Learn to read Old Norse
Old Norse is the language of the Vikings and of medieval Iceland. It is the language of the sagas and the Eddas, and of inscriptions cut into stone from Sweden to the Black Sea trade routes.
Start reading Old Norse
Free, no account. Your first line takes about three minutes.
What Old Norse is like
English took many everyday words from Norse, including sky, egg, window and they, so some of it will feel oddly familiar. The grammar leans heavily on endings, and it has a habit you meet early: the word for “the” is glued onto the end of the noun.
You can read Odin's advice in Hávamál, the comedy of Thor dressed as a bride, Gunnar turning back in Njáls saga, and the runestones Vikings raised for their dead.
How Urling teaches it
- You start with a real line from a real text, in your first few minutes.
- Each lesson teaches the words that unlock more of a text you want to read.
- Short exercises rebuild real sentences, and words you miss come back later.
- Grammar comes as short notes when you meet it, not as a wall of tables first.
Famous texts to start with
- Hávamál: “Cattle die, kinsmen die”Hávamál stanzas 71-80 in Old Norse with translation, including the famous “Deyr fé, deyia frændr”. With word-by-word glosses and notes.
- Hávamál: Odin hangs on the treeHávamál stanzas 138-145 in Old Norse with translation: Odin hangs nine nights on the windy tree and wins the runes.
- The opening of Hávamál in Old NorseThe first ten stanzas of Hávamál, the sayings of Odin, in the original Old Norse with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
- Thor's stolen hammer in Old NorseThe opening of Þrymskviða, the comic poem about the theft of Thor's hammer, in the original Old Norse with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
- “Fair is the hillside”, from Njáls sagaThe most famous moment in the Icelandic sagas, Gunnar's choice at Hlíðarendi, in the original Old Norse with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
New to the grammar? Read the short guide to Old Norse grammar.
The letters
Editors spell Old Norse in slightly different ways, so you will meet the same word with small changes between texts. Urling points these out as they come up.
| þ | th, as in thin |
| ð | th, as in this |
| á | a, as in father |
| é | ay, as in say |
| í | ee, as in see |
| ó | o, as in go |
| ú | oo, as in moon |
| ý | ee with rounded lips |
| æ | a, as in bad, held long |
| ǫ | o, as in not |
| ø | e with rounded lips |
| ö | like ǫ or ø |
| œ | ø held long |
| j | y, as in yes |
Also in the course
The course has 44 texts in all, including:
- Gods dressing Thor up as Freyja
- How the giant's bride eats an ox and gets her hammer back
- Grettir waiting for the ghost Glámr
- Grettir wrestling the ghost Glámr
- Glámr's curse on Grettir
- Hávamál on ale and the greedy man
- Hávamál on fools, friends and mockers
- Hávamál on guests, friends and home
- Hávamál on gifts, friendship and the lonely fir
- Hávamál on being moderately wise
- Hávamál on living well
- Hávamál's "Praise the day at evening"
Start reading Old Norse
Free, no account. Your first line takes about three minutes.