Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader

Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader (the 2nd book in the Viking Language Series) immerses the learner in Old Norse and Icelandic. Readings include a wealth of Old Norse myths, legends, complete Icelandic sagas, poems of the Scandinavian gods, runic inscriptions. There is a large vocabulary and a full reference grammar. Selections from Old Norse and rune texts range from the doom of the gods at the final battle Ragnarok to descriptions of the dwarves’ gold and the ring that inspired Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and a host of modern fantasy.

Jesse Byock is Professor of Old Norse and Medieval Scandinavian Studies in the Scandinavian Section at UCLA (the University of California, Los Angeles). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. An archaeologist and specialist in Old Norse and the Viking Age, he is Professor at UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. In Iceland, he is the Director of the Mosfell Archaeological Project (MAP), excavating a Viking Age valley. The Mosfell excavations include a chieftain's hall, Christian and pagan burial sites, a conversion-age church, and a harbor from the first centuries of Iceland's Viking Age settlement. Prof. Byock also teaches at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands), where he is affiliated with the Department of History and the Programs in Medieval Icelandic and Viking Studies.