Introduction to Mímir

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General

Mímir contains a fairly comprehensive reference to the grammar of the Icelandic language. It is split into nine Sections, corresponding to the various parts of speech. Each Section is accessible from all other Sections, from the Front Page, and from this page, through a Hypertext link, and each Section contains further links to its various subtopics. For example, take a quick look at the Nouns Section.

Mímir is intended as a quick reference tool, and contains only minimal tutorial material (for example, the formation of tenses, the Middle Voice, examples of the use of prepositions, and so on). It is designed to be exceptionally easy to use, requiring only a click on the desired topic for the information to be brought up on the screen. After a little practice, it becomes a very fast reference.

Sources

The information contained in Mímir is based largely on two texts, Stefán Einarsson's Icelandic and P.J.T. Glendening's book of the same name. My icelandic friends Guðmundur Þorsteinsson and Sigurjön Haraldsson have also been of immeasurable help in shaping my understanding of the language.

Feedback

I welcome any corrections, suggestions, questions, additional material or feedback of any kind. I can be reached at tebbutt@nist.gov.

Motivation

I decided to write Mímir because I was becoming increasingly frustrated at having to continually leaf through my notebook and/or textbooks in order to check the various declensions, conjugations and other word forms needed to compose even a relatively simple passage in Icelandic. Also, I realized that the creation of the database itself would aid me in my attempt to master the language.

I hope that by making Mímir publicly available I will save others much of the inconvenience of leafing through paper notebooks, as well as promote what is, after all, a fascinating language and culture.

Terms and Conditions

The set of files collectively referred to as Mímir is available completely free of charge or liability for use by private individuals and non-profit and academic organizations. It may be copied and redistributed without permission, so long as the files remain together as a set and all copyright notices remain intact, including this one.

Platforms

Mímir is available for Unix and PC platforms. The reason for the distinction is that DOS apparently requires full pathnames in all links. Accordingly, the DOS version expects that all files will be placed in a directory named C:\MIMIR, and the local URL for the tool would be file://localhost/C:\MIMIR\MIMIR.HTM.

The "Unix" version (I think this version could be used for most other platforms, too) simply expects that all files will be placed in the same directory, since all link names are relative, not absolute. It does not matter what the name of the directory is. Thus, if the tool were placed in directory /usr/local/etc/mimir, then the local URL for the tool would be file://localhost/usr/local/etc/mimir/mimir.htm.

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