After a week or so, I found I could make myself understood in Italy by speaking Latin with a Hollywood gangster accent. Almost always worked. But, insight into how English works may be more significant. English is Viking-talk with a Latin overlay.
Hmm… There’s a lot of pre-Christian (and presumably pre-significant-Roman-influence?) Icelandic material that discusses matters of law and governance in detail. (I haven’t read more than a tiny bit of it. But, in case relevant…)