3 comments about Absolution: A Novel.

1. "For I fear death, I am afraid of the end, the nothingness and perplexity."

   Peter Peterson a wealthy businessman and wine connossieur from Iceland is tormented living out his last days in New York. Besides the fear that his undeserving children will acquire his estate, there is his repetitive obsession with a crime of passion he believes he committed sometime back in his youth in Denmark. This crime brings him constant nightmares and cold sweats in his awakening and sleeping hours for they never leave him.

   His constant companion is his Cambodian girlfriend who takes care of him, does all the chores and hardly leaves his side. This is a touching story that will keep Mr. Olafsson's fans on the brink of anxiety.

   Lovers of Olaf Olafsson should not miss this beautiful novel which I believe is his first book... Grab it now. And I would also like to recommend Walking Into The Night by the same author.
   Heather Marshall 2/3/04




2. The thin story contained in this slim novel is contained in a rather lame and unnecessary framing device. A translator is asked by a lawyer friend to skim a handwritten manuscript and tell him if it has any bearing on an estate the lawyer is executor for. The translator is soon drawn into the confessional memoir of wealthy New York businessman Peter Peterson. This could have stood on its own, and the introduction of the translator only creates clutter in getting to the meat of the matter. The memoir is the work of a dying man, wealthy in a material sense, but spiritually bereft (quite the cliche). An Icelandic emigre during World War II, he spent the following 50 or so years manipulating people, accumulating wealth, becoming a wine connoisseur, playing out a loveless marriage over three decades, fathering two children he can summon little (if any) warmth or feeling toward, and generally greeting his fellow man with a skeptical eye. This final document of his life is split between reminisces on these aspects of his life and his desire for absolution in the matter of a crime he committed as a young man during the war in Denmark.
   
   The gradual revelation of this crime is the main element of suspense in the book, as the events leading up to it are sparingly and exactly doled out. These also help to partially explain why he became the distasteful and misanthropic adult he describes himself as being. About halfway through, it becomes clear what the crime is, and why it causes his nightmares at the end of his life. The other element of suspense is derived from the "will he or won't he" question of whether he will reach out to and possibly reconcile with his son before dying. Peterson is not a likeable character and for much of the book it's hard to care about him or the decisions that have led to him living friendless and alone with a Cambodian housekeeper. His boyhood years in Reykjavik are idyllic enough, but his entire character is then formed out of a single betrayal in his late teens. Ultimately, one is hard-pressed to care too much about what happens to a man who has managed to inflict so much pain on those close to him over the course of his life. There is a twist ending which is reminiscent of someone like Roald Dahl, but it's not enough to save the book.



3. Peter Peterson is an embittered man. He is mistrustful towards his son Helgi and his daughter Gudrun because he thinks that they are after his money. Now an elderly man he is confronted with the memories of his life. He was brought up in the gentry quarter of Reykjavik, followed his first love to Copenhagen during the Second World War and then went to live to New York.
   Time and again he remembers what he calls his "little crime" but this remains a mystery until the end of the novel. Like a murderer compelled to visit the site of his crime because he feels that his first love was clouded by betrayal and a harrowing revenge which poisoned his soul for the rest of his life. Did Peter Petersen really betray anybody? Who was the victim of his revenge?
   Excellently written with a carefully engineered plot, the reader is pulled into the story - with its numerous flashbacks which are interwoven into the present day - until the very end.

5 comments about An Introduction to Old Norse.

1. G.V. Gordon's book is an excellent introduction to the Old Norse Language. It explains the intricacies of Norse grammar lucidly, and is very easy to work with. The fact that one cannot obtain it here, is really unfortunate; however, on the positive side, I know for a fact that at least one other major internet site has it.



2. Please don't send away 30 dollars thinking that this book is going to teach you to read Old Norse / Old Icelandic. If you're hoping for a basic grammar, with graded lessons, you're going to be disappointed. This is an excellent work, an indispensable work, but it's a reader for those who have already learned the basics of Old Icelandic.

   After a brief introduction to Scandinavian history, the Viking expansion, and saga literature, the author gives about 160 pages of West Norse, normalized into classical Icelandic. Most of the selections are from the sagas, and they are well annotated, and a full vocabulary is included in the back of the book. There is also a section on what he calls "East Norse" (the Old Norse particular to Denmark, Norway and Sweden), and a small section dealing with the language of the runic inscriptions.

