The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

This saga was surprisingly interesting. I say surprisingly because for most of the saga, I was not at all intrigued. Lots of traveling, which seems typical of the sagas. However, I found the last pages of the saga very powerful. The love triangle between Gunnlaug, Hrafn, and Helga is fascinating. One thing I have noticed so far, is that the sagas are very different from your typical novel. You are left to fill in the blanks with what you think happened, how you would feel in a situation, rather than being explicitly told what to think and feel. I tried to imagine how I would feel if I were Gunnlaug. The saga itself does not give a whole lot of insight, but Gunnlaug was human, and when he returned to find Helga married, probably had very strong human emotions. His situation reminds me of a scene from the movie Cast Away. Tom Hanks' character has just been rescued after several years trapped on an island, where his motivation to live was a picture of his girlfriend, and his sole friend was a volleyball named Wilson . After his rescue, he shows up at her front door, expecting her to run back into his arms, only to find her married with children. I imagine how he felt at that instant must have been similar to how Gunnlaug felt. The whole plot after Gunnlaug's return is great. The battle scene is fun, and Helga's final demise without love in her heart makes one wonder how things could have been. Overall, I really enjoyed this tale. As a side note, I felt the remark on page 567, about the change to Christianity was completely unrelated to anything in the story, and seems to have some political drive to it. Makes me wonder...

The Tales...

In general, one thing I noticed right away, was the stark stylistic contrast between contemporary authors and the authors of the sagas. Contemporary writing, from my experience, is all about fluency and word choice, so that even if the story was terrible, at least it sounds pretty. From what I have read of the sagas, it seems authors are concerned purely about the story line. Obviously, something does get lost in translation. I'm sure that the sagas were much more fluent when read in the native tongue of the Icelanders. But we all know from personal experience, that the most important part of how anything, whether it be a joke, a meal, or a story, is initially reacted to, is the delivery and presentation. When I read these sagas, I see glimmers of potential. It makes me wish I could read them in the form in which they were originally written. But as it stands now, I accept the sagas for what they are. Exceptional stories. I thought that all three of the sagas were interesting. Though the first saga, The Tale of Thorstein Staff-struck, was of most interest to me. I could picture Thorstein being played by Mel Gibson in a movie. The second saga, I found a bit dull. I did, however, appreciate the irony of Halli dying as he ate his porridge. It was kind of funny. The last saga, about Audun, was kind of cheesy, but good. It resembled a biblical parable, and I was happy for the guy. Anyway, that's my response,
Peter