The want of a short and easy introduction to the study ofIcelandic has been felt for a long time--in fact, from the verybeginning of that study in England. The Icelandic Reader,edited by Messrs. Vigfusson and Powell, in the Clarendon PressSeries, is a most valuable book, which ought to be in the handsof every student; but it still leaves room for an elementaryprimer. As the engagements of the editors of the Reader wouldhave made it impossible for them to undertake such a work forsome years to come, they raised no objections to my proposal toundertake it myself. Meanwhile, I found the task was a moreformidable one than I had anticipated, and accordingly, beforedefinitely committing myself to it, I made one final attempt toinduce Messrs. Vigfusson and Powell to take it off my hands; butthey very kindly encouraged me to proceed with it; and as Imyself thought that an Icelandic primer, on the lines of myAnglo-Saxon one, might perhaps be the means of inducing somestudents of Old English to take up Icelandic as well, Idetermined to go on.
In the spelling I have not thought it necessary to adherestrictly to that adopted in the Reader, for the editors havethemselves deviated from it in their Corpus PoeticumBoreale, in the way of separating ǫ from ö, etc.My own principle has been to deviate as little as possible from thetraditional spelling followed in normalized texts. There is, indeed, nopractical gain for the beginner in writing tīme for tīmi,discarding ð, etc., although these changes certainly bring usnearer the oldest MSS., and cannot be dispensed with inscientific works. The essential thing for the beginner is tohave regular forms presented to him, to the exclusion, as faras possible, of isolated archaisms, and to have the defectivedistinctions of the MSS. supplemented by diacritics. I have nothesitated to substitute (¯) for (´) as the mark of length; thelatter ought in my opinion to be used exclusively--in Icelandicas well as in Old English and Old Irish--to represent the actualaccents of the MSS.
In the grammar I have to acknowledge my great obligations toNoreen's Altisländische Grammatik, which is by far the bestIcelandic grammar that has yet appeared--at least from thatnarrow point of view which ignores syntax, and concentratesitself on phonology and inflections.
The texts are intended to be as easy, interesting, andrepresentative as possible. With such a language, and such amaster of it as Snorri to choose from, this combination is notdifficult to realise. The beginner is indeed to be envied whomakes his first acquaintance with the splendid mythological talesof the North, told in an absolutely perfect style. As the deathof Olaf Tryggvason is given in the Reader only from the longerrecension of the Heimskringla, I have been able to give theshorter text, which is admirably suited for the purposes of thisbook. The story of Auðun is not only a beautiful one in itself,but, together with the preceding piece, gives a vivid idea of theNorse ideal of the kingly character, which was the foundation oftheir whole political system. As the Reader does not includepoetry (except incidentally), I have added one of the finest ofthe Eddaic poems, which is at the same time freest from obscurityand corruption--the song of Thor's quest of his hammer.
In the glossary I have ventured to deviate from the veryinconvenient Scandinavian arrangement, which puts þ,æ, œ, right at the end of the alphabet.