   There is a 40 or 50 page section where he presents the grammar, but it's more along the lines of an outline of the grammar. It's sufficient for someone who already has a good knowledge of Old English, OHG, or Gothic, but my hat's off to anyone with the determination to acquire a reading knowledge of the language from this grammatical sketch alone.

   There's the rub: where DO you get the introduction to Old Icelandic that will enable you to use this book with benefit? The superb learning grammar "Old Icelandic: an Introductory Course" by Valfells and Cathey is out of print. Kenneth Chapman wrote "Graded Readings and Exercises in Old Icelandic" about 35 years ago, but that's disappeared as well. Until either of those works is reprinted, or a new introduction is written, it's going to be tough.

   But none of this is meant to take anything away from Gordon's work; it's a wonderful, scholarly work. Problem is, you really do need to have something of a background before you use it.




3. This is a very nice book and the one we used in my Old Norse class at BYU, and the selections are all very good, very interesting. However, I agree with the reviewer that this is, despite the title, hardly the best introdruction to the language.

   What I recommend is this: Get yourself Stefán Einarsson's fine book, "Icelandic: Grammar, Texts, Glossary", which is set up in lessons for the beginner and which you can get real cheap here at Amazon. That book is modern Icelandic, so the readings aren't about Egill Skallagrímsson or Snorri's Edda, but not only is the Old Norse spirit very much alive in modern Iceland (and all the people very familiar with the old stories), but the language has changed extraordinarily little in the last thousand years (very very minor things), so that if you learn modern Icelandic even reasonably well (which you will from Einarsson), you can easily pick up the sagas with no problem.

   Then, when you've finished with his book, you can get Gordon, which will be much more enjoyable then. Alternatively, you can get the texts of lots of the sagas online from Icelandic sites and get hardcopy English versions here at Amazon to use as "ponies". (Hrafnkels saga is a good one to start with, or Snorra Edda.) Good luck!




4. Man, this book was something I'd been searching for. I am one of the self taught speakers of Old Icelandic, and it's not like there is a whole lot of Runic inscriptions to be translated in Richmond Virginia. Rather then allowing my Old Icelandic skills to sit their and gather dust on a shelf in my skull, I now have something to read!



5. It seems like this book has been around forever. It was first published in 1927 and for many years was the only English language resource for learning Old Icelandic. But that didn't mean that Gordon made the process easy. There are no basic lessons of the "Helgi is a Viking. See Helgi loot" type that you normally expect to find in an introductory language text. On the contrary, Gordon provides the grammar and vocabulary all right--at the end of the book--but it's up to the user to apply them to the wide selection of classic Norse literature that he's included. It's not an impossible way to learn the language, but it can be confusing at first. Those who have a background in Old English will find it easier going because of the similarities between the two languages.

   Gordon was the text my class used many years ago when I took Old Norse in grad school. I still remember my professor pointing out all its inaccuracies and criticizing the author. Nonetheless, between Gordon, Zoega's dictionary (now available online), and a xerox of "Gunnlaug's Saga," we muddled through. Learning a language by parsing each word is tedious, but it does give one a sense of accomplishment.

   In addition to the grammar and literary selections, Gordon contains a lengthy historical introduction to Old Norse literature. It's out-of-date by now, but still a good place to start. As for the selections themselves, they provide a fairly broad overview. "Hrafnkel's Saga," a gem of a character study, is given in its entirety. There are selections from Snorri and from the Vinland sagas, among other pieces. The only complaint that I have is that Gordon is a little light on the poetry. The humorous "Thrymskvida" (sorry about the spelling) and "The Waking of Angantyr," an eerie little piece not included in the standard eddic canon, are the major poems.

   Whether or not you use Gordon as your primary grammar, its selection of litearture makes it a worthy companion for the student of Old Icelandic. My copy is now battered and missing its spine, but it still has a place on my bookshelf.

No comments about Talk Now! Learn Icelandic.

1 comments about Berlitz Scandinavian Phrase Book & Dictionary (Berlitz Phrase Books).

