Narrative
Hrafnkel's Saga
Hrafnkels saga
Anonymous · 1280
Synopsis
In the east of Iceland, in the tenth century, the young Hrafnkell, son of a Norwegian settler, settles in an empty valley, founds the farm of Aðalból there and raises a temple to the god Freyr. He dedicates his favourite horse, Freyfaxi, to the god and swears to kill anyone who rides it without his permission. When his shepherd Einarr breaks the ban, Hrafnkell keeps his oath; the shepherd's father, a poor man, demands compensation and, finding no support, entrusts the case to his nephew Sámr, who dares to bring a suit at the Althing against the powerful chieftain.
Context
Composed by an unknown author, probably in the last decades of the thirteenth century, the saga has come down to us through a single parchment leaf of the fifteenth century and through paper copies, one of which gives a slightly longer version. It stands at the centre of the debate on the nature of the sagas: Sigurður Nordal saw in it in 1940 a learned composition rather than the faithful memory of an oral tradition, an article of 1939 having already noted the anachronism of the lawsuit at the Althing, while other scholars, such as Óskar Halldórsson, find in it a store of folklore. It serves as an introduction to Old Icelandic and is read in Iceland's secondary schools; Régis Boyer translated it into French in 1964.
Who it is for
For a short, tight saga about power, the given word and the law in a society without a king.
Prizes and reception
Finnur Jónsson saw in it a spotless pearl among the family sagas, and Sigurður Nordal one of the most perfect short narratives.