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Jules William Press

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

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“Viking Language 1 - Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas” 2nd upgraded edition. Everything necessary to learn or teach Old Norse, runes, and sagas. Graded lessons, saga readings, runic inscriptions, grammar exercises, pronunciation, maps, history sections, student grammar guide, and vocabulary teach Old Norse, Vikings, Iceland, old Scandinavia, myth and legends. --- Download FREE ANSWER KEY-- Now available, two audio MP3 download OLD NORSE PRONUNCIATION ALBUMS ”VIKING LANGUAGE 1: AUDIO LESSONS 1-8: (Pronounce Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas)” and Audio Lessons 9-15." Search “Viking Language audio lessons” under Amazon “all departments” and “MP3 music.” Also Itunes and CDbaby. -- VISITand oldnorse.org for information on “Viking Language Series” and sample audio readings -- Now available, “Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader” with complete sagas, poems of Scandinavian gods, heroes, Old Norse runes, and vocabulary. Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Multilingual edition (January 1, 2017)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 364 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1480216445


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 40


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.82 x 10 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #112,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #44 in Medieval Literary Criticism (Books) #276 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books) #293 in Foreign Dictionaries & Thesauruses


#44 in Medieval Literary Criticism (Books):


#276 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • A gem in a rarefied field of study
I am a language teacher (Chinese and Latin) who am teaching myself Old Norse. Dr. Jesse Byock's "Viking Language 1" (VL-1) is a wonderful textbook for learning Old Norse (ON) on your own, though it is completely suitable for classroom use. The textbook is extremely user-friendly and is especially so for those who would like to study ON on their own but do not have a background in foreign languages, old or modern. The book takes the student through carefully thought-out steps with detailed explanations of both grammar and vocabulary. Earlier texts (e.g., Sweet's Primer of Old Icelandic, and even E. V. Gordon's "Old Norse") are often difficult for the modern learner, assuming a knowledge of basic linguistics (which can no longer be assumed) or a familiarity with German or some inflected language. Certainly a knowledge of another language is very helpful (I have a comfortable familiarity with Old English and know Latin well, and have studied a bit of modern German), but Dr. Byock's book is eminently suitable for both the experienced linguist as well for an absolute beginner in the language. With the patience that is needed for the study of any language, the student should make good progress in the study of this beautiful and fascinating language. The selections introduced for reading are interesting (and fun!), and each chapter is interspersed with history, word study, and fascinating facts about Viking culture, including maps. I personally enjoy this sort of holistic approach to language learning where vocabulary, grammar, history and culture are woven together, greatly increasing the high-interest content and presenting the language in its real-world setting. The exercises are good, and there is a fine glossary at the back of the book. This makes for a quality textbook at a very affordable price. As others have mentioned, I highly recommend buying "Viking Language 2" to accompany VL-1, giving the student a solid grounding in ON and providing a wide variety of reading material. I have found that VL-2 makes excellent supplementary reading even while working through VL-1 and provides wonderful opportunities for gauging one's progress and achieving a sense of accomplishment, two things which increase the enjoyment of language study. One thing I especially appreciate is Dr. Byock's use of word-frequency lists such as those found in Mounce's Greek texts. He shows how a relatively small number of words accounts for the lion's share of words one encounters in actual reading. These lists occur in each chapter and are separate from the vocabulary lists given for the reading passages, which are necessarily longer (though the two lists overlap). The introduction of the most frequently used ON words at regular intervals is immensely helpful. In addition, the vocabulary given for the reading sections is very manageable in itself. These lists are not overlong (as vocabulary often tends to be in far too many language textbooks, something which can discourage any learner). Since the reading selections for each chapter are not long, the student really learns the vocabulary in context, by FAR the best way to fix it in the memory. And by learning in small chunks the most frequently used ON words, rapid progress can be made which is so helpful in maintaining the student's interest. A word about ON vocabulary. If your English vocabulary is good (and even better, if you know some German or---however unlikely---Old English [Anglo-Saxon]), the number of cognate words is extremely high (these are, after all, members of the same linguistic family), and the student can make progress even faster. None of that is necessary, of course, to learn and enjoy ON, but it does facilitate mastery of both vocabulary and grammar. As to pronunciation, a guide is given (rather oddly, in an appendix towards the back of the book rather than at the beginning) which enables the student to learn either the reconstructed ON pronunciation or the modern Icelandic pronunciation (for those with an eye to learning the latter as well). There are also accompanying MP3 files for help with this. The pronunciation segments of these are especially helpful for those new to a language such as ON. The readings are good but read by a native Icelandic speaker at natural speed, which can seem very fast to the beginner but which, with exposure, becomes more manageable in time. The Viking Language series is a very attractive and welcome set of textbooks, and from what I have seen, by far the most user-friendly to newcomers to any language. Highly, highly recommended! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2022 by RA