1. This is a handy pocket sized phrase book that is very handy to communicate the very basics. If you want to get in depth with the language this is not for you. If you want to learn a few basic phrases then this is for you. Many people spoke my native language in Scandinavia which made it easier to get by with the many interactions I dealt with but it was fun to make attempts at learning some of the languages. Have a go at it. Fun Stuff!

2 comments about Valentines.

1. Valentines by Olaf Olafsson is an enveloping compilation of love stories. Intriguing tales of tested and true love are masterfully told with minimal dialog. Every character is believable, yet not so fictional as to seem unreal. They are husbands and wives, bachelors and best friends. The type of folks you meet for coffee on a Saturday morning.
   
   In chapter one we meet a bachelor returning from Iceland. His flight home to Chicago is delayed by a snowstorm, so he reconnects with an old flame on a chilly January night. In following chapters we meet three couples who struggle to stay together. Circumstances stretch their boundaries of honesty, faithfulness and acceptance.
   
   Each vignette is set during a month of the calendar year. Just when you think the stories begin to warm, the shock of a family's tragedy and an unpredictable revelation inflict cold heartache on Olafsson's characters-and you want to reach out and ease their pain.
   
   We walk alongside vacationing couples as they question their own desires and devotion, ultimately choosing to remain with their mates. In contrast to society's swiftness to dispose of relationships that no longer make us happy, these are inspiring stories.
   
   A misunderstanding between best friends is redeemed after several years and a few glasses of wine. A family deals with the dark side of a recovering alcoholic and his relationship to his grown daughter. Add his ex-wife and granddaughter and you have a cocktail with an unexpected finish.
   
   Memorable, poignant, and heartfelt describe Olafsson's style in this work of fiction. Chapter endings are true to life because realistically the impressions of others linger forever. Like the sweetness of a gentle word in seasons of despair, Valentines is a welcome gift any day of the year.
   
   Armchair Interviews agrees.



2. Each story about love in Olaf Olafsson's Valentines begins innocently. The world Olafsson portrays in language without pretense is not a forbidding one. The people he creates for his world aren't incorrigible villains, just regular human beings who do the best they can. But along comes some critical fulcrum for change to test these regular folks and -- oops -- they stumble and fall. In each of the twelve tales -- named after the months of the year -- someone seizes up like a frozen machine gear.
   
   One of men in Valentines, for example, seeks out an old girlfriend after many years, marriage on his mind. But when she confides in him and pleads with him to do something for her, he makes her a rash promise. Can he keep it?
   
   Then there is the Icelandic couple, Margret and Oskar, who take their son, Jonas, to a lake cabin. Oskar and the boy go out on the water in a boat to fish one evening, and before they pack it in, the father gives in to Jonas' wheedling and does some hot-dogging with the little craft. They overturn and are dumped into frigid waters. Margret, horrified, watches what happens from the cabin window and, later, takes opportunity where she may to deal Oskar a blow of vengeance for what he failed to do while struggling in the icy waves.
   
   In "June," a humiliated son-in-law learns a sexual secret about his wife's widowed father; he doesn't keep it to himself and one humiliation is traded for another.
   
   In "July," photographer Magnus Thor feels his career has atrophied, and he longs to recapture the magic of his early photo shoots. But when it comes to a young, nubile model, Magnus and his wife, Inga, don't agree on how much creative license he's allowed.
   
   And a raw tale about the frightful costs alcoholism can exact tells of a man who isn't sure he wants his wife to wake from a coma if it means she will find out what his relapsed drinking wrought.
   
   Anyone seeking spare, focused stories that reveal cracks in the human psyche and the delicate nature of love is encouraged to pick up Valentines. The people Olafsson "follows around" are flawed in the way we all are, and every time a new "month" turns up, the reader will likely keep fingers crossed that this time, the characters will deviate from the path that leads to regret and heartache. Hope does spring eternal for most of us...but in this volume, Olafsson has other ideas....
   
   Here's hoping the literary world receives many more short stories from this talented author who also pens novels.

5 comments about Colloquial Icelandic: The Complete Course for Beginners.

