Over the last few years, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading (and reviewing) Sharpe’s The All-Father Paradox and Loki’s Wager. Those books are a wild ride incorporating everything from Norse mythology to quantum physics to the art of sacred poetry and song to causal loops and time travel. So, when Old Norse For Modern Times appeared on netgalley, I snapped it up.

I suppose I am a bit weird in that I love reference texts, and the more oddball and specific the reference material, the better. Old Norse is sort of a reference book, and it’s sort of a humor book, and it’s sort of a history text. It’s also a commentary on modern popular culture and, in a round-about way, an examination of contemporary ethics, values, and social norms.

After a brief introduction, in which Sharpe explains how the project came about and how to pronounce certain letter combinations, the book is divided into nine chapters, each of which is further subdivided. For example, the third chapter — Old Norse For Going Online — features sections entitled “Staying Connected When Going Viking” and “#soundsbetterinoldnorse,” while the fourth chapter — Old Norse For the Big Occasion — includes sections such as “At the Gaming Table” and “The Viking Video Gamer.”

For me, the funniest and most interesting translations are those which deal with popular culture and literature. I think that demonstrates just where our collective interest lies these days, and how we make connections with one another. After all, if you proclaim “Vetr kømr!” (“Winter is coming!”) everyone will not only get the reference, but recognize your geekdom, as well. The same goes for “Nafn mitt es Bóndi, Jakaupr Bóndi” and “Megi fjǫlkynngin fylgia yðr.” (Go look them up.)

Highly recommended to fans of Sharpe’s previous work, as well as language nerds, gamers, sincere Heathens, and people who just want to confuse their coworkers by dropping “Drepum hann rækiliga í þeta sinn” into the middle of a conversation.

Old Norse For Modern Times by Ian Stuart Sharpe is entertaining and informative. Never be lost for words again...with this book of lost words. Have you ever wanted to wield the silver tongue of Loki, or to hammer home your point like a Thundergod? Old Norse is the language of legends and the stuff of sagas, the inspiration for Tolkien and Marvel, for award-winning manga and epic videogames. It is the language of cleverly crafted kennings, blood-curdling curses, and pithy retorts to Ragnarök. Old Norse for Modern Times gives you the perfect phrase for every contemporary situation—from memorable movie quotes ("We’re going to need a bigger boat." Þurfa munu vér skip stærra) to battle-cries to yell on Discord ("Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Sýnisk þér ek vera í skapi til leika?), from mead hall musings ("This drink, I like it! ANOTHER!" Líkar mér drykkr þessi! ANNAN!) to tried-and-tested pickup lines ("Nice tattoo!" Fagrt er húðflúrið"). With over 500 phrases inside (plus the chance to add your own!) it is the perfect guide for Vikings fans, whether they are re-enactors, role-players, or simply in love with Ragnar.

Old Norse For Modern Times is well researched, with explanations and footnotes for translation, spelling, and punctuation choices. I really enjoyed the idea behind the book ad the execution. The topics covered, the organization of them, and the phrases were all well done. I loved the nods to popular culture and the sense of humor that is woven through out the book. I chuckled more than once, and grinned more than I would care to admit as I read through this book. I now need to get a hold of the audio book copy of this- which the introduction promised me existed- because I am horrible with languages but there are several of these phrases I want the ability to use. And frankly, if I am going to confuse people by speaking Old Norse, I am going to do it right- or as close to it as I can get.

Having an interest in all things Viking, and learning Bokmål Norwegian led me to check this out. I currently don’t plan to attempt to learn Old Norse in any way, but I was curious into exactly what this was. From the description, I could tell this was a humor book rather than a learning tool, so I wasn’t disappointed when that’s exactly what it was. I was also drawn to this because I have a book in The Vikingverse line (The Allfather Paradox, I need to review that on here), and had no idea this company was based here in Kansas City, which makes me excited to hopefully meet these dudes at Comicon or something one day.

