Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue

In the Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-toungue, I thought it was strange that Gunnlaug never got reprimanded for his trickery in the duel where he hid a second sword. Wouldn't that be a dishonorable thing to do?

I also wondered why it was still acceptable to go raiding in Scotland even after the Icelanders officially adopted Christianity.

When Gunnlaug cut off Hrafn's leg, I couldn't help but think of the part in the Monty Python movie with the Black Knight insisting that he's not defeated even after his arms and legs get cut off.

It seems to me that the author makes it sound like Helga died of a broken heart as much as of the sickness that was going around.

Audun from the West Fjords, The Story-wise Icelander

This week I'm presenting on these two tales. They are both pretty short, so if you haven't read them yet, you should definitely go ahead and do so.

In The Tale of Audun from the West Fjords, the first thing I noticed was the extent of Audun's travels. He goes to Greenland, the frontier of their society, and to Norway and Denmark, and even to Rome, the center of religious authority. I wondered about the significance of paying visits to the kings of Norway and Denmark, since Iceland had no king.

Audun's fortunes change multiple times during his tale. He runs out of money twice, and yet he ultimately returns home a much richer man than he was when he left. King Svein gives him a ship, money, and a ring. Why? More specifically, is there a reason why he receives those particular things?


In the Tale of the Story-wise Icelander, I had similar questions about the logic of the king's actions. Perhaps there are parallels between this one and some of the other tales in which the king keeps someone around for entertainment value, such as Sarcastic Halli. The unnamed youth, however, is concerned about offending the king, so he is probably a far less controversial personality around the court.

Why might the king not like to hear the story of his own travels? I have an idea, but I also want to hear what other people think.

It's not until the end of this tale that we find out about the connection to another of the tales. How does the ending of this tale compare to the ending of the tale of Halldor Snorrasson?

Thoughts from the first week's reading

I thought it was interesting that "Iceland was Iceland before France was France or England was England or Italy was Italy." It sounds like the Icelandic people who wrote the sagas had a strong sense of who they were, because "the inability of an individual to fit in is noticed, remarked upon, analysed and perhaps admired, but always dealt with in the end" (p. xii). Since "the saga heroes occupied a social place of the edges of society (p. xviii)," maybe other characters' reactions to the hero in a saga can tell us about what was acceptable or not in their society. I've been told that good stories happen when someone defies the rules of the day, so I'm looking forward to reading about all of these renegade types and finding out what happens to them.