Assignment #2: Essay about fate in Viking sagas.

This time we had a choice between two topics--fate or heroic characteristics.  I picked fate, although later on I thought of some killer hero arguments and wished I'd done that instead.  At the time of writing I thought this essay wasn't as good as my first one, the honor one, probably because I had stories I really wanted to use but couldn't because we hadn't gotten there in class yet.  In retrospect, I think this one may be more universal than the honor topic, which is somewhat difficult to comprehend if you don't live in that sort of society or haven't read all the sagas.  Oh, and the book referenced is the same as the one for the honor essay.

Grade: A+
Comment: "Very good!!" Short and sweet.

The idea of the absolute inevitability of one's fate was a concept not limited to the Viking Era; many early peoples and indeed many people still today believe that a person's destiny is set from at least the moment of birth, if not before. Most of the time in the sagas, this doesn't really seem to trouble people; they go about their lives as best they can, making plans based on what they desire and taking the challenges and obstacles of life in stride. Problems arise, however, when a person's destiny, as revealed to him or her through prophetic dreams, omens, or the consultation of a mystically-inclined person, does not agree with the recipient's own plans. Our Viking characters are not known for their meek submission towards unwanted circumstances, and oftentimes they dig their heels in against the forces of destiny, resisting fate despite repeated confirmations of their predetermined path. Sometimes this path does not really seem all that bad, such as Ingimund's predicted wealth and fame in The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal. In other cases, the divination reveals an unhappy end, and the Fates seem to take a cruel pleasure in watching a tragedy like the fatal love triangle of The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue play out before them.

In The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal, Ingimund is a popular and wealthy young man in Norway, looking forward to a promising future as a landowner and warrior like his father Thorstein and all his relatives before him. Although he has the usual heroic attributes of loyalty, generosity, and bravery--"the sort of man that the greatest chieftains of old must have been"--his major flaw seems to be a tendency towards what his father describes as "a certain haughtiness and a lack of due caution" (198, 199). Ingimund is somewhat arrogant and headstrong, determined to have his own way in everything, and when an opportunity is presented to him to divine his fate--with the help of a "Lapp enchantress" invited to a feast he attends--he refuses, insisting that "[i]t is not important for [him] to know [his] future before it happens" (204). The Lapp woman tells him anyway, revealing that he "will settle in a land which is called Iceland... There [he] will become a man of honour and live to a great age," a fortune which hardly seems unpleasant (205). Ingimund, however, is incensed by this prediction. He immediately declares that he has "made up [his] mind never to go to that place" and even threatens the woman with violence for insisting that "things would turn out as she had stated, whether he liked it or not" (205). To reinforce her message, the Lapp woman informs him that the amulet previously given to Ingimund by King Harald has been magically transported to the land he will one day settle in Iceland, and indeed the next day he cannot find the necklace anywhere. Although everyone else in the story--Ingimund's father Thorstein, his foster-father Ingjald, his foster-brothers Grim and Hromund, even King Harald--immediately believes the enchantress's prediction, Ingimund constantly insists that he has no intention of ever going to Iceland. He's already decided what he's going to do with the rest of his life, and he can't "be a successful merchant if [he sells his] many fine ancestral lands and head[s] off to that wilderness" (205). Slowly, however, Ingimund begins to realize that this change may be inevitable, although that doesn't make him look forward to it. He hires some Lapps to magically travel to Iceland to look for his amulet, and they describe both the land and the necklace to him in detail. Finally he feels that it is "useless to fight against" his fate and makes it known that he and his household will soon be going abroad--although, he tells his friends at his farewell feast, he's going "more because of destiny and the decree of mighty forces than out of any personal desire" (208). Ingimund sails to Iceland, but for the first two years he still resents having been pushed into relocating. This new land "is a poor exchange for Norway," in his opinion (211). Eventually they discover the land matching the Lapps' description, and when Ingimund begins digging for his temple to Frey, he finds the missing amulet. In the end Ingimund is forced to acknowledge "that one cannot fight against fate, yet [he and his family] may now settle here in good spirits" (212). Ingimund has a long and illustrious career as chieftain of Vatnsdal and patriarch of a brave, noble clan including two of the valley's best leaders, his son Thorstein and his great-grandson Thorkel Scratcher. The exploits of these two men and the rest of their family comprise the remainder of the saga, none of which would have been possible had Ingimund stayed in Norway as he originally wished.

