THE NOBLE HEATHEN: A THEME IN THE SAGAS

Abstract

saga is not considered one of the best family sagas, # but it contains at least one episode which has rightly become famous: the one in which Ingimundr ]>orsteinsson, the old chieftain of Hof in Vatnsdalr, is killed while trying to mediate between his sons and a roughneck by the name of Hrolleifr. The sons had been seriously provoked by this unpleasant character, but Ingimundr felt that he had the responsibility of preventing an open fight since he had himself taken Hrolleifr under his protection. When he hears that the sons and Hrolleifr are throwing rocks at each other by the Vatnsdal river, the old man hastens to the scene, mounted on his horse and majestically draped in a blue cape. The sons stop throwing rocks, but the villainous Hrolleifr throws a spear right through Ingimundr's belly. Ingimundr remains stiffly sitting in his saddle at this and returns home in dignified silence to prepare for his death. One of his last acts is to send a message to his slayer, warning him to get away before the sons receive news of what has happened. When the sons return home late in the evening, they find their father sitting dead in the darkness, erect in his high seat but with the spear through his body. The younger and brasher of the sons, Jckull, wants to rush out and seek revenge right away, but his older and wiser brother, £orsteinn, understands that it is already too late, since Ingimundr would have felt obliged to warn Hrolleifr rather than let him be killed while still under his formal protection: don't expect to find Hrolleifr at home, and we shall have to overcome him by cunning rather than by force. But we may console ourselves that there is a big difference between Father and Hrolleifr, and that Father will be rewarded by him who created the sun and the whole world, whoever he may be; but I know that somebody did. {ok njota mun fadir minn pess