1. This book is OK as a VERY basic introduction to Icelandic. You learn the word for "coach" (ruta) before yes and no. Also, the exercises are short and insignificant. When you learn about declensions (probably the most important aspect of Icelandic grammar), all the book has is a long paragraph, a HUGE graph (with vauge footnotes "There is a subgroup of masculine nouns which has -ir instead of -ar in the nominitive plural and -i in the accusative plural". No hint of these words), and one, measly fill in the blank activity.
   
   This is good if you want to become vaugely acquainted witht the language, or if you just want to learn a few phrases. For the serious Icelandic student, get the Teach Yourself book.



2. I just started and I really like how the book is laid out and easy to understand. Other books are fairly complicated and nonsensical to me. Since I have no intention of writing in Icelandic, this is a great book because it covers all the important conversational topics.
   
   However, I wish there was more on the CDs. The tracks did not announce what lesson/page they were referring to so it made it confusing if you picked track 15 and needed to know what page it referred to. Also, it would be helpful if there were more tracks with more conversations. I agree with a couple other users who mentioned the lack coverage on declensions (cuz I had no idea what they were till now).
   
   The best part is that the exercises in the book have the answers! Some of my language books have exercises but no answers. At least Daisy got this right.
   
   If you want to speak Icelandic and read a bit, I definitely recommend this book.



3. This book does a pretty good job of introducing a rather difficult language---my wife and I moved to Iceland a year ago and we have been using this book as part of our learning process. No textbook can make one master a language, of course, but this is a reasonable overview of how teo introduce yourself, order food, and pick out some items from the newpaper. However, I must second the suggestion that the book needs a thorough explanation of elisions----the connection of sounds typical in everyday speech. English speakers do this also; terminal "t" often becomes a "d", as in "....what are we doing now?" Anyway, the peculiarities of daily Icelandic pronunciation deserve a at least a mention, and not least because the excellent native speakers on the CD make no bones about going slowly for the foreigners.
   Secondly, some reviewers (and Daisy Neijmann herself) have mentioned that once you have mastered (!) Icelandic, you can "appreciate the sagas in their original form." That is rather hyperbolic; not many contemporary Icelanders can understand the original texts of the sagas. The ancient language in which, for example, Snorri Sturluson (author of Egils saga) spoke and wrote,was much harder and crisper, and since then many consonant sounds have softened; i.e. terminal "k" is now written and sounded as terminal "g"; the names "Haraldr" and "Eírikr" and now rendered both in speech and writing with and additional vowel----Haraldur and Eírikur. My point is that the suggestion that a non-native speaker upon completing his study of Colloquial Icelandic can strait proceed to the original saga texts is rather far-fetched. Icelanders today often read a modern translation of them, in the same way that it is quite difficult to understand the original Chaucer.
   Those two points aside, this a fine book, and helpful for anyone who plans for a stay in Iceland. If you're just going to Reykjavík for a party, don't bother.



4. The Icelandic language has a complex morphology that requires some dedicated study in order to master. And this book does a decent job of introducing elements of the language through engaging topics about daily life.
   
   The two CD recordings, however, have some disappointing quirks:
   
   1. The publishers have added fairly noisy sound effects of background commotion to the CD recordings such as those that you would find in airports, fuzzy telephone lines, and other crowded public places; the logic most likely being that we sometimes encounter background noises when we are trying to communicate, so why not make us learn the pronunciation with this same kind of interference. The result is that the sounds of Icelandic are presented in a muffled and indistinct way on the CD. It would be more logical to use the recordings to present the sounds of the language in the purest way possible during the learning phase so that the listener might stand a chance of acquiring them. I cannot imagine a classroom teacher bringing in recorded sound effects to play during class time. We have enough practice in listening to background noises in real life without having them manufactured and thrown at us during our learning phase of a language.
   
   2. There is a lot of English on the CD recordings. First of all, every Icelandic conversation has a lengthy, detailed presentation of the setting in English. Second, the Icelandic conversations are often interrupted with bits of advice such as "Now see whether you can understand the name of the company that the speaker will mention next" or "Try to understand the numbers in the next sentence." This kind of information could easily be included in the textbook or in an accompanying flyer. There is no way of blocking this interference; and after multiple listenings, when a listener might like to hear only the spoken Icelandic, the listener is forced to hear the presentations and the interruptions repeatedly.
   