    • Quality
My son loves his book!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2023 by APRIL D Decker
    • A dream book for language nuts
John McWhorter uses the phrase "bristling morphology" to label languages like Old Norse. You like ending? O.N. has 'em. (BTW, 'em is the Old English form of the word 'them', borrowed from O.N., not a contraction). Let me just list the features I like - I took a course in O.N. with a buddy and we still talk about what a great course it was having nothing to do with anything else we were studying. We affectionately call it our "Old Norse Course." Nothing is neglected. A good excursion into runes will delight some readers. Most interesting to me whose interest lies in language learning and teaching (SLA) is the approach to vocabulary: to go by word frequency in presenting it. Along with carefully crafted samples of O.N., explanations of how the poetry worked as well as an immense amount of cultural and historical background abound to give it all context. That background is filled out with good illustrations in pen and ink, photos, diagrams, maps, including those that clarify the linguistic background of O.N. in Indo-European linguistic and cultural history. And not just history but contemporary mates of O.N. in Modern Icelandic. The list goes on. Pronunciation is presented which is necessary to appreciate the poetry and the prose because of the many epics represented in O.N. An example of cultural background is that naming practices are explained, a topic that each culture tends to treat uniquely (cf. Spanish, Russian, Korean, etc.). And for those besotted by all this, there are follow up books! Purchase with confidence. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2021 by Patrick Barrett
    • A solid textbook, albeit with some typos
I have had a very solid experience working through this book so far. The text is aimed at a beginner not just to learning Old Norse, but to someone unfamiliar with the time period as well. The pace is a little slower because of this, especially because the author includes a lot of cultural context for the language and readings. Grammar explanations cover not only ON grammar, but also explain grammar for those unfamiliar with English structure. That being said, I think the explanations still might be a little bit difficult to follow for someone with absolutely no prior knowledge of the vocabulary used to talk about grammar (for example, what declensions are and what the role of each case is). I've had a lot of experience with Latin, so it's hard for me to be totally objective on the difficulty. I would say that if you have had prior language experience, the pace might be a little leisurely, but personally I only have a little bit of time to study ON everyday, so it hasn't been an issue at all. The dictionary in the back of the book is only ON to English, so if you want to look up words that haven't been presented yet in a lesson, you'll have a tough time. I do wonder at how thoroughly edited the book is. I've found multiple (though not frequent) typos so far, including one incorrect answer in the answer key posted online. I've found one instance of a word mentioned in a lesson not being included in the dictionary in the back. There are also occasional formatting issues. For example, many exercises are formatted into columns, and occasionally you'll find an instance where you have exercise 1 and 6 at the bottom of the page, and you have to flip to see 2-5 and 7-10. I've seen a reading similarly formatted, requiring you to flip to the next page in the middle of the text. Sometimes the word glosses for readings are also split and pushed onto the next page. None of these have been deal breakers for me, but it is certainly annoying to have to flip back and forth. Overall, as someone with a lot of language experience and not a ton of time for going through exercises everyday, this book has been great. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2017 by A.G.
    • Good intro to culture, but the language part is confusing
I just finished working my way through this book, and there was a lot I really liked about it. The Old Norse reading selections were interesting, and so was the background reading (in English) about Norse history and society. Dr. Byock included sections about his own archeological research which added a lot. The language sections could have been organized, written and paced better. For example, it takes a long time before you find out how to put together a simple subject - present-tense verb - object sentence. I was so confused by the third chapter that I put this book aside and found a website that went over this type of basic grammar in an organized way, then came back and started over. After that, the grammar made more sense, and everything went along fine until the last couple chapters. At that point, the grammatical information got a lot more condensed and rushed, with explanations of complicated ideas that were much too short, sometimes with no complete sample conjugations, and example texts that were hard to follow. Here's an example of what I mean: In the Lesson 15 we go over subjunctive middle voice verbs strong and weak verbs, both past and present tense. And yeah, most of us have no idea going in what that even means, so we could really use some help! Yet the explanatory text for this is less than half a page long, including two example verbs (one strong, one weak). This is followed by a page of usage examples, which sounds helpful, except that the examples