Ref the Sly

The introduction to this saga states that this is a fictionalized story in saga form, and there are several instances in the text to back this up. First, the plotting is actually pretty tight. In the sagas that also serve to impart history, there are always lots of side plots, not all of which get resolved. In this saga, there is an uncharacteristic economy of characters, and in addition, only one generation is really dealt with. The saga begins and ends with Ref's life.

Another thing that would have made me doubt the truth of this saga even without being told that it was fictional was: How could he have had enough timber to build a huge fort in Greenland? We saw in the video last week in class that there was not much timber in Greenland, which was part of the reason to explore Markland and Vinland. Also, the saga does not explain at all the process he used to build the fort, where most sagas go into great detail about things like that.

I found myself drawing comparisons between Ref and Egil. Ref, like Egil, fights his way out of several impossible situations, and both are really good at coming up with clever retorts to enemies. Both characters went to many different places, making enemies along the way, but Ref is perpetually lucky even where Egil is not; for instance, none of Ref's children die. In fact, no one in Ref's family dies violently. Also, there was not a whole lot of character development on Ref's part, aside from his abrupt transition from a couch potato to a scary guy who will kill you, although granted it is on the short side for sagas.

I thought this saga was entertaining in its own right, and my experience of it was certainly richer for having studied other more factually-based sagas. Some of the things in it seem to almost be parody of saga conventions and hyperbole.