Comment by VorpalWay

I found it was a gradual decline from "figuring out the overall gist from about half the words" in 1300, to "I have no idea" in 1100. Perhaps being a native Swedish speaker helped a bit. Some words definitely looked related and also made sense in context (but who know, false friend words do exist). I am curious as to what someone who can read Icelandic would make of this.

For example "grymme" as "cruel" (possibly related to modern English "grim"?)

Also: after reading the notes below about how the unusual symbols should be pronounced it becomes easier, if you slowly read it aloud to yourself. The 1300s is now mostly clear except a few unusual words.