The Saga of the Confederates

Reading this saga I was a bit confused at first about what Einar was doing but I thought that he was very clever to come up with the "fine" that he did and the way that he used it to tell off the confederates who wanted chunks of Odd's wealth. A few things stood out to me as being indicators of this saga taking place in a different time than some of the others. One was that "At that time it was very common to set up new godords or to purchase them, and Odd new did so (page 467)." I do not remember reading about that being a common thing before. Another difference is that Ospak and Svala arranged their own marriage, which is a departure from the formalized negotiations between the fathers of the couple. I also noticed that Christmas and Easter are referred to as such, so obviously this happened after all the Icelanders started following Christian traditions. Finally, almost all of the action takes place at meetings and courts, whereas in previous sagas people seemed to be a lot faster to enact their own justice.

Hrafankel Frey's Godi

In this saga, the emphasis seemed to be on keeping one's word. At the beginning, Hrafankel says, "He who gives warning is not at fault." When Sam and Thorbjorn are having trouble getting support for their case, Sam convinces Thorbjorn to stick with it by using convincing words to remind him of why he wanted to take the case before the Althing to begin with. Thorkel uses an ingenious method to gain his brother's backing for Thorbjorn, saying, "Either you accept what I propose, or you won't come to me asking for advice." At the end, when Sam has had Hrafankel's farm taken back from him, he goes to Thorbjorn, who tells him pretty much the same thing. The second time, though, Sam does not take his advice, but goes back home and has a peaceful rest of his life.

I also enjoyed the contrast made by several characters between stoically living with one's bad fortune and courageously fighting for change. Many people remembered that Hrafankel had been an unfair ruler, but none of them had ever done anything about him because everyone believed that a dispute with him was more trouble than it was worth. Even Sam initially said, "It's no great news that Hrafankel kills people." It took a man like Thorbjorn, who felt he had nothing left to lose, to stand up to him.

So, indeed, Thorbjorn and Sam proved true the words of Thorkel, that "Who dares wins." Their gain did not last forever, though. The reappearance of Sam's brother Eyvind sparks Hrafankel to avenge his own humiliation and take back what he lost. I noticed that both Eyvind and Thorkel had spent time traveling around Europe, even specifically to Constantinople. I think that Hrafankel must have transferred some of his resentment towards Thorkel onto Eyvind when he decided to kill him.

Havamol

I actually like the beginning part of Havamal the best, because of the varied topics in short snippets, some of which are really striking. My two favorites both have to do with friendship and I think that they are great sentiments and are just as wise today as they were when they were written.

34. Crooked and far | is the road to a foe,
Though his house on the highway be;
But wide and straight | is the way to a friend,
Though far away he fare.

47. Young was I once, | and wandered alone,
And nought of the road I knew;
Rich did I feel | when a comrade I found,
For man is man's delight.

Speaking of wisdom, I notice that a lot of the short stanzas had to do with wisdom: things a wise person does and does not do, the benefits of wisdom, and so on. I seems that interpersonal relationships are considered to be a sound basis for determining a person's character.

Gisli Stursson's Saga

I thought that one of the most interesting things about this saga was the complicated relationship between the brothers Gisli and Thorkel. It was confusing right from the beginning where Gisli killed the man Bard and how Thorkel was angry at Gisli about that until Gisli won the duel with Skeggi. It almost seemed like Thorkel was relieved that Gisli did not get killed in that duel, especially since Gisli had volunteered to fight in Kolbjorn's place and all. I wonder how the rest of the family must have felt about the repercussions of that duel--more people getting killed and their houses burned.

I thought the various mystical rites mentioned in the saga were interesting and how they had some unintended consequences, such as how the four men did not successfully complete their brotherhood-swearing ceremony and that was the point after which things started to get nasty. I think that part of the story shows how easily living situations could become awkward. You couldn't avoid ex-lovers or keep affairs covered up forever.

I thought it was interesting how pulling the weapon out of someone's death-wound made you responsible to avenge them.

My favorite line was on page 517 where Gisli is talking about his dreams that foreshadowed Vestein's death, that he did not want "to wake a third time from so dark a dream."

The ending of this saga was pretty sad. I noticed how several times it was repeated that Gisli was an accomplished man, but never had good luck or something to that effect. At least he made it for a long time (13 years?) as an outlaw. Even though the curse was supposed to be that no one could help him out, it seems like a lot of people did anyway. My other favorite part is on page 538: "However, it never occurred to him to say anything about the islands..." How often do movie bad guys get thwarted by some technicality? I guess this proves that such a plot twist is nothing new.