Þorbjörn

Þorbjörn is the grieving father of the murdered shepherd Einar — and the man whose refusal to accept a settlement turns a killing into the great lawsuit of Hrafnkels saga. When Hrafnkell, almost generously by his lights, offers compensation for the boy's death, Þorbjörn — poor, stubborn, and wounded in his pride — will not take the silver; he demands instead to be treated as an equal in the settlement, which the proud chieftain will never grant. So the old man, with nothing but his grievance, takes the case to his clever nephew Sám and on to the Thing, against all the odds of a weak man challenging a strong one. Þorbjörn is the saga's image of obstinate grief — the small man whose refusal to be bought off, foolish and admirable at once, sets in motion the toppling of a great chieftain. His stubbornness is both the engine of justice and a warning about its costs.