The Saga of Thord Menace

As usual at Viking events, I whiled away my quiet minutes this weekend by reading sagas from The Complete Sagas of Icelanders.

I read two. The first one, The Saga of Thord Menace, was of particular interest to me because it impinged (or intruded) on the family history of Erling Skjalgsson, the hero of my Viking novels.

You may recall “The Tale of Klypp the Hersir,” which I translated and posted a while back. That tale (from the Flatey Book saga collection) states that Klypp, just after avenging his wife’s honor on King Sigurd Sleva (translated as “Sigurd the Snake” here, though I’ve also seen it translated “Sleeve” and “Slobberer”), was slain by Ogmund Kaaresson, Erling’s grandfather and his own kinsman. But this saga identifies the killer as one Hroald Ogmundarsson, who would be, I assume, Ogmund Kaaresson’s son. However, I wouldn’t put much trust in this version – it’s a late saga, and not especially realistic.

The Thord of this saga is supposed to be a brother of Klypp’s, who went along with him to kill King Sigurd, and escaped with his other brothers. They flee to Iceland, where Thord ends up clashing with a man named Skeggi of Midfjord (a historical figure), who is said to have stolen the famous sword Skofnung from the grave of the Danish hero Hrolf Kraki. (The legend of Skofnung said that it must draw blood each time it was unsheathed). Most of the rest of the saga involves each one of the two men trying, repeatedly and unsuccessfully, to kill the other. However, Thord has adopted Skeggi’s son Eid as his foster-son, and Eid manages, time and again, to make peace between them.

A crudely amusing element in Thord the Menace’s Saga is the miserly old farmer Thorhall, who claims to be a friend to Thord, but always runs from a fight. For this he is repeatedly scolded by his young wife Olof. After Thorhall’s death, Thord marries Olof. I think this plot thread is intended by the saga writer as comic relief.

The Saga of Ref the Sly

The Saga of Ref the Sly (the name “Ref” actually means fox) follows a familiar fairy tale plot pattern – young Ref is a lazy lout, loafing around the home-fire while all the other boys and men are out working and fighting and competing in sports. Everybody laughs at him, and there are rumors that he’s effeminate (the translator actually uses the word “gay,” which I judge pretty anachronistic). However, when his father is dead and an aggressive neighbor starts pasturing his sheep on their family’s land – also killing their shepherd – Ref suddenly proves himself a formidable man. He kills the bad neighbor efficiently with a spear he made himself, and flees with his family to Greenland. Ref never returns to Iceland, but settles in Norway and Denmark respectively, dogged all the time by the kinsmen of the man he killed. He is skillful and inventive artisan and builder, often using inventions of his own to save his family’s lives (this saga is a little like the old “A Team” TV show in that way). In the end, he dies peacefully, on a pilgrimage to Rome.

One of Ref’s great enemies, we are told, is a member of King Harald Sigurdsson Hardrada’s bodyguard. King Harald (with the wisdom and foresight kings generally exhibit in sagas) grants the man permission to go on his vengeful journey, but warns him that he won’t succeed. I was amused by a description of a board game sent as a gift to King Harald from Greenland – it’s a set of gaming pieces, “both for the old game with one king and the new with two.” That would be a reference the old Viking game of hneftafl, and the “new” game of chess.

There’s also an intriguing moment when Ref’s uncle Gest calls on “The One Who Made the Sun,” an attempt to portray an old heathen as one who looked forward to the True Faith.