Hrafnkell's Saga : Freysgoða.

Hrafnkell's Saga : Freysgoða.

The heroic stories on the Icelandic lands, brings a breeze of thoughts about wonders of morals and life aspects of that time. Harfnkel Saga is one of those stories, which we will approach from the points of warning and blames, collaborating to win, killing as sin, forgiveness as decision and by expressing some critical opinions on each point to reach different meanings and outcomes of such legendary Saga.

In Icelandic times about 10th century, Hrafnkel’s Saga tells the story of chasing rights and battling over power in which one farmer loses his life as he did what Hrafnkel the chieftain warned him not do. This triggers the consequences and turns of fate between Sar and Hranfnkel, which takes you through a journey of pursuing ones right, forgiveness, regret, and strategic decisions.

In this text we can see that there are 3 dominant morals. The first one is that warning wards off the blame , if someone warns you not to do something he has the right to blame you afterwards , that was the case for example when Hrafnkell told Einarr no to ride his horse , and he still disobeyed and got killed for it. Warning  should not justify extreme acts such as killing , to make them understand that, we would say then lets warn those who warn and take away their lives without any blame,  how bitter their own medicine would taste in their mouths ! The second moral that we can extract from the text is that even if someone is too strong to overcome by yourself, you can ally with other people to defeat him. It the case when Þorbjörn  asked Sámr to help him  to win a law suit against Hrafnkell .In that sense , as we collaborate and fight together with the sword of law and justice, no matter how giant the monster will be, we could bring it to its knees in front of justice.  The last dominant moral from the text is that wherever you go, your sins will always follow you it is illustrated with Hrafnkell in which he could not escape from his sin of killing a person without a well justified reason, therefore he was chased after by the people. That is the little catch with the sin of killing, once you commit it, it becomes your shadow.

This text can particularly teach us how to behave since it shows that we have to respect promises which was the case of Einarr who promised hrafnkell not to ride Freyfaxi, but he eventually did it because every horse he approached runs away. Ironically, Herfnkell was identified as murderer where all he did was to keep his word, whereas Einarr is seen as a victim and yet he broke his promise, which leads to his death. Furthermore this Icelandic saga teaches us that an attack on a man’s honor is one of the greatest offenses and respect is the most precious thing in order to endure any kind of relationship. Another lesson to be gained for the saga is that ones you forgive an enemy, people will no longer stand with you against that enemy, when you take a decision concerning your enemy, it would be beneficial for you to listen to your supporters and the people who helped you, because they are the backbone of your power, as in the end of the story Samr regrets not listening to his people as he realized that he lost their support.

Thoughts

Despite being the protagonist of his saga, by taking revenge, being outlawed by the brothers of the ones whom he killed, and initially worshipping as a pagan but later converting from his old Norse gods.
Hrafnkel, is a big fan of killing people for no reason.

At first he was presented as the antagonist driven by his own personal beliefs that he was superior to the rest of Iceland.
As he has established himself as the hand of Frey through an evil oath, and vows to kill others to fulfill this oath and also his choice of victims proves how he is an anti-hero.

Now wait a minute !! lets talk about that.

Its true that Hrafnkel’s murder of Einarr has been argued to be just by Richard Harris in his “The Proverbial Heart of Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða and by R.D. Fulk in his “The Moral System of Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða.”  Both shared the same thought that Hrafnkel’s murder of Einarr was justifiable, because it maintained his honor and respect amongst his servants and the chieftains.
It is certainly a good arguments But .. this still does not provide any logical reason of why an innocent ‘Einarr’ is killed.
Even if Einarr is considered as an insignificant part of the plot of the story, but it should not make the reader sympathize with Hrafnkel.
No valid argument supports his murder, because Einarr had never committed any real crime against Hrafnkel.
It might be the author’s purpose to show that a hero can continue on being a “hero” and to be praised for the killings he commits, as long as he abides by a certain codes of conduct which allows us to think that his victims deserved to be killed.

Sounds familiar… the author created an Icelandic version of Don Corleone.
How  well, we can notice it by the descriptions given to Hrafnkel; he respects most of all his family (in this case his sons and servants),
creates law and rules (His oath to Frey his horse), treating everyone equally, showing no mercy (Einarr) , corrupts his surrounding ( The chieftains, booths ).
And by the end of the saga Hrafnekl, is presented with the perfect opportunity to change his evil traits and manners, and to be considered a hero again (to play it clean), but with no doubts his evilness overrule him again.
What a surprise !.

In conclusion, the prototypical Icelandic saga hero is a one who is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his family and land, all while
staying true to their personality whether a natural righter of wrongs or a mobster.

The Harfnkel Saga is a story that enables us to learn more about a civilization and a culture that gives a lot of importance to honor. The number of lessons that the reader can take from this saga is innumerable; from honor and vengeance to justice and equilibrium of powers. Harfnkel can be anyone of us, it doesn’t matter if you become overpowered, and it just takes one event to take you down.  The Icelandic history is to be studied more in detail, because it may hide a lot of interesting stories.