The Andy Orchard translation of the Elder Edda is marvelous. It’s very well done, and conservative in its treatment of the difficult passages. I highly recommend this book.

I throughly enjoyed the book Myths of the Pagan North by Chris Abrahm. It was the first study of skaldic verse I’ve seen by century. The thesis of a post-conversion renaissance was very convincing based onm the evidence.

I’d also like to recommend the book Hrafnagaldur Odins by Annette Lassen, published by the Viking Society for Northern Research in March 2011. It’s the only thorough study of the poem and its manuscripts. It’s small and reasonably priced. Also highly recommended!

Greetings from Münster

Your frustration is understandable, and a case could certainly be made for reform of traditional teaching methods, but I personally wouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath-water by abandoning reliance on the thematic vowel and other elements that are no longer visible. If you don’t know about front mutation and labial mutation, for one, both processes that were active in a prehistoric stage of the language and the causes for which have often disappeared, you won’t be able to recognise why there are three realisations of the stem vowel in völlr (vallar, vellir), let alone predict what happens if you should decline the word. Moreover, if Wheelock (a fine textbook for learning purposes) hadn’t done away with thematic vowels itself, you would have been able to recognise that the Germanic a-stems are like class 2 Latin nouns, the ō-stems like class 1, and the i- and u-stems like classes 3 and 4. But if you are looking for an approach to Old Norse that is more like Wheelock, you’ll want to give Barnes a try (A New Introduction to Old Norse, available online at the website of the Viking Society). Unfortunately, you’ll find that this textbook leaves space for improvement in a different way, as it doesn’t number or distinguish between declensions at all but instead says “here are the most typical examples of masculine declension, and here are a few less typical ones.”

Now that I’m actually teaching Old Norse for the first time (if outside the regular channels), I’ve come to some new insights regarding the value of the various textbooks for teaching. I still think Valfells and Cathey is a rare treasure in terms of the theory it contains, but its presentation makes me very hesitant indeed to make my students use it. Most of my students already have Old English, but they’re English Department (read: literature) undergraduates who are probably not ready for Valfell’s full-on linguistic approach, and the order of the elements in Valfells and Cathey is just not something I find I can apply in class. I don’t really want to use Barnes because of its move away from traditional grammar, yet it does more explaining than any other textbook, and it uses great examples. In some areas it is unrivalled, e.g. in its presentation of the prepositions. Personally I prefer to work with Noreen or Iversen, but I currently teach in an environment where students just can’t be expected to read Norwegian or German. At the end of the day what I end up doing is give my own presentation of the grammar in class, then send my students home to read the same subject matter in Gordon. I also keep written versions of my grammar lectures on the course website to help fill in the gaps in Gordon that I think are bothering Brandon. Have a look, but be advised that these are essentially first drafts, so I’m sure there’s a lot wrong with them.