"Never be lost for words again…with this book of lost words. Have you ever wanted to wield the silver tongue of Loki, or to hammer home your point like a Thundergod? Old Norse is the language of legends and the stuff of sagas, the inspiration for Tolkien and Marvel, for award-winning manga and epic videogames. It is the language of cleverly crafted kennings, blood-curdling curses, and pithy retorts to Ragnarök. Old Norse for Modern Times gives you the perfect phrase for every contemporary situation—from memorable movie quotes (“We’re going to need a bigger boat.” Þurfa munu vér skip stærra) to battle-cries to yell on Discord (“Do I look to be in a gaming mood?” Sýnisk þér ek vera í skapi til leika?), from mead hall musings (“This drink, I like it! ANOTHER!” Líkar mér drykkr þessi! ANNAN!) to tried-and-tested pickup lines (“Nice tattoo!” Fagrt er húðflúrið”). With over 500 phrases inside (plus the chance to add your own!) it is the perfect guide for Vikings fans, whether they are re-enactors, role-players, or simply in love with Ragnar." --Book Description

Old Norse For Modern Times Is almost like a parody of a travel phrase book that somebody might pick up visiting a foreign country. There are phrases of all natures, from social media lingo, to sci-fi references. Is any of it very useful? Probably not. But is it funny? Yes it is! Quite a few of these gave me a good chuckle, like “Beam me up Skadi” or “Where is the Batman!?” However, I honestly think this would work best as an audiobook, and I believe that is available according to the preface in the book. Sadly, I did not have this, so knowing things like correct pronunciations (or as close as we can get today) are lost on a book-only reader.

As a result, I can’t go in with a huge recommendation of getting a print or eBook of this if you plan to actually say these things out loud – go with the audiobook, or a combo of both. As a humor book, this is a fun little diversion for a little while. a quick read that you can have fun with. If you enjoy things like books written in Klingon and the like, definitely check some version of this out.

I was interested in this book based on this description:

Never be lost for words again...with this book of lost words. Have you ever wanted to wield the silver tongue of Loki, or to hammer home your point like a Thundergod? Old Norse is the language of legends and the stuff of sagas, the inspiration for Tolkien and Marvel, for award-winning manga and epic videogames. It is the language of cleverly crafted kennings, blood-curdling curses, and pithy retorts to Ragnarök. Old Norse for Modern Times gives you the perfect phrase for every contemporary situation [...] With over 500 phrases inside (plus the chance to add your own!) it is the perfect guide for Vikings fans, whether they are re-enactors, role-players, or simply in love with Ragnar.

What this doesn't say is that this is a humor book and not an actual, useful language guide. (Okay ... so I'm not sure how useful a language guide of an ancient language would be, but I think the description offers some suggestions.)

The book is filled with pre-defined phrases and since you're not likely to go on a trip and need to communicate with some old Norse, the given phrases are geared more for fun with friends, such as:

I don’t believe in astrology. I am a Sagittarius, and we are skeptical. (Eigi trúa ek stjǫrnufrǿði þeiri, ek em bogmaðr ok vér erom engi auðtrúa flón.)

This looks like a job for Superman. (Mun verk þetta hæfa Ofrmenninu.)

Only dead fish follow the stream. (Aðeins dauðir fiskar fylgja árstraumi.)

You are the dancing queen. (Þér eruð dansdróttningin.)

Not sure how to read or pronounce this? There's a brief (not quite two page) Introduction which includes a simple pronunciation guide for three of the unique letter (Eth (uppercase: Ð, lowercase: ð); Thorn or þorn (Þ, þ);Æ (æ)).

I followed a link in my digital copy of the book and discovered that there's a series of book by author Ian Stuart Sharpe (Ión Stívarður Skarpi) set in the 'Vikingverse' and clearly this is to serve as a sort of addendum to the other works (books and comic books) in the series. (Actually, some of those other works look more interesting to me.)

This is fine as a novelty or humor book, but it's not particularly practical and you have to really want to say some of these phrases in your D&D or other RPG games to want to add this to your collection.

Svo segi ég, bókagagnrýnandi.

Looking for a good book? Old Norse for Modern Times by Ian Stuart Sharpe is a fun book but has some pretty limited uses.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever been so angry that really only an old Norse retort will do? Have you wanted to know how to yell  "the North remembers" in the language of the Vikings? Ian Stewart Sharpe, Dr. Armgrimur Vidallin, and Josh Gillingham have you covered with the book Old Norse for Modern Times. Filed with references from Tolkien, Marvel, D&D and Game of Thrones, this book is an absolute delight and will leave you with as much laughter as knowledge of Norse.  As a total nerd for languages (and pop culture as a whole) this book was an absolute delight and very fun to read and consult. The book has a section on pronunciation, as some letters modern English readers will not be familiar with. 

