Description
Book SynopsisWilliam Ian Miller presents a close reading of one of the best known of the Icelandic sagas, showing its moral, political, and psychological sophistication. Hrafnkel tells of a fairly simple feud in which a man rises, falls, and rises again with a vengeance, so to speak. The saga deals with complex issues with finely layered irony: who can one justifiably hit, when, and by what means? It does this with cool nuance, also taking on matters of torture and pain-infliction as a means of generating fellow-feeling. How does one measure pain and humiliation so as to get even, to get back to equal? People are forced to set prices on things we tell ourselves soporifically are priceless, such as esteem, dignity, life itself. Morality no less than legal remedy involves price-setting. This book flies in the face of all the previous critical literature which, with very few exceptions, imposes simplistic readings on the saga. A translation of the saga is provided as an appendix.
Trade ReviewIt is difficult to fault [Miller's] dedication to reading [the saga] with such a fine-toothed comb that he manages, against the odds, to say something new about a saga about which so much has been said before. * Jackson Crawford, Scandinavian Studies *
[A] tour-de-force combination of legal scholarship and passionate imaginative engagement with the work. * Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsNote to Readers Abbreviations Genealogies Key Farms Part I: Introduction 1: A Somewhat Querulous Introduction: Hrafnkel and the Critics 2: Of Names and Manageability Part II. Economic, Social, and Geological Context 3: The Saga's Economics (ch. 14) 4: New-found Land and Setting up Households (chs. 1-2) Part III. Horse, Vow, and Killing 5: Freysgoði, Frey, and Freyfaxi 6: The Ójafnaðarmaðr (the 'Unevenman') 7: Sam, Einar, and Hrafnkel (chs 3-6) 8: Freyfaxi and Hrafnkel: More on the Vow and its Price (chs 5-6) 9: Hrafnkel's Offer (ch. 7) 10: Thorbjorn's Rejection (ch. 7 cont.) Part IV. Lawsuit Ab Ovo to 'Final' Settlement 11: Mustering Support and Going Public (ch. 7 cont.) 12: The Lawsuit: Preparatory Stages (chs 8-9) 13: Thorkel's Homily on Fellow-feeling and Commensurating Pain (ch. 10) 14: The Trial (chs 11-12) 15: Hanging Upside-Down and Sam's Self-judgment (ch. 13) 16: Farewell Freyfaxi and Frey (chs 15-16) 17: The 'True' Nature of Hrafnkel's Transformation (ch. 16) Part V. Six Years Later 18: Eyvind Returns; a Griðkona Takes Over (ch. 17) 19: Who in Hell Are We Rooting For? (ch. 18) 20: Hrafnkel's Judgment and Justification (ch. 19) 21: Sam's Last Gasp (ch. 20) 22: Sam and Morpheus: What Counts as Taking a Turn 23: Conclusion: Hard Cases, Hard Choices Appendices A. Hrafnkels saga Freysgoði, translation of MS ÁM 156, fol. B. Glossary of Norse Terms Works Cited A.1 Hrafnkels saga, Editions and Translations Consulted A.2 Sources and Translations B. Secondary Works Maps Index
