Reading Response #4

I found this saga to be pretty interesting. I enjoyed finding that the Icelanders pretty much valued the same things we try to in our culture today. While reading, I couldn't help but be reminded of the 7 deadly sins that we try to avoid today. I think they're pretty much all represented in some form or another in this poem: gluttony and greed were addressed with food and drink moderation, envy and lust in the admonishments against wanting another man's wife, sloth in the passages about hard work (p.40), wrath I suppose was represented more vaguely with passages the importance of being friendly and true (instead of angry and vindictive), and pride in the stanzas stressing the importance of keeping silent when necessary and not boasting (p.30-34). I found that they really stressed honesty, moderation, and wisdom, and the importance of friendship, loyalty, hard work, and living a simple life.

Most of all, though, I felt the Icelanders placed the most importance on wisdom, for a lot of the stanzas focused on this quality. The poems spoke of how important it was for a man to be in control of his mind, to think critically, and to know the right time to speak. It intrigued me that knowing how to speak and communicate well was of such importance in this culture, because a lot of the images of the vikings today show them as a violent culture instead. This poem shows that there was much more to these people.

I also found this poem used repetition as a literary device. I think its purpose was to really make the qualities they were preaching about hit home. Since this poem was told orally for a long time, saying something over and over would be an effective way to stress the important points.

My favorite stanza was 47: "Young was I once, and wandered alone / And naught of the road I knew / Rich did I feel, when a comrade I found / For man is man's delight." I really liked this because I feel the same way when I find a true friend. Friends are extremely important to me, and having a good friend by your side means you have someone you can implicitly trust, be comfortable with, rely on, and laugh with. It's nice to see that the love of a friend is a timeless concept (especially when it is expressed so well--"man is man's delight.")