 'a' and add 
'um'". This is best illustrated with examples:
vega, veg
ek veg vit/vér vegum
þú vegr þit/þér vegið
hann/hon/þat vegr þeir/þær/þau vega
heita, heiti
ek heiti vit/vér heitum
þú heitir þit/þér heitið
hann/hon/þat heitir þeir/þær/þau heita
taka, tek
ek tek vit/vér tökum (explained below)
þú tekr þit/þér takið
hann/hon/þat tekr þeir/þær/þau taka
segja, segi
ek segi vit/vér segjum
þú segir þit/þér segið (explained below)
hann/hon/þat segir þeir/þær/þau segja
kalla, kalla (to call)
ek kalla vit/vér köllum
þú kallar þit/þér kallið
hann/hon/þat kallar þeir/þær/þau kalla
hafa, hefi (to have, wear, carry)
ek hefi vit/vér höfum
þú hefir þit/þér hafið
hann/hon/þat hefir þeir/þær/þau hafa
And now for one verb that is almost regular, but not quite:
sjá, sé (to see)
ek sé vit/vér sjám (not *sjáum)
þú sér þit/þér séð (not *sjáið)
hann/hon/þat sér þeir/þær/þau sjá
 A u in a grammatical ending always changes a preceding 'a' to an 'ö'. This is 
known as u-mutation and is treated in more detail later.
 The letters 'j' and 'i' cannot coexist; for this reason we have 'segið' and not 
'*segjið'.
 We won't use the infinitive just yet but it is still one of two forms of each verb 
you need to memorise.
 The verb 'á' does not follow this pattern, it is conjugated in lesson 3.
 The forms 'sjáum' and 'sjáið' are correct in later Icelandic.
1.7 "Er" - an all purpose relative pronoun
Relative pronouns are words like 'who, which, that'. In Norse we have one very useful
word that can play the role of all those. The word is 'er' and it should not be confused 
with the 3rd person singular of the verb "to be". An example will be in order.
The people (that) he sees are Norwegians. Relative pronoun can be dropped.
Menninir, er hann sér, eru Norðmenn. Relative pronoun cannot be dropped.
We say that the relative pronoun represents a word from the main sentence in the case 
appropriate for the verb in the relative clause. Since the word 'er' is the same in all 
cases this is mostly a technical thing and need not be worried overly about. We will, 
somewhat arbitrarily, separate all relative clauses in Norse with commas.
1.8 The present tense
So far we have only been discussing the present tense of verbs. The ON present tense 
actually corresponds to two forms in English.
Víkingarnir koma. The vikings come.
Víkingarnir koma. The vikings are coming.
When translating remember to use the most natural English form.
1.9 Word order
While word order in Old Norse is fairly free there are usually some things that are 
more normal than others. The normal word order in a simple sentence is, as in 
English: "subject verb object". Another common word order is "verb subject object". 
The greatest emphasis in a sentence is usually on the first word. Thus, if we want to 
draw special attention to the object we can use "object verb subject". Other word-
order schemes are usually reserved for elaborate poetry.
Where do you put the negating word "eigi"? Those examples will illustrate the variety
of normal structures. Do not be overwhelmed by this, there is little need to memorise 
every possible pattern, you will slowly become familiar with normal word order in 
reading the translation exercises.
 Subject-verb-object
o Hann sér eigi úlfinn.
o Hann sér úlfinn eigi.
 Verb-subject-object
o Sér hann úlfinn eigi.
o Sér hann eigi úlfinn.
o Eigi sér hann úlfinn.
 Object-verb-subject
o Úlfinn sér hann eigi.
All the legal sentences above have one thing in common: "The verb is always the first 
or the second word in the sentence." This phenomenon is known as V2 and is treated 
in more detail later in the course.
Other adverbs are usually placed in the same way.
2. Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
maðr person, man, human being (declension described in 1.5)
Norðmaðr Norwegian (declines like maðr)
Then two words whose declension we described in 1.4.
hrafn raven
jarl earl
The rest of the words given are regular strong masculine.
bátr boat
geirr spear
Íslendingr Icelander
vargr wolf
víkingr viking
þjófr thief
And for good measure we also list the names used in the lesson. You should never 
forget that names behave as any other nouns. They decline according to their 
declension group.
