Icelandic language History and Culture

April 13, 2018 11:59 PM

I need to research the Icelandic language for a writing project. I am not trying to learn how to speak/read it. My focus is on the history, evolution, purity movements, and impact on culture. I'm fine with both scholarly and general sources. Bonus if you have any intel on how the Icelandic language has impacted Icelandic arts/culture or vice versa.

Here are some things I've already tried:

Wikipedia, including awesome purity article


Alda Sigmundsgottir's Little Book of Icelandic

Have emailed Icelandic Language Institute, waiting for reply

posted by mermaidcafe to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

Best answer: So this one is really basic, and I apologize because you surely already know it, but for others reading this thread later, the importance of the Icelandic Sagas on the history, culture and language of the country almost cannot be overstated.

The age of Sagas is roughly from the 9th-11th centuries, and these prose poems detail so many things about the island and its people-- large and small. And has had impact on the language in a huge way. The Sagas really are the foundational document series for the whole nation. A few non-scholarly articles are here, here, and here. They are all fine introductions, and each article has at least one book recommendation for further study.
posted by seasparrow at 8:48 AM on April 14, 2018

Best answer: Stephen Pax Leonard, Language, Society and Identity in Early Iceland, is a fairly recent book that I believe has a nice long bibliography for you to dig into.
posted by praemunire at 8:52 AM on April 14, 2018

Maybe worth digging through the search results for "Icelandic language" in the Reykjavik Grapevine, the local english-language alt-weekly
posted by wowenthusiast at 8:50 PM on April 14, 2018 [1 favorite]