Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
NJÁL'S SAGA
Speared in the belly, Þorgrim dropped his shield, slipped, and fell off the roof. He walked back to Gizur and
the rest.
“Is Gunnar at home?”, asked Gizur, looking up. Þorgrim replied, “You'll have to find that out for yourself - but
his spear certainly is.” And then he fell dead.
There's nothing to beat the laconic, hard-bitten delivery of
Njál's Saga
, Iceland's gripping tale
of Viking-age clan warfare. The story centres on the life of
Njál Þorgeirsson
and his family,
who are casually ensnared in a minor issue that somehow escalates into a frightful, fifty-year
feud. Bound by their own personalities, fate, and sense of honour, nobody is able to stop the
bloodshed, which ends only after the original characters - and many of their descendants
- have been killed. But there's far more to
Njál's Saga
than its violence, and the tale paints a
vivid picture of Iceland at what was, in some ways, an idyllic time: the power of the Alþing at
Þingvellir was at its peak, Christianity was overpowering paganism, and the country's free
settlers lived by their own efforts on farming and freebooting.
The tale splits into three uneven parts, beginning in the late tenth century at a point where
the fate of several participants is already intertwined. Gifted with foresight and generally
respected by all, Njál himself is often a background figure, mediating and advising rather than
confronting or fighting, but his sons play a far more active role, especially the proud and
ferocious
Skarp-héðinn
. Njál's best friend is the heroic
Gunnar Hámundarson
of Hlíðarendi,
whose superb martial skills and physical prowess never get in the way of his generosity or
sense of justice. Balancing this nobility is the malevolent
Mörð Valgarðsson
, a second cousin
of Gunnar's who grows up hating him for his intrinsic goodness and spends the saga's first
third plotting his downfall.
Early on in the tale Gunnar goes against Njál's advice and marries “Thief-eyed”
Hallgerð
, a
thorny character who provokes a violent feud with Njál's household. Njál and Gunnar remain
friends, but Njál's sons are drawn into the fray by the murder of their foster-father
Þorð
, and
the cycle of payback killings begins. Mörð sees his chance, and manipulates various
disreputable characters into picking fights with Gunnar, who emerges undefeated yet
increasingly worn down from each confrontation. After one fight too many, Gunnar is
outlawed - banished from Iceland for three years - at the Alþing in 990. Torn between his
respect for the law and love of his country, Gunnar finds himself unable to leave, and is hunted
down to Hlíðarendi by a posse led by Mörð and the upstanding chieftain Gizur the White.
When Gunnar's bowstring snaps during the siege, Hallgerð spitefully refuses to give him two
locks of her hair to restring the weapon: “To each their own way of earning fame,” Gunnar
memorably responds, and is cut down.
After an interlude describing Iceland's
conversion to Christianity
in 1000, the violence
sparked by Hallgerð thirty years earlier resurfaces when Njál's sons kill her distant relative, the
arrogant Þráin Sigfússon, for his part in Þorð's death. Attempting to placate Þráin's family, Njál
adopts his son
Höskuld
and buys him a priesthood, and for a while all seems well. But
resentment at this favouritism eats away at Njál's sons, and, encouraged by Mörð - who, now
that Gunnar is dead, has shifted his vindictive attentions to Njál - they murder Höskuld.
Höskuld's influential father-in-law
Flósi of Svínafell
agrees initially to a cash settlement for the
murder, but Njál inadvertently offends him: confrontation is inevitable and the 80-year-old
Njál, bowing to fate, retreats with his sons to his homestead
Bergþórshvoll
. Flósi and his men
torch the building, killing all but Njal's son-in-law
Kári
.
Public opinion against the burning of Njál runs so high that at the following Alþing Kári is
able to confront Flósi and his allies - now known as the
Burners
. Mörð stirs up trouble again
and a pitched battle breaks out; in the aftermath, all but Kári accept the Alþing's conditions for
peace, which banish Flósi and the Burners from Iceland until tempers have cooled. For his part,
Kári swears vengeance, and the action shifts to following his peregrinations around Europe as
he hunts down his enemies. Returning to Iceland, Kári's ship is wrecked at Ingólfshöfði off the
southeast coast; walking inland through a blizzard he finds sanctuary at Svínafell and becomes
reconciled with Flósi, bringing
Njál's Saga
to an end.
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