A study of the language of medieval Iceland in a series of graduated grammar lessons and readings in pre-Christian Norse mythology from the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (AD 1178-1241) and Voluspa 'The Sybil's Prophecy' (c. 1000). We will devote considerable attention to these striking literary texts in their social and religious contexts, as well as note those linguistic features which are relevant to the development of English after the settlement of Scandinavian Vikings in the north and east of England in the ninth century. Requirements: daily grammar review and oral translation in class, written grammar and translation quizzes, a final project. Text: E.V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. rev. A.R. Taylor (Oxford: Clarendon, 1957). This course can be continued in English 218 "Norse Poetry and Prose," which will include a reading of Hrafnkels saga Freysgoda (c. 1250), the classic "short saga" of a young settler's violent career as priest of the god Freyr and one of the founding chieftains of the Icelandic Commonwealth.