The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue

In this Saga, one can make several observations which lead to insights into the cultural context of the story as well as the historical context of the period which this Saga was recorded. One of these observations is of a strong influence by Christianity in the telling of the story which seems to be more insightful to the time period this Saga was written than to the actual time which the story takes place. An example of this is on page 567 where it states, "...it was about the time that the best thing ever to have happened in Iceland occured: the whole country became Christian and the entire population abandoned the old faith." To me this particular quote stood out from the narration in that it offered a very opinionated perspective which is absent in the writing in the rest of the saga.
Another observation I made note of was the dynamics between the genders and the definitions and descriptions of masculinity vs. femininity throughout the Saga. While there is some mentioning of strong, independent women (especially Jofrid), the patriarchal rule of the Icelandic society is quite evident. More interesting, however, are the adjectives chosen to portray gender roles and characteristics. For men, masculinity is described with words like important, manly, well-respected, brave, rich, powerful, just, and well thought of. Words associated with women and their femininity, however, seem to focus on more physical attributes such as fair, beautiful, and pretty. Throughout this saga, the qualities of masculinity seem to be stressed as desirable and admirable and required in order to gain respect from all. For women though, it simply seems that their looks determine the level of femininity and don't particularly increase their influence.
As a side note, I thought it was really interesting that this saga refered to William the Conquerer of 1066 as William the Bastard--it seems to show some bias on the part of the writer of this piece.

Reading Response #2: Icelandic Tales

The six tales we read for this assignment all seemed very unique and yet there was an underlying thread that connected them all. They were all similar in the style of writing in which each person was referenced by listing his or her notorious kinsmen and the way they were written very simply yet still employed clever twists and irony. There was also a cohesiveness in the way each tale tended to describe the Icelandic characters as stubborn, rather rowdy people.
The stories themselves were interesting because they showed how big a role honor, respect, and family played in the lives of these people. In the Tale of Thorstein Staff-struck, it is evident what a large role family honor and pride played and introduced the concept of compensation for losses as a form of restoring such honor if lost. To me this idea of receiving monetary or material compensation for the loss or dishonoring of a family member was slightly bizzare because it seemed such a callous way of dealing with the situation. However, put into the context of that time period and culture, it is understandable for all practical purposes.
While these tales helped to shed light upon a softer more personal side of these people, they also helped affirm the stereotype of their violent and harsh nature to some degree.