A brief Icelandic saga

Not unhappy with our recent progress in Icelandic we are now going to leaf through a few pages of the island's history.

This will illustrate again the core of our learning philosophy aided by a conversation with some new generative AI. We don't go from the most basics to the most complex, burdening ourselves with a mercenary memorization worthy of the worst school memories. Instead, we expose ourselves from the outset with rich, complex - and far more interesting - content, in an attitude of permanent questioning, notably noticing analogies with one or more other languages we know. This requires time (stamina), and curiosity, which are also necessary qualities for (language) learning. Admittedly, there is nothing extremely new so far.

Let's look at local history anew, and to our amazement, the Icelandic word for history is saga.

Let's read the first paragraph and highlight in blue anything we believe we understand. (No dictionary, the brain has to work.)

Saga Íslands er saga byggðar og menningar á Íslandi, sem er stutt miðað við sögu landa á meginlandi Evrópu. Landnám hófst seint á 9. öld eftir Krist og byggðist landið fljótt, einkum frá Noregi (en einnig Bretlandseyjum). Landið tilheyrði engu ríki þar til Íslendingar gengu Noregskonungi á hönd með undirritun Gamla sáttmála árið 1262/64. Noregur og Ísland urðu svo hluti af Danaveldi 1380. Samhliða þjóðernisvakningu víða um Evrópu ágerðist þjóðhyggja og sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga eftir því sem leið á 19. öldina og lauk með því að Ísland hlaut fullveldi 1. desember 1918. Danski konungurinn hélt þó áfram að vera konungur Íslands þar til Lýðveldið Ísland var stofnað 17. júní 1944 og varð þá að fullu sjálfstætt.

Incredible, obviously very close to Norwegian (or Swedish). Let's take note of our intuitions so far, and we can tally up the points later.

Saga Íslands er saga byggðar og menningar á Íslandi The history of Iceland is the history of the towns and (memories?) of Iceland.* við, landa, Evrópu we, country, Europe* landnám ... á 9. öld eftir Krist the conquest of the country ... in the 9th century A.D.*

frá Noregi

from Norway* Landið tilheyrði ... ríki þar til Íslendingar ... Noregskonungi ... árið 1262/64

the country belonged to ... an empire until the Icelanders ... the king(dom) of Norway ... in the years 1262/64*

Noregur og Ísland ... svo hluti af Danaveldi 1380

Norway and Iceland ... then a part of the Danish empire in 1380.*

sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga eftir ... leið á 19. öldina ... að Ísland hlaut fullveldi 1. desember 1918.

Iceland's declaration (or position) of independence ... led in the 19th century ... to Iceland being completely free on December 1st 1918.*

Danski konungurinn ... að vera konungur Íslands ... til Lýðveldið Ísland ... 17. júní 1944 og varð þá að fullu sjálfstætt.

The Kingdom of Denmark ... to be the Kingdom of Iceland ... on June 17, 1944 and became fully independent.*

These translations are merely approximations, as the stars suggest, conjectures at first reading, without a dictionary. (So our purpose with the piecemeal translations above is simply to illustrate how we proceed, not to expose the reader to bilingual linguistic data). Where do these intuitions stem from, and how did we arrive at a (fragmentary) understanding in a language we know little about? In what follows, we try to retrace as precisely as possible the successive mental steps that led to an outline of meaning. Readers who so wish, for example because they speak Scandinavian languages and were able to fathom the meaning of the Icelandic text as well or better than we did, can skip ahead to the next stages of our reading comprehension-based exercise.

saga Íslands er saga byggðar og menningar á Íslandi specifies who or what the history of Iceland (saga Íslands) is the history of. It is the story of byggðar and (og) menningar. In byggðar I recognize the Norwegian å bygge, to build, which also gave innbygger, inhabitants, where by, city is a close relative. Menningar is more problematic for us, as it evokes the Norwegian mening (or German Meinung), opinion, thought, but also minne (memory, remembrance) or å minne (to remember). It could be "the history of opinions", or "memories". This is indeed a matter of ideas, menningar actually meaning culture.

landnám ... á 9. öld eftir Krist landnám evokes the German Land or the Norwegian land, both meaning country, and -nám the German verb nehmen, to take. So, "conquest", "occupation of territory" are possibilities. landnám is colonization. á 9. öld eftir Krist is no mystery, and along the way we learn that öld is century, eftir, after.

