The Hrafnkel's Saga (Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða) on Einarr

The Story of Hrafnkell, Frey's Priest

• attribution: Thorbjörn's eldest son Einarr was described as tall and well-mannered, and was urged by his father to find employment elsewhere due to poverty.

  "The eldest of his sons was called Einarr; he was a tall man and well-mannered withal. It so happened one spring that Thorbjörn said to Einarr that he had better try to secure some place for himself"

• attestation: Einarr agreed to Hrafnkell's terms and accepted service as a shepherd at Aðalból.

  "Einarr said he trusted he was under no such luckless spell as to ride on a horse which was forbidden, least of all when there were other horses at his disposal."

• attestation: Einarr began his service at Aðalból and the milking-stock was moved to the mountain dairy at Grjótteigssel in Hrafnkelsdalr.

  "Now Einarr goes home for his clothes, and betakes himself to Aðalból. Thereupon they brought the milking-stock to the mountain-dairy up in Hrafnkelsdalr, which was set up at a place called Grjótteigssel."

• attestation: Thirty ewes went missing for nearly a week around mid-summer while Einarr tended the dairy.

  "never a ewe was missing up to mid-summer; but then, one night, it came to pass that nearly thirty of them had strayed away. Einarr went all over the sheep-walks, searching without finding any, and for nearly a week the sheep were missing."

• attestation: Einarr rode Freymane in his search for lost sheep, knowing the horse was forbidden to him but reasoning that Hrafnkell would never find out.

  "Einarr, seeing that the morning was passing off, thought that Hrafnkell surely would never know if he rode upon the horse, and so he took it, put on it the bridle, and the riding-rug on his back under himself, and rode up past the gorge of Grjóta"

• attestation: Einarr rode Freymane from dawn until middle-eve over a long distance, searching dairies for news of the missing sheep.

  "Einarr rode "Freymane" from the first streak of dawn until middle eve, and the horse took him quickly over the ground and far, for it was the best of horses."

• attestation: Einarr confessed to Hrafnkell that he had ridden Freymane, unable to deny the accusation.

  ""Didst thou not have a ride on 'Freymane' yesterday?" Einarr said he could not gainsay that utterly."

• attestation: After killing Einarr, Hrafnkell buried him at a cairn beside the dairy, marked by a beacon that was thereafter used to tell the time of day.

  "he had Einarr's dead body brought westward upon the terrace by the dairy, and there set up a beacon beside his cairn; and it is called Einarr's beacon, where, when the sun is right above it, they count mid-eve hour (six o'clock) at the dairy."