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In Hrafnkel’s Saga, a man named Thorbjorn is unable to support his family by financially so his son, Einar, decides to find work somewhere else to help his father. Einar decides to work for the town chieftain and priest named Hrafnkel. In order for Einar to work for Hrafnkel, there was one condition that Einar must follow. This condition was to never ride Hrafnkel’s prized horse, Freyfaxi. Additionally, Hrafnkel offered Einar a place to stay for the whole year (P.39). At the end of the offer, Hrafnkel clearly states to Einar that if Einar ever rides Freyfaxi, he would have to kill him because Hrafnkel had sworn an oath to kill anyone who rides him. (P.40). Einar gives Hrafnkel his word “that he would never be so wicked as to ride the one horse which was forbidden” (P.40). However, one day, a number of sheep goes missing and the only horse that Einar could ride was Freyfaxi. Einar decides to ride Freyfaxi to retrieve the missing sheep and to Einar’s demise, Hrafnkel finds out this and executes Einar after he returns with all the missing sheep. As this story progresses, other characters start to despise Hrafnkel, due to his his merciless killing of Einar, leading to his exile from his own town. Although Hrafnkel commited a crime by murdering his neighbor’s son, Hrafnkel was not at fault because Einar gave Hrafnkel his word that he would not ride Freyfaxi. Hrafnkel is not guilty for Einar’s murder because Einar is responsible for his own death since he dug his own grave when he broke his agreement to ride Freyfaxi. In the era to which Hrafnkel lived in, there were no such things like laws, policemen, jails, or government. People’s word was like the law. If you broke this verbal contract, it was like breaking the law in modern sense. When Einar rode Freyfaxi, he was breaking the law between Hrafnkel and him. Though Hrafnkel murdered Einar, Einar is actually doing the misdeed because he broke his word with Hrafnkel and rather than thinking it as Hrafnkel murdering Einar, think of it more as Hrafnkel ultimately punishing Einar for his wrongdoing.