In Landið tilheyrði ... ríki þar til Íslendingar .. Noregskonungi, tilheyrði evokes quite closely the Norwegian å tilhøre, to belong, and we have seen recently that the ending -ði characterizes the 3rd pers. sg past tense of weak verbs. landið tilheyrði must be "the country belonged to". ríki resembles the Norwegian rik, empire (in German, Reich, in Dutch, rijk). Íslendingar differs a little from Íslands or Íslandi seen above, and must be the name of the people, the Icelanders. Finally, Noreg is Norway (Norge or Noreg in Norwegian), and konungi, like the Norwegian konge, must be (probably with a special inflection), "the king". "The king" (perhaps "the kingdom") "of Norway".

svo hluti af Danaveldi 1380

In Danaveldi, Dana- refers to Denmark, while -veldi evokes the Dutch veld (field, both literally and figuratively). In fact, -veldi seems to be related to Danish vælge, or German wählen, to choose, to German wachen, der Wächter, perhaps also wert, der Wert, and their English counterparts to guard, a guard, worth and value. -veldi means power. (ChatGPT shall correct us later, the source is actually the Proto-Germanic "*waldiz".) What about hluti? We might see the Norwegian lott (share, e.g. of a company), and it's perhaps not wrong to also recognize the French lot (batch) as both - as well as lot (a lot, many) in English - have a supposed common proto-Germanic ancestor, *hlutą. So, "a part of the power of Danemark", that is to say, "a part of the Danish empire".

sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga eftir ... leið á 19. öldina ... að Ísland hlaut fullveldi 1. desember 1918.

In sjálfstæðisbarátta, sjálfstæði immediately evokes German selbstständig or Norwegian selvstendig (independent), and we can surmise barátta: "position of independence" (neutrality), or "declaration of independence", or "battle for independence"? The third hypothesis was in fact the best (more precisely yet, "struggles for independence"), and the proximity to English battle or French bataille are no doubt not random. leið is perhaps equivalent to the German leiten (to lead) and the conjunction að suggests the construction "to lead to (the fact that)". In fullveldi, full- has a sense of completeness, while we find again veldi, a notion of power. "lead to Iceland gaining full powers", or "sovereignty" or "independence" seems logical enough, without really identifying hlaut.

og varð þá að fullu sjálfstætt features some of the same. varð must be the German werden in the past tense (wurde), the Dutch werd, became. fullu sjálfstætt is now obvious, "fully independent".

As we work our way through the text, the identification exercise becomes easier and easier ; short memory draws on déjà-vu, patterns recur, lexicon revolves around a theme. By delving into the roots of words, we arrive at the origin of fundamental concepts, which are then declined through lexical fields and the millennial evolution of languages up to today's conventions - but the kinships remain visible, and guide us when it comes to generating and discovering meaning. This concludes our remarks on the pathways of our intuitions about the initial piece of text.

We've started with a quick monolingual reading, giving rise to a few hypotheses. Now let's translate into [some languages we like] Swedish and English. By the way, today's exercise is more extensive than intensive. Instead of asking a lot of questions about a small amount of textual content, our aim is to gain an overall understanding of a longer text.

Sagan om Island är en berättelse om bosättning och kultur på Island, som är kort jämfört med historien om länder på den europeiska kontinenten. Kolonisationen började sent på 800-talet och landet befolkades snabbt, främst från Norge (men också från de brittiska öarna). Landet tillhörde inget rike tills islänningarna underkastade sig den norska kungen genom att underteckna den gamla fördraget år 1262/64. Norge och Island blev sedan en del av det danska riket 1380. Parallellt med den nationella uppvakningen över hela Europa ökade den nationella medvetenheten och oberoendekampen bland islänningarna när 1800-talet gick framåt, och slutade med att Island blev suveränt den 1 december 1918. Den danska kungen fortsatte dock att vara kung av Island tills republiken Island grundades den 17 juni 1944 och blev då fullständigt självständigt.

The history of Iceland is a story of settlement and culture on the island, which is short compared to the history of countries on the European mainland. Colonization began late in the 9th century and the land was quickly populated, mainly from Norway (but also from the British Isles). The country did not belong to any kingdom until the Icelanders submitted to the Norwegian king by signing the Old Covenant in 1262/64. Norway and Iceland then became part of the Danish realm in 1380. Parallel to the national awakening throughout Europe, nationalist sentiment and the struggle for independence among Icelanders increased as the 19th century progressed, ending with Iceland gaining sovereignty on December 1, 1918. However, the Danish king continued to be the king of Iceland until the Republic of Iceland was established on June 17, 1944, becoming fully independent.