Eiríkr
Erlingr
2.2 Pronouns
er that, which, who, whom
Also remember to memorise the masculine pronoun in plural.
Nom. þeir (they)
Acc. þá (them)
2.3 Verbs
The verbs from lesson one are reiterated here for easy reference.
hafa, hefi have, hold, wear
hata, hata hate
heita, heiti be called
deyja, dey die
bíða, bíð wait
koma, køm come
mæla, mæli talk
sjá, sé see
vega, veg slay
segja, segi says
taka, tek take
sjá (irregular) see
vera (irregular) be
á owns (only form of this verb yet presented)
2.4 Adverbs
nú now
þar there
2.5 A greeting
The following forms can be used as greetings. This is actually an adjective that is 
declining according to gender and number but we'll talk about that later.
Heill! - to greet one man
Heil! - to greet one woman
Heilir! - to greet a group of men
Heilar! - to greet a group of women
Heil! - to greet a group including both sexes
2.6 Yes or no questions
To change a statement into a question you use the word order
Verb-subject-(object/complement)
And often you add the word 'hvárt' in front.
Hvárt er hann hér?
Er hann hér?
But it's not good fashion to answer a yes or no question with yes or no! That's almost 
never done in the Old Icelandic texts. Instead you just repeat the question as a 
statement.
Question: Hvárt er hann hér?
Answer: Hann er hér.
Oh, alright, we can tell you the words:
já yes
nei no
2.7 Sample sentences
1. Norðmenn hata Íslendinga.
o Subject: Norðmenn [nominative, plural, without article]
o Object: Íslendinga [accusative, plural, without article]
o Meaning: Norwegians hate Icelanders.
2. Hatar konungrinn úlfa.
o Subject: konungrinn [nominative, singular, with article]
o Object: úlfa [accusative, plural, without article]
o Meaning: The king hates wolfs.
3. Þeir eru Norðmenn.
o Subject: þeir [nominative, plural]
o Complement: Norðmenn [nominative, plural, without article]
o Meaning: They are Norwegians.
4. Brandrinn, er hann á, heitir Tyrfingr.
o Subject in main sentence: brandrinn [nominative, singular, with 
article]
o Complement in main sentence Tyrfingr [nominative, singular, 
proper name]
o Subject in relative clause: hann [nominative, singular]
o Object in relative clause: er [accusative, singular]
o Meaning: The sword which he has is called Tyrfingr.
5. Vit höfum hjálma.
o Subject: vit [nominative, dual]
o Object: hjálma [accusative, plural]
o Meaning: We two have (are wearing) helmets.
3. Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
 Sjá jarlarnir konungana.
 Álfrinn á knífa.
 Úlfar heita ok vargar.
 Baugana sjá menninir.
 Hrafnarnir deyja.
3.2 Translatethe phrases into Old Norse
 The raven sees a hawk.
 The king hates thieves.
 A viking is called Erlingr.
 The earls are called Erlingr and Eiríkr.
 You (pl.) are coming.
3.3 Translate the text into English
Note: As our vocabulary and knowledge of grammar expands we will find better 
things to do with our exercises than killing Óláfr.
Norðmenn hafa konung; hann heitir Óláfr. Maðr heitir Eiríkr; hann er jarl ok víkingr. 
Óláf hatar Eiríkr. Óláfr á bát. Hann heitir Ormr. Nú sér Eiríkr bátinn. Segir hann: "Hér
er bátrinn, er Óláfr á." Eiríkr hatar Óláf en hann tekr eigi bátinn, er Óláfr á. Hann bíðr.
Óláfr kømr. Eiríkr segir: "Nú deyr þú, Óláfr konungr! Ek veg þik!" ok vegr Óláf. Óláfr
segir "Þú vegr mik! Ek dey! Á! Á! (exclamation of pain)
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
A man is called Eiríkr. He owns (some) helmets, (some) boats and a spear. He is a 
viking. He kills people and takes boats. But Eiríkr is not a thief. Thieves don't kill. 
Now Eiríkr sees Óláfr and the Serpent. He kills Óláfr and takes the Serpent.
3.5 Translate the play into English
[Óláfr bíðr.]
Óláfr: Ek sé mann!
[maðr kømr]
Maðr: Heill Óláfr konungr! Ek heiti Eiríkr ok ek em Íslendingr.
