THE SCENE: The scene below offers a window into labor relations in the medieval period, where a farmworker signs up with a bad employer and then has to work his way out of it.
THE TEXT: There was a farmhand name Ali who lived on Thorbjorn’s farm; a man of little fortune and lazy too. Thorbjorn told him he would beat him if he did not work hard, but Ali said he had no urge to do so and answered him back insolently. Thorbjorn said he should not dare to disobey, but Ali answered him with words just as strong, until Thorbjorn could not stand it any more, knocked him to the ground and treated him roughly.
After that, Ali fled from the farm and headed over the ridge to Midfjord, not stopping until he reached Bjarg. Atli was at home and asked him where he was heading. Ali said he was looking for a place to work.
“Aren’t you Thorbjorn’s farmhand?” asked Atli.
“We weren’t on such good terms,” Ali said. “I didn’t stay there long, but it was bad while it lasted. When I left, I had grown tired of the tunes he was always squeezing out of my throat. I will never go back there, whatever happens to me. I would very much like to work for you if there is any chance.”
Atli answered, “I have plenty of farmhands without having to deprive Thorbjorn of the ones he has taken on. You strike me as a weakling. Go back to him.”
Ali said, “I’ll never go there of my own free will.”
Ali stayed there for a while. One morning he went off with Atli’s farmhands and worked like a man with a thousand hands. Ali kept this up through the summer. Atli ignored him, but had him fed because he approved of the work he was doing.
– The Saga of Grettir the Strong, 14th Century AD
