Learn Icelandic
Íslenska · 350,000 speakers · Lemmatizer: Wiktionary (BÍN planned)
Icelandic preserves Old Norse grammar more faithfully than any other living language — four cases, three genders, six verb conjugation classes. Most reading apps either skip it or lean on a lemmatizer built for Romance languages. Laesi supports Icelandic today with Wiktionary-backed lookups, and BÍN integration — the authoritative inflection database — is on the roadmap.
What the big apps miss
A language nobody else takes seriously
Most reading apps either skip Icelandic or bolt it onto a lemmatizer built for Romance languages. Laesi treats its four cases, three genders, and six verb classes as the main event — the reason the app exists, not an afterthought.
The Árni Magnússon sagas, readable
The medieval literature of Iceland is the reason most people learn it. Drop in an EPUB of Njáls saga or Laxdæla saga and read at your own pace. Laesi tracks your vocabulary across every saga you open.
BÍN lemmatization on the roadmap
The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection (BÍN) is the authoritative reference. We're wiring it in to collapse hestur / hest / hesti / hests / hestar / hesta / hestum back to one dictionary entry — no other reader app is doing this.
Njáls saga, chapter 1
One of the greatest Icelandic sagas, c. 1280
Mörðr hét maðr, er kallaðr var gígja. Hann var son Sighvats ins rauða. Hann bjó á Velli á Rangárvöllum.
Hann var ríkr höfðingi ok málafylgjumaðr mikill, ok svá mikill lögmaðr, at engir þóttu löglig dómar dœmdir, nema hann væri við.
What to read in Icelandic
Iceland reads more per capita than almost anywhere else on Earth. The literary tradition reaches from the medieval sagas to a contemporary scene that punches far above its 380,000-speaker weight — especially in crime fiction.
Adult Nordic Noir series written under the pen name Stella Blómkvist. Lots of speculation about who the author actually is.
Not very far into this series yet, but enjoying it.
Anything in the Erlendur series that won a Glass Key is worth reading.
Look Icelandic up properly
Wiktionary and Google Translate are built in. Wire in the references serious Icelandic learners actually use.
Recommended dictionaries
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Wiktionary Built in
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Google Translate Built in
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BÍN ↗ Monolingual
Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls — the Árni Magnússon Institute's authoritative monolingual dictionary and inflection database.
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DinOrdbok ↗ Translation
The best Icelandic translation dictionary I can name. (Norwegian-hosted but covers Icelandic.)
Analyzers
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BÍN upcoming
Inflection lookup powered by the BÍN database. Listed in the technical catalog; not yet shipping in Laesi.
Get Icelandic to read & listen to
Ebook stores, audiobook subscriptions, news, and learner material — bring any of it into Laesi.
DRM-free ebooks and audiobooks via the publisher's app. The cleanest way to legally own Icelandic ebooks.
Iceland's public broadcaster — the closest equivalent to a Nordic NPR / MPR / PBS. Good source of news article samples.
Curated by the Laesi team · last reviewed 2026-05-26
Features, for Icelandic specifically
Every Laesi feature is useful for Icelandic, but a few matter more here than anywhere else.
See everything Laesi does →-
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BÍN lemmatization (planned)The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection is the authoritative reference. We're wiring it in as the Icelandic lemmatizer — no other reader app is doing this.
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Multi-word lemmas for phrasal verbsIcelandic phrasal verbs like taka við or koma upp are one meaning-unit. Shift-click to save them as a single entry with one knowledge level.
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Saga-friendly reading viewChapter-aware pagination. Bulk 'mark all known' for rereads. Per-chapter coverage stats so you know when a saga stops being mostly blue.
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Wiktionary lookups todayOne-click definitions from Wiktionary now; dictionary plug-ins for Íslex and BÍN-grade analysis are on the roadmap.
More from Nordic & North Germanic
Start reading Icelandic today.
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