Óláfr: Heill Eiríkr!
Eiríkr: Hvárt sér þú orminn þar, konungr?
Óláfr: Eigi sé ek orm.
Eiríkr: En hann er hér!
[nú sér Óláfr orminn]
Óláfr: Ormr! Ek sé orm!
Ormr: Óláfr! Ek sé Óláf!
Eiríkr: Segir ormrinn "Óláfr"?
Ormr: Nei. Ormar mæla eigi.
[Óláfr ok Eiríkr flýja]
3.6 Translate the play into English
[Eiríkr, þjófr ok víkingr, sér Orm, bát er Óláfr á]
Eiríkr: "Þar er bátr!"
[Haukr, Íslendingr, mælir]
Haukr: "Óláfr á bátinn."
[Óláfr kømr]
Óláfr: "Menn sé ek!"
Eiríkr ok Haukr: "Vit erum hér."
Óláfr: "Hvárt takið þit bátinn?"
Eiríkr ok Haukr: "Vit tökum hann eigi."
Óláfr: "Ormr heitir bátrinn. Ek á Orm"
[Eiríkr ok Haukr kalla]
E & H: "Úlfr! Úlfr! Þar er úlfr!"
Óláfr: "Úlfr? Ek hata úlfa!"
[Úlfr, Norðmaðr ok þjófr, kømr]
Óláfr: "Ek sé eigi úlf. Hvárt er hér úlfr?"
Úlfr: "Hér em ek, Óláfr konungr."
[Eiríkr, Haukr ok Úlfr taka bátinn ok flýja]
Óláfr: "Þjófar! Ek hata þjófa!"
E, H & Ú: "Vér erum víkingar, vér höfum bát er heitir Ormr!"
4. Looking at real texts
4.1 Half a stanza by Snorri Sturluson
Drífr handar hlekkr
þar er hilmir drekkr.
Mjök er brögnum bekkr
blíðskálar þekkr.
This half-stanza will not look recognisable to you, indeed it shouldn't, it is a 
complicated poetic passage. But we will apply the principles set forth earlier [The 
Norse and English tongues] to help us with individual words.
Some we can guess at without thought; 'handar' looks like it's a cognate of 'hand' and 
'drífr' could be a cognate of 'drive'. We are right on both accounts; 'handar' means 'of 
hand' but while 'drífr' is indeed related to 'drive' in this case it means 'snows'. Compare
with the English word '(snow)drift'.
The next word is 'hlekkr'. Doesn't look familiar. But English dropped all h's in front of
consonants, maybe if we change it to 'lekkr'. Looks better but we need to do more. 
The cluster 'nk' was frequently assimilated to 'kk' in Old Norse, maybe we need to 
reverse such a change. Then we've got 'lenkr'. Of course English doesn't have r as a 
grammatical ending, out it goes. New result 'lenk'. Still not an English word but let's 
remember that vowels are more prone to change than consonants. If we change the 'e' 
to an 'i' then we've finally made it to 'link' which is the right word.
It's a good and correct guess that 'þar' means 'there'. In this context 'þar er' means 
'where'.
What might 'hilmir' be? No way to figure that one out, it means 'king'. The word is 
related to 'hjálmr' and refers to the fact that kings tend to bear helmets.
Then there's 'drekkr'. We apply the same rules as before; Norse 'kk' can be English 'nk'
and English doesn't have 'r' as a grammatical ending. Then we've got 'drenk'. Maybe if
we change the vowel to 'i' as before. Hocus-pocus we've got 'drink' which is correct. 
More specifically 'drekkr' means 'drinks'.
Let's look at that first sentence in toto.
"Drífr handar hlekkr þar er hilmir drekkr."
The subject is 'handar hlekkr' which means 'link of the hand'. And what does _that_ 
mean? It is a poetic paraphrase for 'gold'. The verb is 'drífr' which means 'snows'. 
Then 'þar er' means 'where', 'hilmir' means 'king' and 'drekkr' means 'drinks'.
"(The) link of the hand [gold] snows where (the) king drinks."
This sentence is quite typical of Norse court poetry; praise of the king's generosity in 
florid language.
Let's look at the second sentence.
The word 'mjök' means 'very'. The English cognate is 'much'. You already know that 
'er' can mean 'is'. Such is the case here. The word 'brögnum' doesn't have an English 
cognate. It means 'for men' and is a poetic word.
