HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sharder@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Soren Harder)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Understanding language (Was: Re: <None>)
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:56:42 GMT
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK

tt@tarzan.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen) writes:

>>> In article <ANDERS.92Jul27023440@lise12.lise.unit.no>, anders@lise12.lise.unit.no (Anders Christensen) writes:
>>> > It is a test given by military recruits, performed in the seventies.
>>> >
>>> >               Understands:  Swedish  Danish  Norwegian  Average         
>>> >                      --------------------------------------------------
>>> > Swedish recruits               -       23%     48%        36%
>>> > Danish recruits               49%       -      69%        58%
>>> > Norwegian recruits            88%      73%      -         81%


>It might've been fun to see Finns included in that comparison ... 

>I think it's a fairly safe bet that about 0% of Danes and Norwegians
>understand Finnish; Sweden has a substantial Finnish minority so there
>the figure might be a couple of percent (maybe even 5?).  The other
>way guessing is harder (depends on what level of understanding is
>required), but I'd say maybe 10% of Finns understand Swedish, somewhat
>fewer Norwegian, and 0% Danish.  (This is based on a sample of 1
>people and mystical insight.  Anybody feel like contradicting it with
>facts?)

And another interesting aspect is to look at people who have one of
these languages as first language, but aren't from DK, N or S, like
the Swedish speaking Finns. Do they understand Danish or Norwegian. Or
the Danish speaking minority in Germany, who understand very, very
little Swedish (I've been in a class in the Danish college in
Slesvig-Holsten together with a (Finno-)Swede, so I know :-) :-)). Or
what about all the people out there who have learned one of the
languages as a second (or third or...) language; do you understand any
of the others? (I expect you wont).

Soren

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Soren Harder, (MSc student)
Centre for Cognitive Science, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh
E-mail: sharder@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun)
Subject: Re: Norwegian gold in the olympics?
Reply-To: jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun)
Organization: SINTEF, Norwegian Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 07:19:43 GMT

In article <mette.712331504@gmd.de>, mette@gmd.de (Mette Krogsaeter) writes:
|> Could somebody tell me (and other Norwegians abroad too?) about which 
|> athletes from Norway are "expected" to return home from Barcelona
|> with a gold medal - or maybe silver/bronze? I know about Trine
|> Hattestad (women's javelin) and the women's handball team, and maybe
|> Irene Dalby (swimming), but that's about it. What about track, rowing, 
|> sailing, wind surfing, kayak - I suspect there are a few good candidates 
|> there, too.
|> 
|> If you don't want to post, please send me an e-mail. I welcome all
|> sports reports from "up north".
|> 
|> Mette Krogsaeter
|> e-mail: mette.krogsaeter@gmd.de
|> 
|> 
--


Jon Roenningen, the wrestler actually WON GOLD yesterday (expected)
Ole "Lukkoeye (Sandman)" Klemetsen, boxing ?
Linda Andersen (?), "Europajolle" (sailing)
Knut Holemann, kayak
"Dobbeltfirer" (4 men in a rowboat - I don't know the english name)

Maybe more (or less :-)

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jan Arne Fagertun, Research Engineer, SINTEF Division Termodynamics |
| E-mail: Jan.A.Fagertun@termo.unit.no                                |
| Phone : +47 7 596890                            Fax  : +47 7 944513 |
| Mail  : SINTEF/Varmeteknikk, 7034 Trondheim, Norway                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)
Subject: Re: Understanding language (Was: Re:  <None>)
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
	<1992Jul29.121641.25112@nntp.hut.fi> <1992Jul29.152648.4556@sics.se>
	<1992Jul29.164431.3554@alf.uib.no>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 18:01:15 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.164431.3554@alf.uib.no> hlirg@alf.uib.no 
(Roger Greenwald) writes:

   >And many Swedes have never heard any dialects of Norwegian other
   >than "Oslo" and "NRK".

  Possibly so, possibly so. But a "skorrande" variety of Norwegian
- Bergensian? - is quite commonly heard here.
From: rhaller@oregon.uoregon.edu (Rich Haller)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Laughing at americans
Date: 22 Jul 92 22:31:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: rhaller.rhaller-220792152853
Followup-To: soc.culture.nordic
Organization: University of Oregon

In article <1992Jul19.130602.611@news.acns.nwu.edu>,
kswanson@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Kurt Swanson) wrote:

> (I can't tell you how many times I've come accross people in my worldly travels
> who believe americans regularly wear sidearms...)

