The Saga of the Confederates

Despite having been pointed out in the intro, I thought that it was rather evident that this saga was written after the designated, traditional Saga Age. One clue to this is that the Saga of the Confederates has very few episodes and is fundamentally based around a sole sequence of events, which differs from previous sagas which often include many tangent stories and semi-superfluous background information. Another hint is that there are hardly any allusions to pagan rituals or beliefs and also, the Christmas holiday is mentioned, indicating that Christianity had been accepted and infused into Icelandic culture by the time this saga took place. Also, this saga was written rather satirically and with a slightly sarcastic sense of humor, which differs greatly from the other, more straight-forward sagas. Finally, I found that the system of law in this saga to be much more detailed and procedural. Generally, cases brought to the Althing in other sagas seemed to be mainly a popularity contest in which all forms of cheating and bribery were common place. In this saga, however, we are shown that the law is much more strictly defined to the extent that people could find loopholes in the judicial process in order to manipulate the law.
As a side note, I found it rather funny that once Ospak was outlawed, Odd simply stood up and announced to the people around him this new decision and gave a pretty vague description of Ospak which I thought could easily have described half the Icelandic men in that day. I simply thought it a strange way of following through on a such a formal court sentancing.

The Saga of Hranfnkel Frey's Godi

This saga definitely differed from other sagas in how it incorporated intense imagery and realistic description which is usually absent in the stereotypical saga. While much of the writing was still very blunt and straight forward, it was obvious that the writer had gone to extra lengths to include these vivid descriptions. One area where I especially noticed this element of realism was when Sam and the Thjostarssons attacked Hrafnkel at his farm and tortured his men to humiliate him. (As a side note, I thought it a little peculiar that the character's name was Sam--I wouldn't expect to see such a common name in an Icelandic saga, especially one which isn't full of consonants.) I also thought the imagery and descriptions of the bogs and lava fields that Hrafnkel chases Eyvind through were uncharacteristically lengthy and in depth. To me, reading this saga felt much more similar to reading an early 20th century novel than your average saga.
It was interesting to me that the protagonist position in this saga seemed to shift as the writer encouraged the reader to shift his/her sympathies between opposing characters. In the beginning, I felt strongly allied with Hrafnkel's side and thought that he was not out of line for keeping his word, even if he perhaps could have been more lenient. I believed that he had made a fair offer and that Thorbjorn was simply being greedy. However, after Sam and Thorbjorn won their case with the help of the Thjostarsson brothers, I felt that they deserved it and I hoped they would be able to live on a happy life, even if they too went to extremes in getting vengence. However, once Hrafnkel finally won back his homestead and pride, I found myself rooting for him. To me, this shift of loyalties and sympathies made the saga that much more interesting because you were always involved and invested in the well being of a particular character and you could never rest easy about their well fare until the very end.

The Hovamol

I found the Hovamol very interesting in that it seemed to give a great deal of insight into the key values in Viking culture. I was intrigued by the discussion on drinking in which the stanzas seemed to stress moderation as the proper habit when enjoying alcohol. In stanza 12, lines 3-4, it states, "For the more he drinks | the less does man /Of his mind the mastery hold" warning that one is likely to act irresponsible when heavily under the influence. Stanza 19 advises, "Shun not the mead, | but drink in measure", likely good advice--to anyone. Other values which seemed to be highlighted in this poem were wisdom, honor, trust, friendship/kinship, and the importance of being a polite guest.

Of these, the stanza I found most insightful was 34:

Crooked and far | is the road to a foe,
Though his house on the highway be;
But wide and straight | is the way to a friend,
Though far away he fare.

I interpreted this to mean that while the path to making an enemy is rather tretcherous, it is nonetheless the path most traveled. Meanwhile, the road to friendship is not a difficult one, but because of investments such as time and caring, fewer people choose to take it, despite the fact that it is simpler and definitely more worthwhile.

Gisli Sursson's Saga

While there were many themes in this saga, I found the most interesting to be that of the portrayal of women. The three main women in this saga were Aud, Asgerd, and Thordis. It seemed to me, by the way they were described, that Asgerd was rather more devious than Aud, who was depicted as an honest, loyal wife. Asgerd was not only willing to lie to her husband about her affair, denying it flat out, but when he became upset with her, she threatened to divorce him and take back her dowry. She seriously had the upperhand in this situation and was not afraid to use it to her advantage. Aud, on the other hand, uses her leverage to protect her husband while he is in hiding. Instead of divulging Gisli's whereabouts and keeping the silver for herself, she not only refuses to aid the mercinaries in anyway, but blatantly humiliates Eyjolf in front of all his men. I thought this, above all, showed her amazing bravery and inner strength. Finally, there was Thordis who, while she was the one to incriminate her brother to begin with, had the courage (or perhaps foolhardiness) to attempt to avenge his death by attacking Eyjolf. These examples simply show the chutzpah that these women in this saga had, which I, personally, found rather impressive and inspiring.