This is the first account of Old Norse for a hundred years and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. It presents a full analysis of Old Norse syntax and succinct descriptions of its phonology and morphology. Old Norse was the language of the Vikings and the Old Icelandic sagas and is the best documented medieval Germanic language. Professor Faarlund supports his analysis with numerous prose examples taken from the most reliable Norwegian and Icelandic manuscript editions. His approach is descriptive, set in a framework of generative grammar with technical details kept to a minimum. He includes a complete bibliography of the syntax of Old Norse. This book will interest students and scholars of Nordic languages, civilizations, and history as well as those studying historical linguistics, diachronic syntax, and Germanic and Scandinavian languages.

Jan Terje Faarlund is Professor of Scandinavian Linguistics, University of Oslo. He previously held the same position at the University of Trondheim, and was Professor of Linguistics and Norwegian Studies at the University of Chicago, where he is still affiliated as a research associate in the Department of Linguistics.