THE SCENE: Maybe you didn’t think it was possible that anyone get exiled for playing sports too rough. Then again, you probably never met anyone who played as rough as the viking hero Bosi.
THE TEXT: Bosi was considered a rough player if he was playing games with them, but no one dared to object on account of Herraud [the king’s son], for he always stuck up for Bosi. Sjodur [Bosi’s rival] asked the king’s retainers to knock Bosi out of the games. There was one time when the king’s men had a ball game, and people were playing with much energy, and the action came to Bosi. He responded roughly, and the arm of one of the king’s men was dislocated. The next day he broke the foot of another. On the third day two men went after him and many of them shoved him. He struck the eye out of one of them with the ball, and felled another and broke his neck.
They ran for their weapons and wanted to kill Bosi, but Herraud stood by him with all the men he could get. They were about to strike, but then the King came. At the urging of Sjodur, the King made Bosi an outlaw.
– The Saga of Bosi and Herraud