Then there's 'bekkr'. In with the n, out with the r! We've got 'benk'. Hmm... The correct
cognate is 'bench' and the meaning is the same.
The word-form 'blíðskálar' is made out of 'blíð' and 'skálar'. The first is an adjective 
cognate to English 'blithe'. The second is the possessive form of 'skál' which means 
'bowl'. Modern Scandinavians can often be heard shouting this word. Skál! Skål! 
Toast!
Last word: 'þekkr'. Once more we change 'kk' into 'nk' and get 'thenk'. The correct 
cognate is 'thank' but the word means 'comfortable' rather than 'thankful'.
If we draw together the second sentence.
"Mjök er brögnum bekkr blíðskálar þekkr."
Meaning: "The bench of the blithe bowl is very comfortable for men."
And who doesn't like sitting and drinking...
In summary we could guess correctly at the meaning of many words: 'handar, drekkr, 
blíð, hlekkr, bekkr' but we also had some whose cognates didn't help us much: 'drífr, 
þekkr'. This is quite typical.
Do not rely on cognate trickery but use it, where it applies, as an aid to memory.
4.2 Two half-strophes from the Sigdrífumál
- - -
Heill Dagr!
Heilir Dags synir!
Heil Nótt ok nipt!"
- - -
- - -
Heilir Æsir!
Heilar Ásynjur!
Heil sjá in fjölnýta fold!"
- - -
Compare the greeting carefully with chapter 2.5; notice how it changes according to 
gender and number.
"Hail, Day!
Hail, Day's sons!
Hail, Night and [her] sister!"
"Hail, Æsir (gods)!
Hail, Ásynjur (goddesses)!
Hail, bountiful earth!"
Eiríkr ok Haukr heita menn. Þeir eru þjófar. Ó: "Þjófar!"
E: "Eiríkr heiti ek." Eiríkr ok Haukr flýja. Óláfr 
H: "Haukr heiti ek." kallar.
 Ó: "Ek hata þjófa!"
Þeir sjá bát.
E & H: "Bátr!"
Eiríkr kennir bátinn.
E: "Bátrinn heitir Ormr ok Óláfr konungr á hann."
H: "Hvárt vilt þú hann taka?"
E: "Þat vil ek."
En þar er Óláfr!
Ó: "Hvárt takið þit bátinn?!"
E & H: "Vit???"
Brand hefir hann!
Óláfr hefir draum (a dream). Nú vaknar (wakes up) Óláfr.
 Ó: "Mamma!"
Þar eru álfar ok dvergar.
Á & Dv: "Óláfr."
Þeir taka bátinn er Óláfr á. 
Dv: "Vér tökum bátinn, Óláfr."
Á: "Vér tökum hann."
Óláfr sér álfana ok dvergana ok hleypr.
Ó: "Þjófar! Hví takið þér bátinn?!"
En þar er ok draugr!
Dr: "Óólááfr."
Ó: "Á!"
Solutions to Lesson Two
by Haukur Þorgeirsson 2000
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
Sjá jarlarnir konungana.
The earls see the kings.
Álfrinn á knífa.
The elf has knives.
Úlfar heita ok vargar.
Wolves are also called wargs.
Baugana sjá menninir.
The people see the rings.
Hrafnarnir deyja.
The ravens die.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
The raven sees a hawk.
Hauk sér hrafninn.
The king hates thieves.
Konungrinn hatar þjófa.
A viking is called Erlingr.
Heitir víkingr Erlingr.
The earls are called Erlingr and Eiríkr.
Jarlarnir heita Erlingr ok Eiríkr.
You (pl.) are coming.
Þér komið.
3.3 Translate the text into English
Norðmenn hafa konung; hann heitir Óláfr.Maðr heitir Eiríkr; hann er jarl ok víkingr. 
Óláf hatar Eiríkr. Óláfr á bát. Hann heitir Ormr. Nú sér Eiríkr bátinn. Segir hann: "Hér
er bátrinn, er Óláfr á." Eiríkr hatar Óláf en hann tekr eigi bátinn, er Óláfr á. Hann bíðr.
Óláfr kømr. Eiríkr segir: "Nú deyr þú, Óláfr konungr! Ek veg þik!" ok vegr Óláf. Óláfr
segir: "Þú vegr mik! Ek dey! Á! Á!
