THE SCENE: The passage below, in which an ex-con drifts into town, only to become a pawn in a game between two powerful local men (Snorri and Arnkel), takes place in Medieval Iceland, even if it feels like it was ripped out of the pages of a 1950s pulp fiction novel.
THE TEXT: Thorleif was the name of a man from the East Fjords who had been sentenced to lesser outlawry for seducing a woman. He came to Helgafell in the autumn and asked Snorri the Godi to take him in. Snorri turned him away, but they talked for a very long time before he went away. After that, Thorleif went over to Bolstad, arriving in the evening. Arnkel got up early in the morning and was repairing his outside door. When Thorleif got up, he went to Arnkel and asked him to take him in.
“I’m not in the habit of receiving people from outside the district,” Arnkel [said]. They kept on arguing about this for quite a while. Thorleif kept on about the matter, but Arnkel turned him down. Arnkel was then drilling into the cross-plank of the door, and had laid aside his adze while he did it. Thorleif picked it up and lifted it quickly above his head, intending to bring it down on Arnkel’s head. But when Arnkel heard the whistling sound of the adze through the air, he jumped out of the way of the blow. He lifted Thorleif up to his chest, and the difference in their strength was soon apparent, for Arnkel was a very powerful man. He dashed Thorleif down on to the ground with such force that he almost lost consciousness and the adze was flung out of his hand. Arnkel took hold of it and struck into Thorleif’s head with it, giving him a fatal wound.
There was talk that Snorri the Godi had sent this man after Arnkel’s head. Snorri did not get involved in the discussion, and let people say whatever they wanted to.
– The Saga of the People of Eyri, 13th Century AD
