Icelandic. Icelandic is perhaps the only one of the Nordic languages that closely resembles old Norse which was spoken by the Vikings. With only three hundred fifty thousand native speakers, this language is the least spoken language of all the North Germanic languages.
Icelandic. Spoken only in Iceland, modern Icelandic is the closest language to Old Norse still in use today. Although elements of the language have developed and no-one is quite sure how Old Norse would have sounded, the grammar and vocabulary remains similar.
Of the surviving languages, Icelandic is actually closest to Old Norse. In fact, when written down the two languages are almost identical, and Icelanders can read Old Norse manuscripts without much difficulty.
Old Norse: the Viking language
By the 8th century, Proto-Norse (which was spoken in Scandinavia and its Nordic settlements) developed into Old Norse – also known as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian.
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken among the people who inhabited the Scandinavian peninsula and Denmark from roughly the 9th until the 13th century AD (and in some places well into the 15th century).
Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain considerable mutual intelligibility while Icelandic remains the closest to Old Norse.
Scandinavian and Nordic Greetings & Useful Phrases
Hello – Hej! Good morning/day/evening/night – God morgon! / Goddag! / God kväll! / God natt! Goodbye – Hej då! Thank you (very much) – Tack (så mycket)!
Learning or teaching Old Norse is easy with The Viking Language Series. Viking Language 1 and 2 are the authoritative guides to learning Old Norse, opening a world of sagas, Eddas, and runes. These textbooks have everything you need to become proficient in Old Norse, including grammar, vocabulary, and exercises.
The hardest thing for English speakers learning Old Norse is dealing with a lot more endings than we are used to! The vocabulary of Old Norse poses no more difficulty than any other language, and English speakers will recognise quite a few words that were borrowed into Old and Middle English and still survive today.
Ragnar Lothbrok spoke Old Norse. Old Norse is a North Germanic language. It is the ancestor of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese.
The Adamic language, according to Jewish tradition (as recorded in the midrashim) and some Christians, is the language spoken by Adam (and possibly Eve) in the Garden of Eden.
So while the language of the Vikings is no longer spoken in the modern age, Old Norse still lives on in the modern North Germanic languages of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese, and Icelandic.
Like the other Scandinavian languages modern Icelandic is descended from Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings. Unlike the other Scandinavian languages, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Faeroese, Icelandic has changed very little. Modern Icelanders can read the medieval manuscripts with little difficulty.
Mutual intelligibility
Generally, speakers of the three largest Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) can read each other's languages without great difficulty. The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences in pronunciation.
Thus, speakers of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian can understand one another more easily than they can understand German or Dutch speakers – two other Germanic languages from a different branch – and they cannot understand Finnish, an unrelated language.
SWEDISH. Swedish is the most popular Nordic and Scandinavian language on our list. It is spoken by approximately 10.5 million people around the world, in countries such as Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, and other Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Norway.
Etymology. From Middle English Norwey, Norweye, Northwey, Norweȝe, Norewæiȝ, Norwæge, from Old English Norþweġ, a calque of Old Norse Norðvegr (“north way”), from norðr (“north”) + vegr (“way”), contrasted with suðrvegr (“south way”), i.e. Germany, and austrvegr (“east way”), the Baltic lands.
Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE.
In Norway, pupuls are required to know the basics of Old Norse, as it is needed to understand language history and language variation/dialectal knowledge. Many Norwegians will understand a bit of Icelandic and Faroese for the same reason.
But yes, Ragnar learned English from Athelstan when they were living together in Scandinavia.
The Old Norse language was transmitted throughout Europe and the British Isles by Northern Germanic viking invaders and via trade and exploration in early European history. Over time, Old Norse loanwords became incorporated into Old English, and some remain in the modern English we use today.
Æsir is the plural of áss, ǫ́ss "god". In genitival compounds, it takes the form ása-, e.g. in Ása-Þórr ("Thor of the Æsir"), besides ás- found in ás-brú "gods' bridge" (the rainbow), ás-garðr, ás-kunnigr "gods' kin", ás-liðar "gods' leader", ás-mogin "gods' might" (especially of Thor), ás-móðr "divine wrath" etc.
Thor (from Old Norse: Þórr) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and fertility.