Not everyone's fate can be as favorable as Ingimund's, and the main plot of The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue finds two promising, capable young men battling each other for the same woman. Their deaths are unavoidable from the second page of the story, yet the power of the tale lies in watching the characters inch slowly towards their doom and always hoping that maybe, this time, they will overturn fate. A man named Thorstein is troubled by a prophetic dream involving two huge eagles who fight to the death over a swan he owns; he first claims that "[d]reams don't mean anything," then that it's probably an indication of how the winds will change. Despite his denials, he recognizes a dire omen, and he demands an interpretation from the dreamy-knowledgeable Norwegian skipper staying with (562). To the Norwegian, the symbolism is clear: Thorstein's pregnant wife will give birth to a girl so beautiful and accomplished that two men "will love her more strongly than is reasonable...and both of them will die as a result" (563). Unwilling to accept a fate that will bring hardship and death to his family, Thorstein refuses to believe the interpretation, calling it "wicked and unfriendly" (563). His resistance springs not from arrogance like Ingimund in Vatnsdal, but rather a primal fear of the destruction brought about by forces beyond his control. He orders his wife, Jofrid, to leave the baby out to die should it be a girl, a dishonorable practice that an upstanding man like Thorstein must be desperate to employ. Fate has planned this carefully, drawing Thorstein away to the Althing when the baby girl is born so he cannot ensure her death. Unsurprisingly, Jofrid finds that she doesn't have the heart to kill her own child and orders a servant to take the girl away to be raised by neighbors in secret. Six years pass before Thorstein discovers that his command was not followed, but by then little Helga the Fair is so lovely that he feels "lucky to have such a beautiful child" and agrees to take her back home, glad that his "stupidity" did not have the harmful result he originally intended (565). Helga's first suitor soon enters the story--a headstrong, temperamental boy named Gunnlaug. A childhood friend of Helga's, Gunnlaug is determined to have both her and the adventure of overseas travel, but these conflicting desires lead Thorstein to offer him no more than a three-year grace period before Helga can be married to someone else. Abroad, Gunnlaug meets the final player in the triangle, another strong, handsome, "well respected" man named Hrafn, a fellow Icelander and poet staying at the court of King Olaf of Sweden (567). As they wait for the king to find time for them, they exchange stories about their adventures and become "good friends;" despite this, they are fated to kill one another, and their conflict begins with an argument over who should be the first to recite his poem of royal praise (577). Hrafn finds the incident so humiliating he begins hating Gunnlaug then and there and promises to "cause [Gunnlaug] no less shame" at some point in the future (578). Even among Vikings who are notoriously touchy about losing face in front of royalty, this is a fairly minor disagreement, but when it is their destiny to be enemies, any excuse will do. Hrafn returns to Iceland and begins asking for the hand of Helga the Fair, knowing full well of her father's understanding with Gunnlaug. Thorstein immediately sees the potential conflict and does everything in his power to avoid a problem--he ends up waiting more than four years for Gunnlaug's return and visits his father, Illugi, to make sure no one in the family will take offense at Hrafn and Helga's marriage. After all, Thorstein doesn't "have many daughters to look after" and is "anxious that no one be provoked to violence on their account" (579). Helga does not have any say in the matter, although the author notes that she does "not like the arrangement at all" (579). By now, Gunnlaug is in England at the court of King Ethelred, and if he had left for Iceland at this time, as he wished, he would have arrived in time to stop the wedding. However, fate is conspiring against him again, this time in the form of the Danish army threatening to overwhelm his patron. Neither Gunnlaug's sense of honor nor Ethelred's military forces can allow him to leave at such a crucial time, and it is a year later before he finally reaches Iceland. Although he knows that Helga and Hrafn will very shortly be married, Gunnlaug is drawn into a wrestling match and injured so badly he is not allowed to travel to the wedding feast, his last chance to interrupt the nuptials. Helga and Hrafn are wed and Hrafn has his revenge; however, as he soon discovers, he has very little else since his wife is still in love with Gunnlaug. Hrafn doesn't "enjoy much intimacy" or even marital harmony with her, especially once she discovers Gunnlaug has returned (583). She hates her husband so much that when he has his own prophetic dream, in which he dies a violent death, she assures him that she "will never weep over that" (583). At this point, Gunnlaug could have given Helga up and married any other woman of his choosing, but neither his personality nor his destiny give him that option. Instead, he continues to flirt with her at social occasions and presents her with gifts such as a fine cloak. Her husband does not react to this flagrant insult, perhaps rethinking the revenge strategy that has left him with so many cold, lonely nights; he even reminds Gunnlaug that "there are many such women" he could marry (584). Gunnlaug responds that "it doesn't look that way" to him and the animosity escalates into a duel at the Althing, which ends inconclusively (585). Not coincidentally--but yet another manipulation of fate--dueling is almost immediately banned in Iceland; in order to resolve their differences the two will have to journey to a faraway land where their relatives will not be around to separate them as they have done in the past. As they battle it out for the last time in Sweden, Hrafn, mortally wounded, tricks Gunnlaug and stabs him during a truce. Up to this point Hrafn has always been portrayed as a more or less honorable fellow, but since Gunnlaug hasn't been injured too badly, Hrafn--and fate--must make sure he doesn't "receive the embrace of Helga the Fair" (591). Although they both end up dead shortly thereafter, thus fulfilling Thorstein's original prophecy, the effects of their actions ripple back to Iceland. Two more people die and one is severely injured when their families fight over compensation for Hrafn's dishonorable final act; and though Helga eventually marries again and raises a family, she can "never get Gunnlaug out of her mind," staring at the cloak he gave her and thinking of him until literally her dying day (594). Minus a few side adventures for Gunnlaug at various courts, this is the entire plot of his saga.

The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal and The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue are both propelled, partially if not completely, by the fulfillment of prophecies characters in the stories seek to avoid. Despite the Vikings' firm belief in the power and inevitability of destiny, they do their best to assert their own wills, even when the predicted fate is favorable (Ingimund) or when defiance requires them to sacrifice one of their own children (Thorstein). Some are later pleased with their lots in life; others must watch the tragedy predicted by dreams, omens, or prophets unfold, knowing they are utterly helpless to change what fate has decreed--and desperately trying to anyway. It is this strength of will, to defy not only their earthly enemies but also the gods themselves, that makes the Viking heroes such dynamic and captivating figures to audiences today and a thousand years ago.