   3. It should also be noted that the Icelandic phonemes are presented once, and the dialogues are presented at a normal rate of speech by the speakers. This is probably neither good nor bad, but if you prefer to listen to slower-paced Icelandic while learning the sounds, the recordings will disappoint you.
   
   With the background noises, the introductions, and the interruptions removed, the recordings could be a satisfactory adjunct to the textbook.



5. Take a crappy introductory book and just read it aloud and it is still crappy. Skip this one.

5 comments about Icelandic: Grammar, Text and Glossary.

1. The good points first:

   - Very complete. Everything is included in a huge grammar.
   - Lots of readings. Not just the sagas, not just the everyday dialogues - actually, you get a lot of both.
   - quite a lot of exercises.
   - much better than the OTHER book. (which, I believe, you should have as well.)
   - a glossary so large that it would cost about the same if you were to buy it separately.
   - where else do you get 500+ excellent pages for this price?

   However, this book is not written the way you would expect it. Of course, it is about as old as my grandmother. For starters:

   - A topical index and a bibliography at the very BEGINNING of the book.

   - A rather thorough and very technical grammar before any introductory exercises. (Yes, I know, it says right after the preface that the absolute beginner should start by the exercises, but it is not very usual to start a book on page 181)

   - No discussion of vowel changes before a lot of exercises where they are needed. "Teach yourself" has the same problem. However, it is not something easy to explain, but future authors should at least try to either discuss each vowel shift just before it is needed or to use as few as possible in the first exercises.

   - You need a good memory. As an example, in order to go through the first group of exercises, you have to memorize (I couldn't do it in any other way) 6 different forms of the verb to be, about 40 different pronoun forms and about 12 different kinds of endings for nouns. Of course, no one said it was going to be easy. Icelandic has three genders, four cases and a huge amount of different verb forms... but this is HARD.

   - An old-looking rather small font that makes you read slower than on a modern book. Besides, it does not have a lot of white space. Pages are thick with text. This gives you the impression that you are going very slowly.




2. Just so you know this book is as colloquial as you can get. It is worth every penny i spent on it. Information & all. Icelandic text is hard to find, but as of this moment to the next Liguist around will help bring more and more products to the states. trust me i have searched, Here and there THis site has good material to start with. Very precise for the retentive.



3. I begin with telling this is not a book for beginners. To grab the basics, buy Daisy L. Neijmann's Colloquial Icelandic. After you have completed that, this book will become your ultimate authority on this difficult but beautiful language. The reason for that is, this book assumes you have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of language in general, needed for learning the Icelandic language as well. The Colloquial Icelandic book introduces you this very gradually, whereas it is presented in bigger fragments in Stefán Einarsson's book.
   The book is: very good-looking, very thick, very complete. However, is also very old (written around the second world war), so for newer words, you have to look elsewhere. This said, its biggest impediment is also its biggest advantage: everything is presented in a very thorough way (like only could have been done long ago), accompanied by beautiful pictures of various texts and exercises.
   The book has been devided in various parts, and not in chapters:

   ---------------------------------------------------
   1) INTRODUCTION (page I - XXVII)
   * preface
   * preface to the second edition
   * how to use the book
   * topical index
   * bibliography
   * abbreviations
   * contents
   * list of illustrations

   The target of the introduction is to learn how to use the book. Everything is well done here, but it's a pity that the bibliography does almost only mention books that are out of print.
   ---------------------------------------------------
   2) GRAMMAR AND TEXTS (page 1 - 293)

   * contents of grammar
   * grammar
   * texts I
   * texts II

   This is of course the actual heart of the book. The grammar is build up of three parts: pronunciation, inflexions, and syntax. The pronunciation is very profound and every possible sound is mentioned. The inflexions teach the possible forms of ANY wordtype (and is therefore very valuable), while the syntax focusses on WHEN everything is used, and also explains what "cases" are, etc. etc.
   The texts come in two varieties, the one kind being texts with references to which grammar to learn, the other kind being texts without that. While the themes of the first are sometimes unsignificant, the latter are really about parts of Icelandic society. And, remember, each text comes with a separate glossary to learn.
   ---------------------------------------------------
   3) GLOSSARY (page 295-502)

