Hrafnkel's Saga Analysis

Pride is portrayed constantly throughout Hrafnkel’s Saga ranging from the leaders to individual community members. The main source of pride can be seen through the main character Hrafnkel. He acts prideful throughout the majority of saga until his “pitfall” where the dangers of pride are seen. Pride overcame the characters and negative consequences came about. The warning that could be seen throughout is that when one become too hubris, there can be dangers that occur to one’s self and community that result in a community’s culture. Hrafnkel’s saga shows a story where a man with excessive pride meets his downfall. This story starts with Hrafnkel who, already arrogant, has a horse named Freyfaxi that he loves. Due to this love for the horse,
This culture was one where it adjudicates conflict. In this culture, no one wanted to confront conflict, especially with Hrafnkel, because it was seen as humiliating to ever go against someone like that. The pride of the person would be damaged because they confronted a conflict in the community. The people who rejected Einar’s father’s request did not want to be humiliated by taking action against Hrafnkel. Sam, who does help, states “’I’m very reluctant to bring an action against Hrafnkel,’ said Sam, ‘I’ll do so only because we’re kinsmen, but I want you to know that in my opinion I’m helping a fool in helping you.’” This statement alone shows that Sam believes helping a fellow community member bring a case against the chieftain is foolish because everyone believed Hrafnkel was all powerful because he never lost a case before. This pride of never losing a case gave Hrafnkel a power that made the community afraid to bring any conflict against him. The people who did were usually humiliated and no one wanted to be humiliated by Hrafnkel. This lead to the culture where the community avoided conflict and kept “feeding” the pride of Hrafnkel by never taking action against him. Hrafnkel’s Saga is a story that helps showcase the ideas surrounding pride. Pride can be a dangerous thing because too much can lead to dangerous consequences. These consequences can be both individual and communal. Pride can also affect the culture of a community by creating a certain atmosphere. In this saga, an atmosphere where conflict was avoided was created until one person decided to finally take action and break down the pride of Hrafnkel. This is where the dangers of pride are shown. Too much pride can result in the downfall of anyone at any given time if someone is willing to fight against