Harry Potter (and other favorites) in Icelandic

[starfishstar]

huldrejenta, I thought of you when I saw this in the library of a tiny town in northern Iceland today!



For all the rest of you, here are a few more favorites in Icelandic ("The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" by J. K. Rowling and "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien – which delightfully becomes "Hobbitinn," because in Icelandic, the definite article comes at the end). YA fantasy favorites in obscure Germanic/Scandinavian languages I can almost understand? I'm in heaven!

Comments

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Ha, fun! Taking a book you know backwards and forwards and reading it in a foreign language seems like an excellent way to get in some fun practice. (Although I sometimes have trouble following through to the end, heh.)

How wonderful to be on holiday in Iceland. I hope to have a chance to go someday. Are you driving, or are there enough buses to be able to get around?

[starfishstar]

Yes! Reading a book you already know (and love) is a great way to gain vocabulary in a foreign language. I did that with Harry Potter and German early on, and I always recommend it to English students.

Yes, Iceland is amazing, I recommend it so highly! This is my second time here, and this trip is a much more leisurely one. There are buses, but they're expensive, so I'm actually hitchhiking as much as I can – this is in fact the only country in the world where I would hitchhike alone, because it's truly, truly safe and easy here, and some kind person will generally stop for you almost immediately. Last time I waited maybe five minutes, and then two nice young women stopped; they drove me all the way to my destination (several hours away) and literally to the door of where I was going. Amazing folks over here!

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

How nice! Especially 'Hobbitinn'!

Ooh, echoing shimotsuki's thoughts on an Icelandic trip. Can we look forward to some holiday tales when you're back? :)

[starfishstar]

Oh, sure! Always happy to share travel stories. I'll actually be here for a while – it's sort of an extended work hiatus, and I'm just wandering around Iceland for a while until I decide where to next... Mostly what you can expect from me is fic! Being on vacation is giving me a lot of time to finally catch up on some in-process stories, and it's been a blast. Just in the last couple days, finally completed drafts of three(!) stories ranging from long-ish to extremely-long. So that's all coming soon-ish...

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

Ooooh how wonderful!
I love Icelandic, but Norwegian has changed just a little bit too much since our common Norse roots, so I don't understand enough to read it properly.
And such gems you've found :) You're so sweet to think of me ♥

Hobbitinn has a lovely ring to it! We do the same thing with our definite article in Norwegian; for us it's Hobbiten.

Hope you're having a wonderful time in Iceland! Would love to hear about it when you get home :)

[starfishstar]

Yup, I was familiar with the postfix definite article from having learned a bit of Swedish in the past, so that part was an easy leap. Icelandic has four cases, though, and *so* much declination – even names change their endings. Fantastic language, though. Like some combination of Old English, Old Norse, and maybe a bit of something created by elves :-)

You guys are so sweet! Yes, I'm happy to share Icelandic travel tales as much as you like :-)