A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Dover Books on Language) (Paperback)

~ Geir T. Zoega (Author)

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Product Description

Modern Icelandic is closer to the speech patterns of the Middle Ages than any living European language. Thus, a knowledge of Icelandic is highly relevant to the study of English history. This volume, one of the most complete available, will be indispensable to scholars of medieval Icelandic and English culture and history.

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Product Details Paperback: 560 pages Publisher: Dover Publications (August 16, 2004) Language: English ISBN-10: 0486434311 ISBN-13: 978-0486434315 Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,025,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in this category: (What's this?) #85 in  Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Scandinavian

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	70% buy the item featured on this page: A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Dover Books on Language) 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
	13% buy Icelandic: Grammar, Text and Glossary 3.9 out of 5 stars (13) $24.69
	8% buy The Sagas of Icelanders: Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition 4.7 out of 5 stars (36) $14.96
	5% buy Teach Yourself Icelandic Complete Course Audiopack 4.5 out of 5 stars (15) $19.77

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5 Reviews 5 star:  (3) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A Needed Missing Piece, October 6, 2004 By  mick williams (Hampton, VA United States) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase The write stuff: Practically the only fault I can find is the lack of an English- Norse section, which would simplify things for novelists who want their Viking characters to sound authentic. Still, you can find a wealth of material in sample sentences. The more difficult of these are given English translations. Since it's a scholarly work, don't look for slang or very much colloquial speech. On the technical front: Standard format is followed, where vowel fusions, umlauts, etc. are presented at the end of their respective letter sections. Words beginning with such characters begin after the V section. Most useful is the separation of nominative from genitive forms. This makes wading through medieval readers much easier (the stated goal of the author). When you come upon an unfamiliar word--nowhere to be found in the reader's glossary--you can find it in the dictionary, whereupon you're directed to the root word for a full definition. For students: It's informative to compare modern Icelandic with Old Norse. For example, you'll find that "athugi" becomes the modern form "athygli". 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable!, November 13, 2006 By  Jason Fisher (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Zoëga's dictionary has been a classic in the field since it first appeared almost a century ago. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien knew the dictionary and had their own well-thumbed copies. Lewis mentions in his letters his great enjoyment in perusing "his Zoëga" at leisure, and Tolkien alludes to it as the "standard" in the preface to his Middle English Glossary. Also, the preeminent Old Norse scholar, William Craigie (also a mentor to Tolkien), assisted Zoëga with the manuscript and the proof-revisions. This is a terrific volume even for idle browsing -- you'll almost always discover some interesting word, compound, or cognate -- and it's absolutely indispensable to have at your side if you want to take a shot at reading the Old Norse literature in the original language. It even has a short grammatical outline at the end of the book. 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reference for students of Old Norse/Old Icelandic, March 26, 2006 By  abt1950 "abt1950" (usa) - See all my reviews This dictionary packs a lot of information into a relatively small space. Zoega is a condensation of the massive 1869-1874 Old Icelandic dictionary by Cleasby and Vigfusson. Since most students of Old Icelandic didn't have access to this work, for many years Zoega was pretty much the only game in town for English speakers. Now both it and Cleasby-Vigfusson are available online, but it's still nice to have a hard copy of Zoega in you hands while trying to figure out just what that weird idiomatic construction is supposed to mean. There is no formal grammar included here, but there are some vital charts at the back of the book that provide basic information about endings for nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. Zoega was originally published by Oxford University Press, and it's nice to see that Dover has decided to reprint it. Believe it or not, this dictionary is nearly one hundred years old! It's got a lot of staying power.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Classic in the field, for good reason In my studies of Old Norse, I have found Zoega's work to be entirely indispensable, and the ability t see the entire work online has not made my hard copy any less useful or... Read more Published 11 months ago by Chris Travers 4.0 out of 5 stars quite interesting I found this dictionary a good complement to the Icelandic to english dictionary/thesaurus that I also had bought. Read more Published 16 months ago by Joseph Millan Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (August 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486434311
• ISBN-13: 978-0486434315
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,025,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #85 in

  Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Scandinavian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Needed Missing Piece, October 6, 2004

By	mick williams (Hampton, VA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

The write stuff:
Practically the only fault I can find is the lack of an English-
Norse section, which would simplify things for novelists who
want their Viking characters to sound authentic. Still, you can
find a wealth of material in sample sentences. The more difficult
of these are given English translations. Since it's a scholarly
work, don't look for slang or very much colloquial speech.

On the technical front:
Standard format is followed, where vowel fusions, umlauts, etc.
are presented at the end of their respective letter sections.
Words beginning with such characters begin after the V section.
Most useful is the separation of nominative from genitive forms.
This makes wading through medieval readers much easier (the
stated goal of the author). When you come upon an unfamiliar
word--nowhere to be found in the reader's glossary--you can
find it in the dictionary, whereupon you're directed to the
root word for a full definition.

For students:
It's informative to compare modern Icelandic with Old Norse.
For example, you'll find that "athugi" becomes the modern
form "athygli".

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable!, November 13, 2006

By	Jason Fisher (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Zoëga's dictionary has been a classic in the field since it first appeared almost a century ago. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien knew the dictionary and had their own well-thumbed copies. Lewis mentions in his letters his great enjoyment in perusing "his Zoëga" at leisure, and Tolkien alludes to it as the "standard" in the preface to his Middle English Glossary. Also, the preeminent Old Norse scholar, William Craigie (also a mentor to Tolkien), assisted Zoëga with the manuscript and the proof-revisions. This is a terrific volume even for idle browsing -- you'll almost always discover some interesting word, compound, or cognate -- and it's absolutely indispensable to have at your side if you want to take a shot at reading the Old Norse literature in the original language. It even has a short grammatical outline at the end of the book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reference for students of Old Norse/Old Icelandic, March 26, 2006

By	abt1950 "abt1950" (usa) - See all my reviews

This dictionary packs a lot of information into a relatively small space. Zoega is a condensation of the massive 1869-1874 Old Icelandic dictionary by Cleasby and Vigfusson. Since most students of Old Icelandic didn't have access to this work, for many years Zoega was pretty much the only game in town for English speakers. Now both it and Cleasby-Vigfusson are available online, but it's still nice to have a hard copy of Zoega in you hands while trying to figure out just what that weird idiomatic construction is supposed to mean. There is no formal grammar included here, but there are some vital charts at the back of the book that provide basic information about endings for nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. Zoega was originally published by Oxford University Press, and it's nice to see that Dover has decided to reprint it. Believe it or not, this dictionary is nearly one hundred years old! It's got a lot of staying power.