   The glossary may be the best reason to buy the book. In fact, it's an Icelandic/English dictionairy, with reference to the grammar part for the inflections of the words. Honestly, this is the only book which contains (something close to) a dictionairy, with the full forms of any word. Too bad it isn't English/Icelandic!
   ---------------------------------------------------

   I hope I've helped you with my review, just remember that you won't regret buying this book! =)




4. Icelandic is not an easy language to learn and this book is a real antique in its approach to language learning, so I can imagine the frustration of a student whose previous experiences are high school or college courses (say beginning Spanish or French) or a Berlitz or Teach-Yourself course with tapes or CDs. Be warned, this is not that kind of book. If you speak native-level English and have studied Greek, Latin or German, this book will do you much good. If you know something about grammar and linguistics, so much the better. No phonetic descriptions are going to teach you to speak Icelandic or any other language. For that you'll have be around a native speaker, and you might do well also to get a phrase book and tapes. If, however, you want to learn to read Icelandic(and also old Norse)this is the best book I've found. It's surely an indispensable reference work to accompany other Icelandic programs as well. I don't know where else you'll find so much information to help unravel the complexities of Icelandic. Get it, but be prepared to work. It will take even an experienced language learner a couple of years to digest half of what it has to offer.



5. As was mentioned above, this book is best for people who already have the 'sound' of the language in their heads. It's not worth the trouble to try to use the pronunciation guide in the beginning of this book; with easy access to CDs, etc., it's quicker to learn from them.
   
   After that, however, this book is a great resource. I recommend skipping over the grammar sections (at least at first) and beginning with the first text. What I did was I looked at the words in the word list and said them all out loud with their definitions, then went and read the text out loud right after that. This helped me remember what the words meant as I read them, and so the text was comprehensible right from the beginning.
   
   I didn't bother with the exercises (as they necessitate using the grammar portion of the book, which is too abstruse for most learners, I think). I just happily learned about Icelandic culture reading the texts.
   
   I went all the way up to the end of Texts I (the part with the wordlists), then went back and did it again, this time only using the wordlist to check words I couldn't remember. After that, I took on Texts II (which don't have wordlists and rely on the glossary). This meant that I needed to look up the words in the glossary when I got stuck. It was a bit slower than using the wordlists, obviously, but this was outweighed by the enthusiasm of being able to read and enjoy real Icelandic after only about 75 hours of learning (that includes learning pronunciation through the Teach Yourself series)!
   
   My plan after this is to finish going through all of Texts II, then pick up an Icelandic-Icelandic dictionary along with a real Icelandic book and I'll be on my way! I'm certainly not done yet, but this book was a vital step and much appreciated.

5 comments about Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder.

1. I enjoyed this book greatly. I have been to Iceland, and this was like a revisit...the long worded language and the naming of people after their parents first name! The book was very well done, with just enough weird witchcraft and puzzlements to keep you turning the pages. Kept me interested right to the end, which was satisfying.



2. Harald Guntlieb has been brutally murdered and a friend of his is accused of the crime. The family isn't satisifed with the investigation, however, and requests the services of Thora Gudmundsdottir, a local attorney. Matthew Reich is already working on the investigation but needs help navigating through the country as Iceland is completely foreign to him. Their investigation is going to take them along a bizarre and twisted path, a path into the history of Iceland's involvement in witchcraft, sorcery, and even torture.
   
   The depth of history on Iceland and its association with witchcraft is simply fascinating. I'm unfamiliar with any of the history but the author presents it in an interesting manner. The details are often gory and the murder, along with the physical appearance of Harald prior to his death, is rather gruesome. Please be forewarned that this is an intense, even bizarre story at times. That is not to say that it isn't good, as it definitely is!
   
   Thora is an intriguing character. The story focuses primarily on the investigation, but the glimpses into her personal life offer a portrait of a loving and caring mother. The contrast between the two mothers, Thora and Amelia Guntlieb, is startling. Thora's interactions with her son provide a much needed positive note to counterbalance the darkness that is portrayed in LAST RITUALS. I loved the way Yrsa Sigurdardottir made some very subtle but important statements about family, particularly in the midst of dysfunction.
   
   LAST RITUALS is clearly not a tale that will appeal to all. The grisly details alone will discourage some readers. The style is very unique as this book has more the feel of literature than your typical thriller. LAST RITUALS is an intense read, but one easily worth reading.
   
   COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES



3. A book that starts with a mutilated corpse whose eyes have been cut off might be expected to be dark, twisted, and macabre. But in this case, while intriguingly dark, Yrsa Sigurdardottir's book is actually an entertaining lighter type of mystery with a heroine who is just as refreshing as say Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss or PD James' Cordelia Gray. Thora Gudmundsdôttir is a lawyer and single mother who agrees to look into the recent death of a young history student who is heir to a German banking fortune. His mutilated corpse and the research he was working on point to his involvement in cult-like activities dealing with sorcery and black magic. While the premise is not entirely original, the deft way in which Sigurdardottir handles the dark subject matter seen through the pragmatic and honest eyes of Thora is the best part about this novel. An enjoyable and entertaining read for a relaxing weekend.



4. I think this is a exceptional first novel. I particularly liked the witchcraft elements in it. There are a few sections that could use a little smoothing out, but I like this as much as anything I've read in the genre in the last year. I have high hopes for this novelist, though I worry that with multiple authors (Many very good) working the same territory (Iceland) that over time, the homogeneous nature of Icelandic society may lead to a number of overly similar novels. But that's a worry for the future. Right now, this is a great way to spend a night (I stayed up to finish it)or two.



5. Icelandic lawyer, Thóra Gudmundsdottir is puzzled when German resident, Amelia Guntlieb, wants to hire her to find out who really murdered her son, Harald. The Guntlieb family believes the police arrested the wrong man, and because Harald was studying at a university in Reykjavík, where Thóra lives, they ask her to look into the matter. Thóra doubts she find evidence to change events, but since she needs the Guntlieb's generous fee, she agrees to investigate. Sent to assist her, is the family's representative Matthew, a stoic, condescending man. But as Thóra delves into Harald's somewhat disturbing life, she comes to appreciate Matthew's presence.
   
   The development of this relationship is one of the book's positive aspects, but I had problems with Yrsa Sigurdardóttir's debut mystery, LAST RITUALS. First, there's little emotion throughout most of the book. Other than doing a good job, nothing's at stake for Thóra. No threats, no violence, and little action. Interviews, some leg work, and document reading makes the novel's pacing painfully slow in places. For instance, sixteen pages show Thóra reading a report about Harald's life. Granted, Harald's life was odd and he was working on a comparison of witch hunts in Iceland and Germany (plenty of historical detail is provided), but the novel was easy to put down in a number of places.
   
   Another problem is that Thóra's voice is so intellectual and formal much of time that it was tough to warm up to the character. The long, carefully articulated inner monologue didn't sound natural, even for a smart lawyer. This book was translated so who knows if this was the author's style or a translation issue? The same applies to the use of clichés like "barrel of laughs" or "for all the tea in China".
   
   On the upside, we see more emotion from Thóra with her children in a tense subplot. Also, the main plot is intriguing and the identity of the killer surprised me, but then I rarely guess the killer's identity. There weren't many descriptions of Iceland, but the few I read were great, and I'd love to read more stories set in this country.

5 comments about Icelandic-English/English-Icelandic Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary).

1. Most people who study Icelandic, buy this little book, but it's absolutely useless, because:

   *1. It contains too few words.

   Only 5,000 one way (a good dictionairy should contain at least 50,000).

   *2. There are no inflection indications.

   The most essential thing of the whole Icelandic language lacks (only gender is stated, and the strength of verbs, which is absoutely useless without other information).

   *3. No word combinations, no proverbs whatsoever.

   Needed for a good use of the language.

   *4. Old-fashioned.

   No modern words.

   --------------

   The problem is, THERE ARE NO OTHER ICELANDIC DICTIONAIRIES AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. ...I hope I have helped you.




2. The demand for Icelandic dictionaries is pretty small. Because of this, you will have to pay 60 dollars or more for a great or out-of-print edition. The hippocrene version is not a great dictionary by any stretch of the imagination, however, it retails for around 10 dollars. If you are serious about learning Icelandic, you will need a dictionary. Pick this one up and use the glossaries from you other books (such as Teach Yourself Icelandic, Colloquial Icelandic, Icleandic, etc...) to supplement what this edition leaves out. The other reviewers seem to have alot of money, which explains their disdain for this cheap edition and absurdly expensive recommendations. Which one would you choose: a brand new $10 dictionary or a $60+ out-of-print dictionary. Just be sure to check Half Price Books and other used bookstores to see if they happen to have any large college or complete Icelandic dictionaries in stock.



