... punished reformed and those who think that is a consummate politician who has a setback but rallies to recover his losses. The debate is in effect between those who construe the story morally and those who construe it politically. (181) (1)

His own illusionless conclusion about the saga is this:

Whether we look at it through a moral lens or a political lens, it appears to offer only an array of the deficiencies that afflict the Icelandic chieftaincy (182).

Recognizing the importance of the sustained historical focus through these two lenses, the present study considers two incidents, one near the beginning of the saga, one near its end, that have an important but unremarked bracketing, even conditioning, effect on the principal action and also throw into relief the problematic nature of a pivotal event at the center of the saga. Celtic analogues will be adduced, less to argue for overt influence on Hrafnkels saga than to assist in understanding the ontological implications of secondary characters (human and non-human) in the saga, as they affect the choices and destinies of the principals.

The central action of Hrafnkels saga is initiated by an oversight: an old man's tardiness in informing his eldest son that he should seek employment away from the family farm. The son, Einar, recognizes the poor timing, as does the local chieftain, Hrafnkel, who would willingly have given Einar his best job but can now offer only a shepherd's position, which Einar accepts. His one stipulation, well known to us all, is that the shepherd not ride the chieftain's stallion, Freyfaxi, on pain of death.

Einar is warned, but we readers are forewarned, since the horse was introduced in the previous chapter and there identified as Hrafnkel's most prized possession, half of which he had dedicated to his patron, the god Frey. This may appear a rather idiosyncratic choice on Hrafnkel's part, in several senses. Frey was not the principal god in pagan Icelandic worship; his cult had overtones of sexual deviance or at least gender-bending; and fertility would seem an unlikely first concern in a chieftain, especially one with the personality that Hrafnkel reveals in the course of the saga. Freyfaxi is described as dun in color, with a dark mane and tail, and dark stripe along the length of his spine. This is the conventional unpacking of the term brunmoalottr. Such marking, effected through the contrast of light and dark hair, is characteristic of Icelandic horses or ponies, although the base color, dun (whether grayish brown or brownish gray), would have been one of the least common, thus giving the horse a distinctive appearance, in addition to its prominent status as a stallion with a herd of mares. (2)

The rather abstract oath reported by the sagaman is then actualized in Hrafnkel's words of warning to Einar. While dire, they are ordinary enough. Yet the isolation in the dialogue of this one stipulation, when so much else could have been subject to discussion, lends Hrafnkel a touch of obsessiveness. Familiarity with saga conventions allows us to infer that, if a trap has not been set, at least a mechanism has been wound in which an unwary human may fall.

Einar fulfills his duties impeccably with no sheep lost until about midsummer, when thirty ewes go missing for almost a week. This will be the first instance of aberrant animal behavior, seemingly trivial. When a fine morning dawns, Einar equips himself to search for the missing sheep. He takes a bridle and saddle-cloth, in the event he should encounter the herd of horses. His intention is to mount one of the mares. He first crosses the water of the Grjotteigsa, finds the greater part of his flock there, and, having driven them to the shieling, then spots the herd of horses, again by the river. At this point, the author's presence becomes more marked, once via a retrospective comment, once through an ominous simile; both could be thought instances of style indirect libre, the author using both the ideas and words that might be thought appropriate for the character:

Ok er hann kom til hrossanna pa elti hann pau, ok varu pau nu skjorr, er aldri varu von at ganga undan manni, nema Freyfaxi einn. Hann var sva kyrr sem hann vori grafinn nidr. (Johannesson 103) (And when he came up to the horses, he went after them, and they were now shy, when they had never been accustomed to run away from people, except for Freyfaxi alone. He was as still as if he were dug down.) (3)

Two further instances of unusual animal behavior. Since it is now mid-morning, Einar decides to saddle the stallion, thinking that their master will never learn of it. The horse does not resist. Einar rides the fine animal until mid-evening, about 6 p.m., when he hears sheep bleating from a ravine he had passed earlier in the day--perhaps just at the moment he spotted the stud. After perhaps eight to ten hours of being ridden in rough country, Freyfaxi is covered in mud and panting with exhaustion. He rolls seven times on the ground, neighs loudly, and races off. Then, a descriptive moment with clear affinities to that cited above.

Einarr snyr eptir honum ok vill komask fyrir hestinn ok vildi hondla hann ok foera hann aptr til hrossa, en hann var sva styggr, at Einarr komsk hvergi i nandir honum. (104) (Einar went after the him to get in front of the horse and tried to catch him and lead him back to the mares, but he was so skittish that he got nowhere near him.)

What we might see as an earlier role reversal between the stallion and mares has now been replaced by regular behavior. Freyfaxi, once untypically kyrr, is now more conventionally styggr. The stallion gallops off to the home farm, neighs to attract attention, and Hrafnkel tells a serving woman (a female function that will later appear in amplified form) to go and see whether it is, as he believes, Freyfaxi. She reports that it is indeed the stallion, and that he is very dirty. Basic information, plus a judgment. Hrafnkel muses aloud that there can be be no good reason for the horse's coming to the farm and can see from the sweaty condition that the horse has been ridden for a long time, even maltreated. Hrafnkel says to the horse that he will be avenged and orders him back to his herd. Hrafnkel's revenge is too well known to require rehearsal here, but it should be noted that he sees himself caught in his own oath; otherwise he might have forgiven the infraction. This is another instance of double vision, like the animals reversing behavior patterns. Our present concern, however, is less with the chieftain than with the stallion and mares. While we may entertain the notion that Freyfaxi might once be unusually docile, he cannot have been in any kind of conscious collusion with the inexplicably shy mares, although he could have chased them off, a detail not recorded. We must then conclude--from the saga evidence--either that Einar meets two random events or that he enters a contrived setting organized by some other power. From this perspective, Einar may appear the target of supernatural entrapment. Yet, being caught in a supernatural bind need not preclude either ethical or pragmatic behavior, however limited the effect of such behavior in extricating the victim from the predicament. Predictably--in saga terms--Einar is blind to the supernatural dimension and seems curiously indifferent to Hrafnkel's oath.

Freyfaxi's behavior has a...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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