Icelandic Short Stories

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners of Icelandic. "Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners has been written especially for students from high-beginner to low-intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading. What does this book give you? - Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary - Controlled language at your level to help you progress confidently - Realistic spoken dialogues to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability - Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way · Beautiful illustrations accompanying each story, to set the scene and support your understanding - Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!' Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including: - A glossary for bolded words in each chapter - Full plot summary - A bilingual word list - Comprehension questions after each chapter. As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners will make learning Icelandic easy and enjoyable.

Of the seven Icelandic short stories which appear here; the first was probably written early in the thirteenth century; while the rest all date from the early twentieth century. It might therefore be supposed that the earliest of these stories was written in a language more or less unintelligible to modern Icelanders; and that there was a gap of many centuries in the literary production of the nation. This; however; is not the case. The Norsemen who colonized Iceland in the last quarter of the ninth century brought with than the language then spoken throughout the whole of Scandinavia. This ancestor of the modern Scandinavian tongues has been preserved in Iceland so little changed that every Icelander still understands; without the aid of explanatory commentaries; the oldest preserved prose written in their country 850 years ago. The principal reasons for this were probably limited communications between Iceland and other countries; frequent migrations inside the island; and; not least important; a long and uninterrupted literary tradition. As a consequence; Icelandic has not developed any dialects in the ordinary sense.

Icelanders have the highest literacy rates in the world. This is largely due to the rich literary tradition developed in this region. In this book, August Nemo brings seven short stories from different authors and periods so that you have an interesting overview of the story in Iceland. - The Story Of Audunn And The Bear by Anonymous. - A Dry Spell By Einar H. Kvaran. - The Old Hay by Guðmundur Friðjónsson. - When I Was On The Frigate by Jón Trausti. - Father And Son by Gunnar Gunnarsson. - The Fox Skin by Gudmundur G. Hagalin. - New Iceland by Halldor Kiljan Laxness. For more books with interesting themes, be sure to check the other books in this collection!

Reluctant to observe a new family tradition, a boy finds himself stranded outside a graveyard on the night before Christmas... Three farming brothers, forced to relocate to the city by poor harvests, discover an unexpected demand for their green-fingered talents... Residents of a new apartment block are woken in the early hours by the eerie sound of a table saw that once operated on the building’s grounds... Iceland is a land of stories; from the epic sagas of its mythic past, to its claim today of being home to more writers, more published books and more avid readers, per head, than anywhere in the world. As its capital (and indeed only city), Reykjavik has long been an inspiration for these stories. But, as this collection demonstrates, this fishing-village-turned-metropolis at the farthest fringe of Europe has been both revered and reviled by Icelanders over the years. The tension between the city and the surrounding countryside, its rural past and urban present, weaves its way through The Book of Reykjavik, forming an outline of a fragmented city marked by both contradiction and creativity. Includes a foreword written by award-winning Icelandic author Sjón. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb, Philip Roughton, Lytton Smith, Meg Matich and Larissa Kyzer. Published with the support of the Icelandic Literature Center.

There are two Icelands. One is the island in the North Sea, occupied since before the arrival of the Vikings. The other is "Western Iceland," the communities throughout North America, settled by Icelandic immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, and still maintaining strong ties to their mother country. While the prominent role of women in the development of Western Iceland has long been acknowledged, there is little recognition of their contribution to its literary life. This collection of short stories and poems spans 75 years of writings. It includes translated work by little-known authors such as Undina, "a modest poet," as well as works in English by prominent writers such as Laura Goodman Salverson, twice a winner of the Governor-General's Award. From the hopefulness of the early immigration in the 1870s to the conflict of assimilation in the 1950s, the pieces reflect a range of experiences common to immigrant women from many cultures. Writings by Western Icelandic Women includes many works translated for the first time from their original Icelandic, and rescues from obscurity the voices and experiences of women as they struggled in a new country. It offers insight into the many obstacles, both personal and professional, that faced these pioneering writers. An introduction by Kirsten Wolf provides a literary and historical context, and is complemented by photographs and brief author biographies.

Seven Icelandic Short Stories By Ásgeir Pétursson and Steingrímur J. þorsteinsson