3. This dictionary is better than what most of the other reviewers have said. It is not a big dictionary, it has 177 pages, and it only has one column of print, but it has many words in it. Someone said it still uses the letter z, which Icelandic no longer uses. But I did not see the letter z in the Icelandic section.
   
   This is not a great dictionary, but it will go along just fine with other books' glossaries.



4. I don't know the background of the nay-sayers of this little gem, but it's a pocket-style dictionary. DUH!
   
   Anybody who's used pocket-dictionaries knows that they are limited in capacity.
   
   Me, I use this to look up the English - Icelandic and then go over to Zoega's to look up the Old Norse version of the modern Icelandic. It usually gets me in the ballpark.
   
   I am self-teaching Old Norse so I can create more accurate "Rune" stones for SCA awards for Norse personas. While my Old Norse isn't perfect, it's gotten a lot better with this nice, POCKET sized dictionary.



5. Although the earliest date in the book is 1990, a little bit of knowledge of the language will reveal a number of anomalies in spelling and word choice that clearly date the book as much older. On the lcelandic side, there is at least occasional use of the letter 'z' in words such as Þýzkaland (Germany), which according to wikipedia at least (URL excluded per guidelines, but search for "Icelandic Language") indicates that the reference to that spelling dates from before 1974, at which time the letter 'z' was removed from the language. On the English side, spellings such as 'to-day' and 'to-morrow' also seem to date the book as being much older than even the 1970s. Even the appearance of the text and the distinction in the printing between the bulk of the book and the last few pages seem to indicate an older text.
   
   That said, it's not useless as a reference, but as others have noted, it is quite limited. I don't have occasion to test whether the translations it provides are as archaic as I expect they might be -- imagine someone speaking to you now in English as it was spoken in the 30s or 40s, for example -- but for a beginner it does fill in some of the gap that would otherwise require a much more expensive dictionary costing at least 10x as much. In that vein, it is a "you get what you pay for" product to me. I use it, but get somewhat limited use out of it.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Icelandic Complete Course Audiopack.

1. I've had a fascination with Icelandic for a while now, and I've tried many books. The Colloquial books suck. period, the end. Don't buy the Colloquial Icelandic book. They just MENTION case very late in the book, and just throw a giant chart at you and have only ONE exercise.
   
   This book is jsut the opposite. It gently introduces the topic of case at the beginning, and it is discussed throughout the entire book. The CDs are excellent. Icelandic is a hard langauge, and not learnable in one book, but this book gets you pretty darn close.



2. While I have not completed the course, I have reviewed it and appears to be a solid teaching method. Icelandic especially requires having the CD for audio as it is a very subtle language for pronunciation.
   
   One warning for Amazon UK orders: I ordered mine from the US and a friend ordered at the same time from the UK. She only got the audio CDs while I got the nice book and CDs. This is not the first time this has happened to her for Amazon UK.



3. This is a good course for the more technically minded student. It starts simply and gives more in depth information with each chapter.
   
   It focuses a lot on the grammar, cases and declension of Icelandic and is perhaps more suited to someone who has already studied a language besides english (I am a German speaker).
   
   It gives a good understanding of how Icelandic works as a language and the CDs help a lot with pronounciation and understanding the spoken language.



4. I have not completed this course yet, but I have looked ahead. This is an excellent resource to start learning Icelandic. It starts out with pronounciation and works you through simple questions like What is your name? to more complex sentences and words. Cases and gender are introduced right at the beginning.This is a great resource and I recommend it for those who want to start learning Icelandic.



5. I'm quite pleased with this approach to learning a language, after earlier experiences with traditional textbooks. It's clear and the order is very practical--what's your name, where are you from, what are you doing, where are you going, what time is it, it's time for a review, etc. I visited the official website of Iceland recently, and was somewhat dismayed to learn that 99% of the population speaks English, but there are still the sagas.