Rubbish. Only Texans regularly wear sidearms. Other americans keep theirs
in the glove compartment of their cars. Remember that if you are driving in
the US and are tempted to cut someone off.

-Rich Haller
From: Jakob Nielsen <nielsen@bellcore.com>
Subject: Re: Importing goods from the U.S.????
X-Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 22:41:19 GMT
Organization: Bellcore - Bell Communications Research
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d3
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 21:41:25 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.185934.1@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi> ,
pbrown@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi writes:
>  I have an item in mind that is available in the U.S. (yes, it's a legal
>substance!) which Finns have never seen before, and which I believe
>could go over quite well here.  I have absolutely no idea where to 
>begin in pursuing this idea, so thought that maybe someone here could
>help.  So, any experienced entrepreneurs out there?

One place to go would be the U.S. embassy. They should have some kind of
export consultant who can help you.

Depending on what item it is, there may be different considerations. Some
items can just be shipped over (though you have to pay import duty). Other
items are regulated and need more complicated clearance (for example, food
and medicine). You could try to figure out what government department in
Finland handles regulations for the type of item in question and ask them
what the rules are.
--
Jakob Nielsen, nielsen@bellcore.com, fax (201)  829-2645
Bellcore, MRE 2P-370, 445 South St., Morristown, NJ 09792-1910, USA
From: jsamuels@lawlab_2.vill.edu (Jeffrey Samuelson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Importing goods from the U.S.????
Date: 29 Jul 92 21:11:54 GMT
Organization: Villanova University Law School

In article <1992Jul29.185934.1@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi> pbrown@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi writes:
>Hola!

>  Listen, I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience with
>importing anything into nordic countries -- Finland in particular, from
>the U.S.  That is, for the purpose of selling it in the destination
>country.

>  I have an item in mind that is available in the U.S. (yes, it's a legal
>substance!) which Finns have never seen before, and which I believe
>could go over quite well here.  I have absolutely no idea where to 
>begin in pursuing this idea, so thought that maybe someone here could
>help.  So, any experienced entrepreneurs out there?

>Thanks,

>--Paul

>-- 
>/************************************************************************/
>/* Paul V. Brown                 *   "I kid thee not"                   */
>/* pbrown@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi   *        -Nicolas Cage                 */
>/*                               *            "Peggy Sue Got Married"   */
>/************************************************************************/
Let me guess, Crime or Peanut Butter :)........ 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: karttu@mits.mdata.fi (Antti Karttunen)
Subject: Strange letters and words (was Re: Finnish question)
Organization: MITS, Helsinki, Finland
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 01:12:13 GMT

In article <9207271145.AA10264@Aragorn> ct@dde.dk (Claus Tondering) writes:
>ISO standard 6937 mentions that the Finnish language uses two characters
>that look like S and Z with a small v above (a hacek accent).
>
>I have never seen any Finnish text that uses these two characters.
>Does Finnish use them? Or has Finnish used them in the past?

They are alternative letters for the sh and zh combinations.
I also thought that they were used only in the past, until I searched
for the finnish words beginning with "sh" from the "Finnish-English
General Dictionary" (published by WSOY, printed 1984) and found only
the words "shetlandinpaimenkoira", "shetlandinponi" and "shetlandinsaaret".
So I wondered where are the common words like "shakki" (chess), "sheikki"
(sheikh) or "shokki" (shock). Yes, they were printed with s-caron instead
of sh, and sorted so that s-caron is equivalent to 's'. IMHO, almost as
stupid as thinking that 'w' is equivalent to 'v', which is used in
the 'official' Finnish sorting, used in the libraries, etc.

BTW, I don't think there is a single finnish word beginning with "zh"
(even a recent loan word), except maybe some foreign proper names.
Also, I can find only about twenty words beginning with 'z' (which is
pronounced as 'ts' by Finns, not voiced 's') from that same dictionary,
and they all are of the foreign origin.

>
>-- 
>Claus Tondering
>Dansk Data Elektronik A/S, Herlev, Denmark
>E-mail: ct@dde.dk
>

PS. It's possible to make some amazing discoveries when leafing randomly
through the dictionary. For example, from that same Finnish-English
dictionary I found the following words:

tuut (interj) toot
tyyt (interj) toot
t||t (interj) toot

Where (interj) means 'interjection', and | is o with dots.
So we got three different words for where there is only one in English... ;-)
'Tuut' is pronounced like 'toot' in English, 't||t' like 'turtle' without 'le'
and 'tyyt' like something between.