[The] Norwegians have a king; he is called Olaf. A man is called Eric; he is an earl 
and a viking. Eric hates Olaf. Olaf has got a boat. It is called Worm. Now Eric sees 
the boat. He says: "Here is the boat that Olaf has." Eric hates Olaf but he doesn't take
the boat that Olaf has. He waits. Olaf comes. Eric says: "Now you die, king Olaf! I'm 
killing you!" and kills Olaf. Olaf says: "You're killing me! I'm dying! Ah! Ah!
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
A man is called Eiríkr. He owns (some) helmets, (some) boats and a spear. He is a 
viking. He kills people and takes boats. But Eiríkr is not a thief. Thieves don't kill. 
Now Eiríkr sees Óláfr and the Serpent. He kills Óláfr and takes the Serpent.
Maðr heitir Eiríkr. Hann á hjálma, báta ok geir. Hann er víkingr. Vegr hann menn ok 
tekr báta. En Eiríkr er eigi þjófr. Þjófar vega eigi. Nú sér Eiríkr Óláf ok Orminn. Hann
vegr Óláf ok tekr Orminn.
 It is very important to write "Nú sér Eiríkr..." and not "*Nú Eiríkr sér..." When 
a sentence begins with an adverb(ial phrase) the verb must be the next element.
3.5 Translate the play into English
[Óláfr bíðr.] 
Óláfr: Ek sé mann!
[maðr kømr]
Maðr: Heill Óláfr konungr! Ek heiti Eiríkr ok ek em Íslendingr.
Óláfr: Heill Eiríkr! 
Eiríkr: Hvárt sér þú orminn þar, konungr?
Óláfr: Eigi sé ek orm.
Eiríkr: En hann er hér!
[nú sér Óláfr orminn]
Óláfr: Ormr! Ek sé orm! 
Ormr: Óláfr! Ek sé Óláf!
Eiríkr: Segir ormrinn "Óláfr"?
Ormr: Nei. Ormar mæla eigi.
[Óláfr ok Eiríkr flýja] 
[Olaf is waiting.]
Olaf: I see a person!
[a person arrives]
Man: Hail king Olaf! My name is Eric and I'm an Icelander.
Olaf: Hail Eric!
Eric: Do you see the worm there, king?
Olaf: I don't see a worm.
Eric: But it's here!
[now Olaf sees the worm]
Olaf: A worm! I see a worm!
Worm: Olaf! I see [an] Olaf!
Eric: Does the worm say "Olaf"?
Worm: No. Worms don't talk.
[Olaf and Eric flee]
3.6 Translate the play into English
[Eiríkr, þjófr ok víkingr, sér Orm, bát er Óláfr á]
Eiríkr: "Þar er bátr!"
[Haukr, Íslendingr, mælir]
Haukr: "Óláfr á bátinn."
[Óláfr kømr]
Óláfr: "Menn sé ek!"
Eiríkr ok Haukr: "Vit erum hér."
Óláfr: "Hvárt takið þit bátinn?"
Eiríkr ok Haukr: "Vit tökum hann eigi."
Óláfr: "Ormr heitir bátrinn. Ek á Orm"
[Eiríkr ok Haukr kalla]
E & H: "Úlfr! Úlfr! Þar er úlfr!"
Óláfr: "Úlfr? Ek hata úlfa!"
[Úlfr, Norðmaðr ok þjófr, kømr]
Óláfr: "Ek sé eigi úlf. Hvárt er hér úlfr?"
Úlfr: "Hér em ek, Óláfr konungr."
[Eiríkr, Haukr ok Úlfr taka bátinn ok flýja]
Óláfr: "Þjófar! Ek hata þjófa!"
E, H & Ú: "Vér erum víkingar, vér höfum bát er heitir Ormr!"
[Eric, a thief and a viking, sees Serpent, a boat which Olaf owns]
Eric: "There's a boat!"
[Hawk, an Icelander, speaks]
Hawk: "Olaf has the boat."
[Olaf arrives]
Olaf: "I see people!"
Eric and Hawk: "Here are the two of us."
Olaf: "Are you taking the boat?"
Eric and Hawk: "We two are not taking it."
Olaf: "The boat is called Serpent. I own Serpent."
