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

The Story of Hrafnkell, Frey's Priest

• attribution: Sámr met Thorkell Thjóstarson, described as a tall man in leaf-green kirtle with light-auburn hair going grey and a distinctive light lock on the left side.

  "He who was at the head of them, and walked abreast of them, was a tall man, not of a stout build to look at, arrayed in a leaf-green kirtle, in his hand a sword ornamented; a straight-faced man he was, and ruddy of hue, and of a goodly presence, light-auburn of hair, which was fast growing hoary. This was a man easy to know, as he had a light lock in his hair on the left side."

• attestation: Thorkell had transferred his share of the priesthood to Thorgeirr before going abroad and had not reclaimed it on returning.

  ""I handselled to my brother Thorgeirr my rule of men before I went abroad; and since my return I have not resumed it, because I deem it well cared for, while he takes charge of it.""

• attestation: Thorkell devised a trick to wake Thorgeirr and gain his attention: have old Thorbjörn stumble into the booth and fall on Thorgeirr's bandaged sore toe.

  ""Now, my man," says Thorkell, "when thou comest up to the sleeping-bag, take care to trip hard and come flopping down upon the footboard, and catch in the fall at the toe which is bandaged, and pull at it, and just see how he likes it.""

• comparison: Thorkell defended Thorbjörn to Thorgeirr by drawing a parallel between Thorgeirr's foot pain and Thorbjörn's grief at his son's death for which he could get no redress.

  ""it may be, that no less painful to an old man is the death of his son, for whom he can get no redress, being moreover a man pinched by every kind of want. No doubt he knows best his own pain""

• attribution: Thorkell argued that taking on Hrafnkell offered the greatest honour precisely because no one else had succeeded against him.

  ""I should above all things choose to deal with such a man before whom all men had come to grief already; and greatly should I deem that my honour had advanced, or the honour of any chieftain, by Hrafnkell being brought into some straits""

• attribution: Thorkell warned Sámr that he would regret sparing Hrafnkell's life.

  "Then said Thorkell to Sámr: "I wonder at thy doing this, for no man will regret more than thyself having given Hrafnkell his life." Sámr said that could not be helped now."

• attestation: Thorkell stripped Hrafnkell's temple of its idols and burned it to the ground.

  "Above it stands the temple which Hrafnkell had had. Thorkell wished to come there, and he let strip all the gods, and after that he set the temple on fire and burnt there up everything together."

• attestation: Thorkell had returned from four more winters abroad and was back in Thorskafjörðr when Sámr arrived.

  "At that time Thorkell had just arrived from a journey abroad, having spent four winters together in foreign lands."