-- 
Antti Karttunen       --  $B%"%s%C%F%#!!%+%k%C%H%%%M%s(J
karttu@mits.mdata.fi  --  Whatever comes naturally.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: samuelson@ucis.vill.edu (SAMUELSON, JEFF)
Subject: Ancestors
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: Villanova University
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 21:03:00 GMT

Can anyone living in Sweden tell me how common the name Samuelson is?  I
am trying to fill in some family history and like many Americans, we
are rather vague in our geneologies.  I would like to be able to contact
relatives there if possible.  Any info as to wether this name is popular or
specific to a single area would be most helpful.



						Jeffrey D. Samuelson



        0
        l
x       l
OXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
x       l
        l
        0
From: abraham@iesd.auc.dk (Per Abrahamsen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: POLL: 8-bit characters?
Date: 30 Jul 92 20:30:08 GMT
	<8070033@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> <TT.92Jul15082535@tarzan.jyu.fi>
	<5145@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <PEM.92Jul24005911@meryl.DoCS.UU.SE>
	<KIMMO.KETOLAINEN.92Jul28014949@polaris.utu.fi>
	<TML.92Jul28100931@hemuli.tik.vtt.fi>
Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University


>>>>> On 28 Jul 92 10:09:31 GMT, tml@tik.vtt.fi (Tor Lillqvist) said:

Tor> I find this a bit depressing.  Nordics and others have long complained
Tor> bitterly how American computer & software manufacturers used to assume
Tor> "USASCII is good for everyone" and ignored the needs of European
Tor> languages with all those funny characters.  Now, these people want to
Tor> go ahead and use Latin-1 in e-mail and News, without any special
Tor> headers or quoting, before any better standard (MIME?) has been agreed
Tor> upon by the appropriate Internet bodies.  Isn't this as shortsighted
Tor> as allowing 7-bit USASCII only?  There are even European languages for
Tor> which Latin-1 isn't enough, not to mention all the other languages.

ISO Latin/1 is the first 256 entries in UNICODE (the most likely
16-bit standard), which is going to be a subset of ISO-10646 (the
32-bit standard).  

Making the software 8-bit clean and start using Latin/1 therefore
seems like a logical first step. 

Now I just wish the Danish news backbone would make their software
8-bit clean (e.g. by upgrading to C News).
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: steinarb@idt.unit.no (Steinar Bang)
Subject: Re: Sweden in Europe?
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway
	<EXJTMM.92Jul20094427@ida28.tts.lth.se>
	<1992Jul20.085145.9918@ugle.unit.no>
	<CINDY.92Jul20204601@solan10.solan.unit.no>
Date: 21 Jul 92 08:45:25

>>>>> cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf) writes:

> There's some graffitti in a bus stop shelter near our apartment that
> reads "NORGE UT AV EUROPA" (Norway out of Europe).

I've always liked a related one:
 "NORGE UT AV GOLFSTROEMMEN"

> I suppose this is taking the "Join Europe" bit to its illogical
> extreme 8-).

Yeah,... well,... :-)

> How would you go about getting Norway _out_ of Europe?  Massive
> amounts of high explosives?  Shovel brigades?

Nope we will use that secret weapon of the Royal No. Navy:
 "Fjordflytting" improved to move large stretches of ocean.
Ref. to the Norwegian Armed Forces information film:
 "Vaar Aere og vaar Vannmakt"

- Steinar
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: oysteint@ifi.uio.no (\ystein Tvedten)
Subject: Re: EC (Was: Laughing at americans)
Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 00:18:20 GMT
Originator: oysteint@yrsa.ifi.uio.no


In article <1992Jul22.143630.28575@kth.se>, tomas_e@LINK.Physchem.KTH.SE (Tomas Eriksson) writes:
> In article <1992Jul22.072047.22178@ugle.unit.no>, jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun) writes:
> >
> >Tomas, and all of you pro-EEC's in Sweden and Norway :
> >
> >It's no good idea to say that "If Norway, Sweden, ..... join EC, ...."
> >as an argument for actually joining EEC.
> 

Why isn't it a good idea ? You NO people are so arrogant, acting like Norway
already has voted no to the E(E)C. 

