Thanks to Rainer Langenhan for alerting me to the following:

Icelandic Online Dictionary and Readings

Quote:

bq. Working in partnership with the University of Iceland and a number of other sponsors (including The Andrew Mellon Foundation) the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections group has created the Icelandic Online Dictionary and Readings website. This website also complements the University of Iceland’s Internet course, “Icelandic Online”. Persons interested in learning a bit about Icelandic will appreciate the fact that they have access to the aforementioned course, complete with interactive lessons and exercises. Additionally, the site contains the unabridged content of the 1989 Concise Icelandic-English dictionary and a set of readings in modern Icelandic life, literature and culture. As an extra treat, visitors also have access to a collection of works by the famous Icelandic poet, Jonas Hallgrimsson. Visitors will want to make sure and read some of his well-known poems, including “The Vastness of the Universe” and “The Style of the Times”.

It does take me back to Old Norse (online course) and Bandamanna Saga. I had a quick look at Jonas Hallgrimsson too. I attempted to read The Pipit, but was disappointed to find the audio file was the English version, read in a very mysterious accent that sounded like a cross between Shetland and U.S. (Dick Ringler). It’s all useful stuff, although it teeters on the brink of burlesque:

bq. The events described in this poem appear to go back to about the time of Jónas’s seventh birthday. When his father’s estate was probated a few years later, in October 1816, it included a two-year-old ram and a three-year-old dark grey horse (þrevetru trippi, dökkgráu [1D354]). There is a good chance that these are the animals mentioned in the poem and entrusted to young Jónas’s care. Since the colt will have been born in 1813 and the poem describes it as being in its second year (á annan vetri) when these events occurred, everything points to the autumn and early winter of 1814-5, and this tallies with what is known of the weather at that time: “The autumn was mild, except for a spell of bad weather around Michaelmas [29 September]]; then on 7 November the north was hit by a violent storm that damaged hay, buildings, boats, and livestock” (ÁfÍ215).