Hrafnkel or the ambiguities : hard cases, hard choices / William Ian Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, William Ian, 1946- author.

Language:

English

Old Norse

Subjects (All):

Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða.

Sagas--History and criticism.

Sagas.

Revenge in literature.

Honor in literature.

Law in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xv, 257 pages : 1 genealogical table ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

Includes text of Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða, translated from manuscript ÁM 156, fol. into English.

Summary:

William Ian Miller presents a close reading of one of the best known of the Icelandic sagas, showing its moral, political, and psychological sophistication. 'Hrafnkel' tells of a fairly simple feud in which a man rises, falls, and rises again with a vengeance, so to speak. The saga deals with complex issues with finely layered irony: who can one justifiably hit, when, and by what means? It does this with cool nuance, also taking on matters of torture and pain-infliction as a means of generating fellow-feeling. How does one measure pain and humiliation so as to get even, to get back to equal? People are forced to set prices on things we tell ourselves soporifically are priceless, such as esteem, dignity, life itself. Morality no less than legal remedy involves price-setting. This book flies in the face of all the previous critical literature which, with very few exceptions, imposes simplistic readings on the saga. A translation of the saga is provided as an appendix.

Contains:

Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða. English

ISBN:

9780198793038

0198793030

OCLC:

952182504