> It wasn't an argument for joining EC. (If you use the term *E*EC, you just 
> mean one aspect of the European Community.) It was a discussion about to 
> what extent it's reasonable to say "Europe" instead of EC.
> 
> >Norway will not join EEC, and if you use norwegian EEC-membership as a
> >major argument for Sweden to join EEC, you might get into a problem
> >in just a short time.
> 

hey, nothing is desided about the EC in Norway YET, so stop talking like it
already have been desided!


> >Besides, it looks like Denmark's membership may be questionable, too.
> >This may increase your problems. You may have to switch from saying
> >"Sweden must join EC because Norway and Denmark ...." to "Sweden must
> >join EC in spite of Norway and Denmark ....".
> 
> Are you seriously saying that Denmark will *leave* the present EC? I 
> don't think that is the case. That's definitely not what they were voting
> about!
> 

Denmark voted no to the Maastricht(sp?)-treaty, about a closer political,
economic and military union, but it was not a no to the EC.


> I would like to ask you a few things: those who are anti-Norweigan EC 
> membership, what do you think about Norway's NATO membership? If you 
> don't like it, what did you think about it pre-1989, or say, pre-1986? 
> How would you view an extended Nordic/Scandinavian cooperation, 
> including e.g. common currency and close defense cooperation? What about 
> the rumour that some people in Norway don't like EC because that would 
> mean some kind of Swedish influence in Norway ?
> 

Yes, the major No-To-E(E)C party in Norway, Sosialistisk Venstre (SV) compares
the EC union to a new union with Sweden, something I find completely stupid and
idiot (like most of the leaders of SV, Anne-Inger - g} og heng deg)


> Tomas
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tomas Eriksson                                          tomas_e@physchem.kth.se
>             Surface Force Group, Department of Physical Chemistry,
>                Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Quotation of the week (30), from "Endymion" by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of 
> Baconsfield:
> 	"'As for that', said Waldershare, 'sensible men are all of the same
> 	religion.'
> 	'And pray, what is that?' inquired the prince.
> 	'Sensible men never tell.'"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: kimmel@cortex.sai.vtt.fi     (Jyrki Kimmel)
Subject: Re: San Diego Responds to Potential Dane Invasion
Organization: Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT/SAI)
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 05:26:04 GMT


I survived the ORIGINAL Legoland in 
Billund, Denmark, two weeks ago together with
my wife and 2 kids.

For me, the most interesting things were surprisingly accurately
made replicas of famous sights from all over the world.

To the kids, the big thing was getting on all the rides. These
were actually standard amusement park rides we have here
in Finland in many attractions also, only converted to fit
the LEGO theme.

They let people in the park about one hour before the rides opened.
The place was crowded even then, but it got really jam packed by
the afternoon. We were lucky to get out about when the kids started 
whining at 2 pm. There were then more people walking towards the main
gate than away from the park... I wonder what the San Diego
officials have against a few more tax dollars? I must admit, though, that
LEGO has a lot to do before they can equal other San Diego
attractions such as Sea World and the Zoo.

Jyrki

-- 
Jyrki Kimmel, VTT Medical Engineering Laboratory kimmel@cortex.sai.vtt.fi
signature in proposal in peer review phase (PPRP). Proposed motto:
"El{m{ on kivaa!" ("Life is fun!")  -Kaisa-Maria, age 3
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: bjorn@Minsk.docs.uu.se (Bjorn Knutsson)
Subject: Shoes inside (Was: Re: San Diego Responds to Potential Dane Invasion)
Organization: CS, Uppsala University, Sweden
	<1992Jul24.131702.28244@corax.udac.uu.se>
	<1992Jul24.152618.13664@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 23:18:25 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.152618.13664@midway.uchicago.edu> rtp1@quads.uchicago.edu (raymond thomas pierrehumbert) writes:
> The only problem we have is that we follow the Swedish custom of
> not wearing shoes in the house (keeps things cleaner).  When one
> of those "stupid grown-ups" steps on a Lego (esp. the little 
> corner pieces), you find they might be blind, but they sure
> can holler.  

This one (or rather the opposite) surprised me the first time I went to the US:
People wear shoes INSIDE their homes. It takes a conscious action for me to
enter a home without removing my shoes. I remember my (US) host asking me if
this was a religious thing, or something...
--
Bjrn Knutsson <bjorn@bern.docs.uu.se>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: olof@me.chalmers.se (olof daunius)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Ancestors
Date: 22 Jul 92 19:45:22 GMT
Reply-To: olof@me.chalmers.se (olof daunius)

In article <21JUL199216031095@ucis.vill.edu>, samuelson@ucis.vill.edu
(SAMUELSON, JEFF) writes:
> Can anyone living in Sweden tell me how common the name Samuelson is?  I
> am trying to fill in some family history and like many Americans, we
> are rather vague in our geneologies.  I would like to be able to contact
> relatives there if possible.  Any info as to wether this name is popular or
> specific to a single area would be most helpful.
> 
> 
> 
> 						Jeffrey D. Samuelson
> 

 A quick look in the Goteborg telephone book gives appr. 850 Samuelson's
 (or Samuelsson). The directory lists appr. 250 000 telephone numbers.
 Some 11 000 are named Johansson, which I believe is the most common surname.

