Egil's Saga part II

I like older Egil. Although he is impetuous and sometimes crude, he loves his brother and his friends very dearly. It is strange and yet perfect at the same time that such a dichotomy exists in one character. He is fully warrior, stabbing men through with his spear and tossing them, attacking (without fear of consequences) the son of the king who has hated him from his youth, starting fights in the same king's court. Yet at the same time he is entirely a poet. He is a loving man who is distraught over the death of his brother and is completely loyal to his friends, King Athelstan and Arinbjorn. It seemed strange at first to think that these two descriptions could fit the same man, but it doesn't anymore. Egil seems like a character who loves and hates with his whole person. If you are his friend, he will be with you to the very end. If you are his enemy, you'd be wise to watch your back (or your front - he jumps out of bushes like a bear and kills Frodi).

Another comment I had to make which wasn't related:
I was excited to see that my theory that this saga was written later than Njal's saga confirmed. All of the Viking men carry swords, not axes, and the swords have names. There are few mentions of axes used in battle in this story at all. I think that this suggests the saga was written later, when swords were the primary weapon. This would cause the audience of the time to better relate to the story being told. But that's just a guess!

Egil's Saga part I

So...I am only to chapter 33 so far, but I have noticed that I really really like this story, much better than Njal's saga. It's easier to follow - the characters are still introduced with their long genealogies, and there are many of them, but they all have a purpose (at least so far) and the story doesn't jump back and forth between different people at different times like Njal's saga seemed to. It made me wonder...it seems like a more modern style of writing. Is it possible that Egil's saga, although it is written about events that take place before the events of Njal's saga (it's been neat to see some of the same characters in the stories!!), was actually penned after Njal's saga was? There are some things that would have been impossible to actually remember - the way characters feel, or exact sentences that they say...I am just curious. I really ought to look it up, now that I think of it!

Also, I can't believe what a meanie pants King Harald was to Thorolf, how gullible he was to believe Hildirid's sons, and how unfortunate it was that Thorolf didn't think it was necessary, out of all of his wealth, just to share a bit of it to appease those brothers and give them their inheritance.

I also thought it was interesting - we have spoken a lot in class about the power and influence that women had in this society, but I was astonished in chapter 22, when Sigrid, Thorolf's wife, demands to be taken to the king, the men take her immediately, and she is heard by the king himself immediately. That really surprised me.