Reading Response #9

This was an interesting saga to read. It sounded more like a story that we would enjoy today, something with action, killing, betrayal, and trickery, all elements to a good story. I was intrigued by the concept of plundering—it was something we talked about in class a little in conjunction with raiding, but the plundering seemed different in this story than in the tales of Vikings I normally think of. The way that it was described, it seemed that raiding was an acceptable form of livelihood, that if one was short on the means to live at the time, one could just rig up their longboat, take a crew, and go for a good raid. The ones mentioned in this story seemed mostly lucrative, especially those of Thorolf. The fact that so much of his wealth was obtained this way makes me think less of his generous deeds. It doesn’t feel to me like he deserved or worked for his wealth. The same goes for King Harald—he came off to me as pouty, someone who needed constant reassurance of his own greatness, whose mood relied on the amount of superficial goods he was getting. I liked Olvir the best, because he seemed to have the best of all worlds: the good graces of King Harald while keeping peace with all those he dealt with. He seemed the most level-headed, giving everyone sound advice. He is not emphasized as much, I think, but I still like him for these qualities.

Another thing I liked about this saga was the mind games that Hildirid’s sons played with King Harald. They were sneaky in the way they manipulated Harald, causing him to question Thorolf and getting them what they wanted. This is sort of like the cunning Ofeig used in Saga of the Confederates.

A final thing I noticed was the difficulty of good communication. Hildirid’s sons were able to be so effective in swaying the King’s opinion because he didn’t come into contact with Thorolf very much due to distance. A way it seemed the King combated this problem was through “tokens” that he gave to whomever he was sending his message through.

My ending thought is that women seemed to be passed around quite a bit between the men. Once one died, his widow was given to another man not with her consent, but with the King’s decree. Sigrid sticks out in my mind most—she went through three husbands! I suppose these women must have been very good at adapting.