Wikipedia talk:Featured article review/Hrafnkels saga/archive1

Hi! my name is Einar--Einargunnarb (talk) 19:03, 12 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is from the article: “We learn of the Norwegian man Hallfreðr who becomes one of the original settlers of Iceland, arriving on the east coast around the year 900 with his teenage son Hrafnkell, a promising young man.”

HRAFNKELS SAGA FREYSGOÐA (in Icelandic) http://www.snerpa.is/net/isl/hrafn.htm

1 Það var á dögum Haralds konungs hins hárfagra, Hálfdanar sonar hins svarta, Guðröðar sonar veiðikonungs, Hálfdanar sonar hins milda og hins matarilla, Eysteins sonar frets, Ólafs sonar trételgju Svíakonungs, að sá maður kom skipi sínu til Íslands í Breiðdal, er Hallfreður hét. Það er fyrir neðan Fljótsdalshérað. Þar var á skipi kona hans og sonur, er Hrafnkell hét. Hann var þá fimmtán vetra gamall, mannvænn og gervilegur.

There is nothing in the passage above which indicates that Hallfreðr was a Norwegian. I do not know about other primary sources. He may have arrived from present day Norway or even some of the Scandinavian settlements in the British Isles. If there is some information in the saga or in other primary sources about that he arrived from Norway or was a Norwegian, the author of the article should refer to the relevant passages. Apart from this it is rather unlikely that a Norwegian man around the year 900 was devoted to Frey worship. In this period Frey was the principal god of the Swedes.

I discuss this briefly in my latest article just being published in a Norwegian magazine: In the third chapter, I discuss Ingólfr the Viking, the account in Libellus Islandorum about the first settlers of Iceland, and other interesting issues. In my view, an exceptionally exciting article. Published in Aust-Agder-Arv 2008 http://www.aaks.no/FullStory.aspx?m=81&amid=5882

Best regards Einar Gunnar Birgisson