AbstractWith the recent development of case grammar¹ there is increasing interest in the connection between verbs and the cases with which they occur. According to the theory presented in case grammar, surface cases manifest underlying semantic relationships. These underlying, deep case relationships are considered to be universal. The selection of a particular surface case is subject to rules that are specific to a given language. In this paper an analysis is made of the relationships between verbs and the surface dative cases which the verbs govern. The rules which are needed to account for the surface phenomena in Old Icelandic are formulated.