Following on from last episode’s reading of Ale-Hood, I’m reading the story of Thorstein the Staff-Struck. It carries over some characters and themes from Hrafnkel’s Saga and The Story of Ale-Hood. Stay tuned after the story for an analysis of themes from the story, as well as some information on some of the historical aspects and practices mentioned.
You may remember Bjarni of Hof from last episode’s saga, Ale-Hood. He is taunted in that story by Broddi, again about the combat in Bodvarsdale. Bjarni, in fact, plays a part in several sagas. Another saga, Vápnfirðinga saga, sheds more light on Bjarni and his relatives, as well as on Hof itself.
His presence in these other sagas is why he isn’t given a formal introduction in this saga, which would otherwise be standard. The expectation is that the reader would already be familiar with Bjarni of Hof, and so the author doesn’t take more time introducing him.
Horse fighting was a common practice in medieval Iceland, where it was known as hestavíg. It is still common in other parts of the world.
I don’t really want to go into a lot of detail about it, as I personally find it pretty repulsive. I understand that horses fight in the wild, although serious injury or death is typically avoided in nature as the more submissive horse is able to retreat. The organised aspect of the practice where a horse is beaten with a staff until it fights is barbaric. If the sport didn’t continue today in some parts of the world, I might be more willing to discuss it- but I don’t want to appear to support it in any way.
Hestavíg features in Njáls saga, Víga-Glúms saga, the Laxdœla saga and others.
This saga contains another great example of the Viking Age Icelandic legal system at work – although Bjarni brings a court action against Thorstein and wins, and Thorstein i s subsequently sentenced to outlawry for manslaughter, Bjarni did not enforce the sentence and so Thorstein continued on as if no sentence had been passed.
As I’ve mentioned in other sagas, it was the responsibility of the plaintiff to enforce any legal sentencing.
Singeing sheeps heads was (and is) the practice of removing wool from head of a sheep with fire, which is done before it is cleaned and cooked for eating.
A common theme of these sagas is, as you may have noticed, a turn to Christianity during the final years of the lives of the protagonists. Iceland had officially been Christian since the year 1000, and the sagas were written during the 13th and 14th Centuries. During this time many laws and practices were changed to be brought more in line with the Christian belief system.
I believe that the trend of inserting Christianity into the sagas was not only a way to promote Christianity and distance the authors from their pagan ancestors, but also to tell the majority of the sagas without making major concessions for Christianity.
Reference
Palsson, H. (trans.) (1971) Hrafnkel’s Saga and Other Icelandic Stories. Penguin Classics.
Music
Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)(http://filmmusic.io)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