Let's take a look at how to improve our Icelandic (and revise our Swedish) with trilingual text. To illustrate, we'll consider the most problematic one. Samhliða þjóðernisvakningu víða um Evrópu ágerðist þjóðhyggja og sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga eftir því sem leið á 19. öldina og lauk með því að Ísland hlaut fullveldi 1. desember 1918.

Parallellt med den nationella uppvakningen över hela Europa ökade den nationella medvetenheten och oberoendekampen bland islänningarna när 1800-talet gick framåt, och slutade med att Island blev suveränt den 1 december 1918.

Parallel to the national awakening throughout Europe, nationalist sentiment and the struggle for independence among Icelanders increased as the 19th century progressed, ending with Iceland gaining sovereignty on December 1, 1918.

Without sinking into details, we roughly associate the original with the translations, (small) word group by (small) word group.

• samhliða -> parallellt -> parallel

• þjóðernisvakningu víða -> den nationella uppvakningen -> the national awakening

• um Evrópu -> över (hela) Europa -> throughout Europe

• ágerðist -> ökade -> increased

• þjóðhyggja -> den nationella medvetenheten -> nationalist sentiment and the struggle for independence

• sjálfstæðisbarátta -> oberoendekampen -> the struggle for independence

• Íslendinga -> bland islänningarna -> among Icelanders

• eftir því sem leið á 19. öldina -> när 1800-talet gick framåt -> as the 19th century progressed

• lauk með því að -> slutade med att -> ending with

• að Ísland hlaut fullveldi -> att Island blev suveränt -> with Iceland gaining sovereignty

Then we rebuild piecemeal, and try to really understand.

• Samhliða þjóðernisvakningu víða um Evrópu -> Parallellt med den nationella uppvakningen över hela Europa -> Parallel to the national awakening throughout Europe
  

• ágerðist þjóðhyggja og sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga -> ökade den nationella medvetenheten och oberoendekampen bland islänningarna -> nationalist sentiment and the struggle for independence among Icelanders increased

• eftir því sem leið á 19. öldina -> när 1800-talet gick framåt -> as the 19th century progressed

• og lauk með því að Ísland hlaut fullveldi 1. desember 1918. -> och slutade med att Island blev suveränt den 1 december 1918. -> ending with Iceland gaining sovereignty on December 1, 1918.

What if we stumble over these associations? Here are some ideas.

• We recognize, hold on to what we know, word stems, simple and articulation words, previously seen, etc. We pay great attention to correspondences. þjóðernisvakningu translates den nationella uppvakningen, the national awakening and þjóðhyggja gives den nationella medvetenheten,nationalist sentiment. So national is most assuredly this þjóð- element we have in common.
  

• We identify the grammatical skeleton, the structure. We separate the propositions, main or subordinate, then/and in each the logical groups, subject nominal group, verbal group with possible direct or indirect complements, other complements (place, time, manner, means). If it's a subordinate, what is its value (cause, consequence, concession, hypothesis, etc.). A proposition is generally built around a verb, so we identify verbs first and foremost. Once everything fits together, all that remains is to populate with meaning, lexicon - but for that, we have the translation at our disposal.
  

• If a piece of text resists, we copy it into a translator into a known language. We delete a word, and observe how the translation changes, having lost a piece of meaning. We put the word in place and start again, masking another word. This way, by studying the small variations, we can infer the meaning of each component. Nevertheless, this exercise should focus on the overall meaning rather than the details, especially if the language is very new - it should be about scanning a lot of text rather than looking for the perfect word by word.
  

• From time to time, and once we understand the whole, we open the dictionary, look up a word or two new to you, and navigate their etymologies with curiosity.
  

• We select the translation language(s) judiciously: for Icelandic, another Scandinavian language, or failing that, another Germanic language, or else another Indo-European language, etc. A translation language that is as close as possible to the language we are learning, to facilitate correspondence research and thus fragment-by-fragment comprehension, and enable efficient, robust learning by analogy.

We would do the same with the remainder of the text. We shall only report here on the reconstruction proposition by proposition, and for each sentence, highlight a selected observation. For the exercise, please note the proximity of Icelandic, Swedish and English.

1. Saga Íslands er saga byggðar og menningar á Íslandi, sem er stutt miðað við sögu landa á meginlandi Evrópu.

Sagan om Island är en berättelse om bosättning och kultur på Island, som är kort jämfört med historien om länder på den europeiska kontinenten.