are complicated and have a LOT going on in them besides the grammatical idea being illustrated: words we haven't encountered yet (and which are not listed in the vocabulary at the back of the book), unfamiliar idiomatic expressions, parts of the sentence that are understood but not stated in words. The examples are real sentences taken from sagas, which is kind of cool in theory, but in practice makes it hard to focus on the idea they're supposed to illustrate. Old Norse grammar is complicated enough! Despite some reservations, I would still recommend this book for learning Old Norse independently, but I'd suggest using other resources at the same time. Dr. Jackson Crawford's YouTube channel and https://notendur.hi.is/haukurth/norse/olessons/lessons.html are useful, and of course the Viking Language website, which has an answer key for the exercises. I'd also recommend getting a dictionary and the Viking Language 2 book (which is a reader) right off the bat. The readings in the first few chapters of VL2 dovetail nicely with the presentation in book 1, and the second book also has a more complete reference grammar and vocabulary section at the back of the book. Unfamiliar vocabulary and unexplained bits of grammar also crop up in the exercises, so try not to get frustrated. Also, watch out for typos, which get more frequent as the book goes on. As just one example, the conjugation of GEFA in the chart on page 265 is incorrect. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2018 by Catherine Douglas
    • Excellent Resource and best available option
Edit: The answer key has now been made available on the publisher's website, so I have adjusted my rating accordingly and the review below should be considered in that light. Thank you Professor Byock! I have been reading Professor Byock's work on the Vikings since college, so needless to say, I was delighted to see this course made available, in my case for self study. I am now two chapters into the book, and I think it incorporates a wonderful strategy and method and has tremendous potential. However, I have two criticisms that prevent this from being a 5 star purchase: the first is that the answer key really needs to be made available *now.* I understand that perhaps the book is intended for college courses and oftentimes the answer key is presented in a "teacher's only" reader, but for those of us doing self-study, it is absolutely crippling and seriously hampers the ability to use the book effectively. It's boggling to my mind that they would release this book at all without making the key available as a download on the website. I believe the intention is to have the key in Viking Reader 2, which I would be happy to buy, but it is not available and may not be for quite some time. The two books should have been published simultaneously. My advice if your are considering purchasing this book is to wait until the Viking Language 2 book comes out. My second criticism of this course is that the audio accompaniment, which you will have to pay for separately, is very fast and not terribly user friendly. It is not read in such a way that it is useful for a student unfamiliar with Icelandic and very difficult to emulate or to parse in accompaniment with the reading. All in all, this is still however the best option on the market for learning Old Norse! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2013 by S. Dondershine
    • 5 stars for a reason
Despite the book obviously being for Old Norse learners, I dare to claim the book perfectly fit for a new student of modern Icelandic as well. I've looked through many, many Icelandic books and nothing has taught me the grammar in as sensible a way as the Old Norse in this book. And while learning modern speech is useful, I find it much easier to get a grasp of the language through more formal writing before I jump into colloquialisms. The book has little tidbits on why some of the grammar is the way it is (vestigial things from before Viking times) that I really enjoyed coming across. It is also very fun to compare the differences, when they do arise, between the Norse and my knowledge of modern Icelandic. I cannot really comment on the vocabulary approach because I already know most of the words, but the idea itself seems good. I am enjoying the reading excerpts especially because they source from many things, not just the Íslendingasögur which I'm more familiar with. And I hadn't ever dipped my toes into reading runes. I have not downloaded the audio because it strikes me as unimpressive. I really wanted to hear the excerpts in Old Norse pronunciation. I can hear modern Icelandic from many sources already. On the other hand, this is another nod to it being fit for modern Icelandic learners too. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2015 by Anonymous
    • Perfect guide to near perfect Old Norse!
This book is a truly marvellous tool for learning Old Norse. It has it all: history lessons, maps, runic alphabet lessons and translations, the whole nine yards. I would caution those who are thinking of buying it to be aware of a couple of small things, however, before making their purchase. There is an MP3 audio set that does NOT come with this product. I will tell you that is almost essential, for those who have no access to native Icelandic speakers, to learn the pronunciations effectively. The lady who does the speaking, though, does so a mile-a-minute. It is still, I feel, almost a necessity if you're truly thinking of immersing yourself in the language. The appendix of this book, also, has some information that I feel would have been best introduced in the beginning of the book (e.g., vowel and consonant pronunciation guides, etc.) to better facilitate learning the language. The second installment of the series deals with direct translating and should be bought upon completion of this material. I hope this review was helpful! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2016 by Lawson

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