Originally published in 1927, and still available today, this introduction to the Old Norse language and literature was one of two texts that I used in my private reading during college. Although not a language officially offered at Oberlin, I was lucky enough to discover that the head of the German department had studied it, and to convince him to tutor me in the subject...

Gordon's work, revised and updated by A.R. Taylor in the second edition, takes a rather old-fashioned approach to language-learning, in that it presents students with a selection of pieces in the original language, and expects them to wade right in. Notes, glossary and grammatical outline are (of course) supplied at the rear of the text, but the idea is definitely to learn as one goes.

I do not think my studies would have prospered, if I had used this method alone, but thankfully I also had access to Valfells' and Cathey's excellent Old Icelandic An Introductory Course, which - when used in conjunction with Gordon - offered a coherent and fairly painless introduction to a complicated language. ( )