The history of Iceland is a story of settlement and culture on the island, which is short compared to the history of countries on the European mainland.

• Saga Íslands er saga byggðar og menningar á Íslandi -> Sagan om Island är en berättelse om bosättning och kultur på Island -> The history of Iceland is a story of settlement and culture on the island

• sem er stutt miðað við sögu landa á meginlandi Evrópu. -> som är kort jämfört med historien om länder på den europeiska kontinenten. -> which is short compared to the history of countries on the European mainland.

Observation: we shall remember the relative pronoun sem, corresponding to som (Swedish) and which (English) and introducing the relative proposition that specifies the principal's subject, saga Íslands ("the history of Iceland").

2. Landnám hófst seint á 9. öld eftir Krist og byggðist landið fljótt, einkum frá Noregi (en einnig Bretlandseyjum).

Kolonisationen började sent på 800-talet och landet befolkades snabbt, främst från Norge (men också från de brittiska öarna).

Colonization began late in the 9th century and the land was quickly populated, mainly from Norway (but also from the British Isles).

• Landnám hófst seint á 9. öld eftir Krist -> Kolonisationen började sent på 800-talet -> Colonization began late in the 9th century

  
  

• og byggðist landið fljótt, einkum frá Noregi (en einnig Bretlandseyjum). -> och landet befolkades snabbt, främst från Norge (men också från de brittiska öarna). -> and the land was quickly populated, mainly from Norway (but also from the British Isles).

Observation: we shall simply remember this expression, einkum ... en einnig, translated as främst ... men också (Swedish) or mainly ... but also. (Icelandic is new to us, so we focus on what structures a text: conjunctions, linking words, frequent adverbs, etc.).

3. Landið tilheyrði engu ríki þar til Íslendingar gengu Noregskonungi á hönd með undirritun Gamla sáttmála árið 1262/64.

Landet tillhörde inget rike tills islänningarna underkastade sig den norska kungen genom att underteckna den gamla fördraget år 1262/64.

The country did not belong to any kingdom until the Icelanders submitted to the Norwegian king by signing the Old Covenant in 1262/64.

• Landið tilheyrði engu ríki -> Landet tillhörde inget rike -> The country did not belong to any kingdom

• þar til Íslendingar gengu Noregskonungi á hönd með undirritun Gamla sáttmála árið 1262/64. -> tills islänningarna underkastade sig den norska kungen genom att underteckna den gamla fördraget år 1262/64. -> until the Icelanders submitted to the Norwegian king by signing the Old Covenant in 1262/64.

Observation: we finally learn about negation, here engu is the dative of enginn meaning none, or no one. ríki is also in the dative, a case required by tilheyrði, belonged to. tilheyrði engu ríki, "belonged to no empire". 4. Noregur og Ísland urðu svo hluti af Danaveldi 1380.

Norge och Island blev sedan en del av det danska riket 1380.

Norway and Iceland then became part of the Danish realm in 1380.

Observation: -veldi seems to derive from the proto-Germanic "*waldiz", which gives the German Gewalt, the Dutch geweld (force, violence). So -veldi, power and Danaveldi, "the realm of Denmark".

5. Danski konungurinn hélt þó áfram að vera konungur Íslands þar til Lýðveldið Ísland var stofnað 17. júní 1944 og varð þá að fullu sjálfstætt.

Den danska kungen fortsatte dock att vara kung av Island tills republiken Island grundades den 17 juni 1944 och blev då fullständigt självständigt.

However, the Danish king continued to be the king of Iceland until the Republic of Iceland was established on June 17, 1944, becoming fully independent.

• Danski konungurinn hélt þó áfram að vera konungur Íslands -> Den danska kungen fortsatte dock att vara kung av Island -> However, the Danish king continued to be the king of Iceland

  
  

• þar til Lýðveldið Ísland var stofnað 17. júní 1944 -> tills republiken Island grundades den 17 juni 1944 -> until the Republic of Iceland was established on June 17, 1944

  
  

• og varð þá að fullu sjálfstætt. -> och blev då fullständigt självständigt. -> becoming fully independent.

Observation: þar til, literally "here to" translates tills (Swedish) or until (English). til alone carries the meaning of to, until but in a temporal sense, the two little words þar til are necessary to translate until.

Next time we will travel back to the Far North, we shall be doing another fundamental exercise, as it instantly sheds light on the structure of the new text: scanning it for all its verbal forms. And perhaps, finally, we will learn how to pronounce the þ and ð, a pronunciation of which we have at this stage only a distant knowledge.