 My guess is that the Samuelson's are pretty evenly distributed
troughout Sweden.
 (There are also a couple of them in the Pittsburgh Penguins).

 Good luck!

 Olof Daunius: olof@tfd.chalmers.se 
 Dept. of Thermo and Fluid Dynamics
 Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
 tel. +46 31 772 37 90
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: kimmel@cortex.sai.vtt.fi     (Jyrki Kimmel)
Subject: Re: Importing goods from the U.S.????
Organization: Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT/SAI)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 06:00:01 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.010033.12339@schaefer.math.wisc.edu> junikka@schaefer.math.wisc.edu (Jari Junikka) writes:
>jsamuels@lawlab_2.vill.edu (Jeffrey Samuelson) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Jul29.185934.1@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi> 
>>pbrown@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi writes:
>
>>>  I have an item in mind...

(about Paul's idea of an American import)

>My guesses:
>1) Wonder bread (warning: this probably should be sold as 
>                 bread substitute in Finland. That is the case in some
>                 European country I've forgotten.)

I always wanted to pick up a loaf of Wonder Bread and squish it to
a small ball that fits in my palm. My traditional respect for
anything labeled 'food' has prevented this. After all, the
life of an entire nation depends on Wonder bread and Twinkies. 

>2) Jello        (This probably would not sell well in Finland. Personally,
>                 I don't like food items to perform for me. And why on earth
>                 anyone would like to eat agar-agar and artificial flavorings?

The good thing about Jello is, you can be absolutely positively certain
that no natural ingredient has interfered with the manufacture of
the substance. And, life is so much more colorful seen through Jello.

Jello makes some other fine products besides the gelatin desserts. One
example is Jello cheesecake. You don't even have to bake it as it sets
in the refrigerator!

(N. B. I have no relation to whoever makes Jello except as a victim
of the Bill Crosby commercials)


-- 
Jyrki Kimmel, VTT Medical Engineering Laboratory kimmel@cortex.sai.vtt.fi
signature in proposal in peer review phase (PPRP). Proposed motto:
"El{m{ on kivaa!" ("Life is fun!")  -Kaisa-Maria, age 3
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: uwe@borneo.gmd.de (Uwe Kleinhans)
Subject: Informatikk i Oslo
Organization: GMD
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 13:52:38 GMT

Currently I am working in Germany as a researcher in the fields of computer 
science. I am focussing on the analysis and development of interfaces between
operating systems and hardware architectures.
As my norwegian girl friend and I are going to move to Oslo, I would appreciate
any information about the main topics in computer science at Universitetet i Oslo.
Dere kan gjerne svare paa norsk ogsaa.
Thanks og tusen takk
-uwe

Uwe Kleinhans, email: uwe@gmdzi.gmd.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Reading about viking. (Was: Ro"da Orm)
From: dsolis@koko.csustan.edu (Djelrik Solis)
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 07:02:24 GMT
Organization: CSU Stanislaus

In article <1992Jul22.002514.27785@corax.udac.uu.se> pem@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per-Erik Martin) writes:
>In article <1992Jul21.172659.22426@walter.bellcore.com> Jakob Nielsen <nielsen@bellcore.com> writes:
>
>>In article <1992Jul19.040131.19085@midway.uchicago.edu> raymond thomas
>>pierrehumbert, rtp1@quads.uchicago.edu writes:
>>>This all whets my appetite for history of the Viking era. Are
>>>there any recommendations for good texts for a casual reader?


	Certainly good reading is "Westviking," by Canadian author Farley
Mowatt.  It describes in enjoyable detail the westward movement during the
9th,10th, and 11th centuries, and gives a good account of life in Iceland
and Greenland during those times, focusing on the voyages of Eric the Red,
Leif Eriksson, and Bjarni Herjolfsson (sp?), among others.

-Djelrik Solis

Newsgroups: soc.culture.spain