Old Norse for Modern Times was a successful Kickstarter project and I'm so glad it succeeded.

If Latin for All Occasions (1990) was right up your toga, you’ll appreciate its spiritual successor, Old Norse for Modern Times. This is a novelty book, not a scholarly resource, with translations of lines famous to fans of Star Trek (“Es þetta góðr dagr feigum” = “It is a good day to die”), Star Wars (“Megi fjǫlkynngin fylgia yðr” = “May the Force be with you”), and Skyrim (“Vas ek vikingr sem þú, aðr ek fekk ǫr í knéð” = “I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee”).

There are also useful translations for phrases like “Hello, how are you?”, but this book was never meant to be taken too seriously. A tourists’ phrasebook would have included instructions on how to pronounce all of the bewildering variety of vowels (a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, ǫ, u, ú, y, ý, æ, ø) instead of only ð, þ, and æ. Don’t worry about it. If there are any living Vikings around to correct you on your accent, phonology will be the least of your worries!

I am grateful to the authors, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free advance review copy.

A funny guide to using Old Norse for day to day life in modern times.

From any scenario you could think of from "Beam Me Up Scottie" to "Do you have an iPhone7 charger?", this guide is great for learning to speak like the inner viking you always knew you had.

Wasn’t sure what to expect, but this one surprised me. Basically a common phrase book of old Norwegian to some common modern phrases. Interesting, but do not really see how this can be used. Unless you already spoke Norwegian or Icelandic the pronunciation would be off anyway. Would recommend if you wanted a novelty book on an old language.

This was a hoot! I took a class in Anglo-Saxon in college and am familiar with German and a little Gaelic and Dutch- It's amazing how related languages are! And then there's the runes! Yep, I remember those from college and ruin stone reading! I wasn't sure what this book was really going to be until I got a good look at it from Netgalley. Fun read for those who enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien's works and others like him. I think maybe Viking saga lovers will like it. Maybe even some gamers. Well, if nothing else, it's an entertaining introduction to the language through modern, every day slang and sayings. Fun read!

I was really interested in this synopsis but you need more going into it than just liking a Vikings tv show (guilty) to fully enjoy it.
This is a book better appreciated by people that either speak a bit of Norse or want to learn because there is no trivia or context to it, only translations of common and not so common English expressions, so it can get a bit boring after a while.
I liked the chapter illustrations and the best part about it for me was definitely the sense of humor coupled with how nerdy it was. I'm really happy a book like this exists for all the people that are into it.
Thank you to Outland Entertainment and Netgalley for this DRC.

"Old Norse is the language of legends and the stuff of sagas".

What a fun filled experience it would be to converse with a "contemporary Viking" in Old Norse. This tome provides the tools! Among the many phrases and sentences translated into Old Norse, these are my favorite English equivalents.

Bumper Stickers For Your Viking Voyage
"See you in Valhalla!"
"It takes a Viking to raze a village."

Old Norse for the Big Occasion
"I see you have filed your teeth for the occasion."
"It's my silver wedding anniversary. Well, technically it is the monk's silver but we are still celebrating."

Staying Connected When Going Viking
"What is the password for the WiFi in this mead hall?"

My Blood Type is Viking
"My body is my runestone, and my tattoos tell my story."

Thor's Thunderings
"By Odin's beard, you shall not cut my hair, lest you feel the wrath of the mighty Thor!"

"The crossing was terrible. Long delays at the Kattegat again."

"Old Norse For Modern Times" by Ian Stuart Sharpe is a delightful read that will charm Viking and Game of Thrones fans alike!

Thank you Outland Entertainment and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Old Norse for Modern Times is a fun read for anyone looking to inject a little Viking into their everyday lives. The mix of phrases offered includes everything from navigating social media to chat-up lines and movie quotes. (If you've ever wanted to know how to say you are burdened with glorious purpose in Old Norse, your prayers have been answered.) Some of the sentences had me laughing out loud and I had to read a few especially funny ones to my husband. In conclusion, this is a great book for anyone interested in languages or for fans of MCU or TV series like Vikings. Although I only reviewed the print book, I understand there is also an audio book available for those in need of help with their pronunciation.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.