Travis Ferber's Reviews > Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories

An interesting book for its insight into the world of medieval Iceland. This was a world from whence our judicial system was derived, yet despite these laws the ultimate arbiter of any issue was force in Iceland. From a cultural perspective, the issues and concerns of the characters in the sagas were very similar to our modern day concerns. However, the jilted nature of the linear narrative, plodding along often to anticlimactic ends could be a bit perturbing. It left me thinking how unfortunate for the Icelanders if these were the stories that they were told. Some left me scratching my head going, "That's it?" Perhaps that's an even more telling insight into the culture and its connection with our own: the medieval Icelanders had bad writers too.