[Eric and Hawk shout]
E & H: "Wolf! Wolf! There's [a] wolf!"
Olaf: "[A] wolf? I loathe wolves!"
[Wolf, a Norwegian and a thief, arrives]
Olaf: "I don't see [a] wolf. Is there [a] wolf here?"
Wolf: "Here I am, king Olaf!"
[Eric, Hawk and Wolf take the boat and flee]
Olaf: "Thieves! I hate thieves!"
E, H & W: "We're vikings, we've got a boat that's called Serpent!"
 This play is meant to stress the lack of an indefinite article in Old Norse.
Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Three
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson
1. Miscellany
1. Spelling
2. Grammar
1. Adjectives - indefinite form
2. Usage - accusative with infinitive
3. Usage - auxiliary verbs
4. The masculine article
3. Vocabulary
1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Conjunctions
4. Exercises
1. Translate the phrases into English
2. Translate the phrases into Old Norse
3. Translate the text into English
4. Translate the text into Old Norse
5. Looking at real texts
1. A strophe from the Völuspá
0. Miscellany
0.1 Spelling
When the Latin alphabet was introduced to write Old Norse the spelling used was not 
very consistent and not very precise. To improve readability the spelling of the 
preserved manuscripts is usually "corrected" in modern editions. For example, there 
are few manuscripts that distinguish between short and long vowels but this 
distinction is, as a rule, made now when Old Icelandic texts are published.
The spelling used in this course is the standardised spelling used in the "Íslenzk 
fornrit" edition of the sagas. That spelling, in turn, is based on suggestions from a 12th
century treatise called The First Grammatical Treatise, because it is the first of four in 
its manuscript.
There are two exceptions to this. What we here write as 'ö' should be an o with a tail 
and what we here write as 'oe' should be an oe-ligature. This is due to letter code 
difficulties.
1. Grammar
1.1 Adjectives - indefinite form
In Modern English an adjective, such as 'fresh' will have exactly the same form no 
matter what its grammatical context is. This was not so in Middle English. Let's look 
at a part of Chaucer's description of the Squire.
Embrouded was he, as it were a meede
Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and reede.
Syngynge he was, or floytynge, al þe day;
He was as fressh as is þe monþ of May.
We see that two forms of the same adjective occur; 'fressh' and 'fresshe'. The first 
form goes with 'he' and the second with 'floures'. We could guess, correctly, that the 
Middle English adjective has a plural ending of 'e'. We have more examples of this 
above. The flowers are 'whyte' and 'reede' whereas the meadow is 'ful' of them.
After this sidestep it should come as no surprise to you that in Old Norse adjectives 
have different forms depending on the number and case of the noun they describe. 
Their form also depends on the gender of the noun and whether it is definite or 
indefinite (explained below). The masculine indefinite declension is exemplified here.
Sg. Pl.
Nom. reiðr reiðir
Acc. reiðan reiða
The word 'reiðr' means 'angry'. As always you must memorise the table.
We will immediately give examples of the usage. Note that the adjective can come 
either in front of the noun or behind it. Both types of usage are natural.
Hér eru reiðir menn. Here are (some) angry people.
Hann sér reiðan mann. He sees an angry person.
Óláfr er maðr reiðr. Olaf is an angry person.
Note carefully, however, that ON has a separate declension for adjectives that apply to
nouns with a definite article. That is called the definite declension, while the one 
presented here is the indefinite. Be careful thus, not to use the forms above with a 
definite noun, for that is (under normal circumstances) wrong.
The definite declension of adjectives is not presented here yet, since it is modelled on 
a noun declension not yet introduced (the weak one); the indefinite forms above, 
however, are similar to the declensions of strong masculine nouns and various 
pronouns, all of which are being presented now. We will have to make do with only 
indefinite adjective forms for a while.
1.2 Usage - accusative with infinitive
Having learnt infinitive forms of verbs and accusative forms of some nouns, we're 
ready for a very useful sentence construction. First, let's take a look of the English 
equivalent.
I saw him come.
He sees it fly.
This construction, usually with a main verb meaning to see, watch, hear, feel, sense, 
etc, indicates that the subject sees/hears/senses the object performing an action, which 
is put into the infinitive form (without any marker). ON examples:
Ek sé Óláf konung koma. I see King Olaf come.