Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

The Saga of Redhead

Just before the whale breathed its last, it gazed up at Gudrun, and there seemed to be a look of terrible sadness on its face. “Oh my dear son, my Redhead,” cried the old woman, “I knew you would come to a bad end…” NOTE “ The Saga of Redhead” i s based on an Icelandic folktale I heard from an old f i sherman on the i s land of Heimaey in 1987. In own my vers ion of the story, I took qui te a few l ibert ies wi th the plot and the characters. I al so used a style that at once honors and mocks the style of Icelandic sagas. One thing I did not change i s the tradi t ional Icelandic att i tude towards red-headed whales — they ’re regarded as evi l creatures who l ike nothing better than to wreak havoc on human beings.

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