Hrafnkel's Saga

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" said Þorkell in Hrafenkel’s Saga which means you can't expect to achieve anything if you never take any risks. Does this proverb sound undeniable to you? It does? But, only misery comes from the particular undertaking that starts with Þorkell saying this. Sagas are long stories of heroic achievement. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland. Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða is one of them, a saga of wealth, revenge and power. Hrafnkel is his name, godi means priest although it also came to mean chieftain, and Frey was the Norse god of fertility. The saga of Hrafnkel the priest of Frey, recites the struggles between chieftains and farmers in the east of Iceland in the 10^th century, it is characterized by its logical structure and plausible, vivid characters.

The story depicts and mainly focuses on how the eponymous hero Hrafenkel, who changes from a religious practitioner to a self-interested character, realizes that power doesn’t lie on the worship of Gods, but in the loyalty’s of one’s subordinates. Is he right? Morally, this seems to be incorrect, because we know that what is moral is determined by what God commands. What about pragmatically?

In this society you get reputation and high statues by strength. He is considered leader the one who is good to his people and bad to the others as it is stated: "he was a very unjust man, though able. He forced the men of Jökulsdalr to serve as his supporters at the Assembly, and was kind and reasonable with his own men, but harsh and inflexible with the men of Jökulsdalr, and they got no justice from him. “

This means that we are in a society where you need to be powerful to survive. Being humble, kind and forgiving brings you only bad outcomes.

             

Having a good understanding of the concept of leadership is fundamental to be a leader. Whatever ethical plane to hold to, when someone is responsible for people, its important for him to raise the bar even higher. The group is a reflection of the leader himself, and if he makes honest, courage, confidence and the ethical behaviors a key values, the team will follow and there will be the leadership. Having self-confidence helps a person set his goals and achieve them easily. As its explained by Dr. Branden (Psychologist) When self-confidence is little, negatives have much more additional power over us than positives. We are inspired further more by the wish to prevent discomfort than to feel pleasure. If we do not trust in ourselves and in our value or in our adorability and goodness then the universe will be a terrifying place. No matter how intense you try to overcome it, breakdowns will happen. Which is acceptable, you just need to know how to deal with them. Famous leaders take them in steps. They persist to be calm and rationally think through the situation. They use their resources. What they don’t do is descent apart and expose to their team how concerned they are. This leads to negative confidence and terror. Strong leaders do in fact guide, even when they’re confronted with obstacles. In order to insure everything will go in the right path no matter what gets in their way and the most important thing is not to show to their team that there is stress.