Njal's Saga

by AnonYMous

  Chs. 34–45, beginning with Bergthora’s pointed insult to Hallgerd at a feast at Bergthorshvol, tell of six reciprocal killings of members of the households at Hlidarendi (Gunnar’s home) and at Bergthorshvol, prompted by the two wives and carried out while their husbands are away at the annual Althing. Hallgerd initiates the killings, and Bergthora takes vengeance, and the stakes become higher and higher, the last pair of victims being the beloved foster-father of the Njalssons, Thord, and a kinsman of Gunnar’s named Sigmund. At the last stage, after Sigmund has killed Thord and exacerbated matters by composing verses (at the prompting of Hallgerd) which question the manhood of Njal and his sons, the Njalssons themselves take vengeance, killing both Sigmund and his companion Skjold. The killings put an increasing strain on the friendship between Gunnar and Njal, but impressively in each case the one whose wife caused the killing offers ‘self-judgement’ to the other (allowing him to fix the amount to be paid in compensation), and they remain friends. Ch. 45 concludes this murderous feud with the announcement that Njal and Gunnar agreed that they would always resolve any difficulty that should arise – but there is still Hallgerd to deal with, and people less well-disposed than Njal.

  Chs. 46–81. Chs. 46–7 again mark a new beginning, with the introduction of new characters: the prominent Gizur the White and Geir the Godi, their wealthy but unimpressive kinsman Otkel, and Otkel’s shameless friend Skammkel (the first element of his name is homonymous with the word for ‘shame’). For good measure we are also reminded of the lurking presence of Mord Valgardsson and his envy of Gunnar. The whole of Chs. 46–81, leading to the death of Gunnar and concluding with the vengeance taken for him, maybe taken as a single section, but the quasi-conclusions and new characters along the way give grounds for dividing it into sub-sections.

  Chs. 46–51: A food shortage forces Gunnar to offer to buy hay and food from Otkel, but he – following the malicious prompting of Skammkel – refuses him. Never one to endure a slight, Hallgerd sends a slave Melkolf, whom Gunnar had bought from Otkel, to steal butter and cheese from Otkel and burn down his shed. He does so, but inadvertently leaves his knife alongside a river on his return to Hlidarendi. When Gunnar learns of the theft, he slaps Hallgerd in the presence of guests. Otkel and Skammkel ask Mord to look into the matter, and with a bit of detective work Mord discovers that the theft was instigated by Hallgerd. Gunnar makes generous offers of compensation, but Skammkel sees to it that he is refused, wilfully misrepresenting the opinions of Gizur and Geir on the subject and advising Otkel to serve a summons for theft on Gunnar. When Skammkel’s lie is exposed, Gizur and Geir manage to make peace with Gunnar by offering him self-judgement, ‘and for a while everything was quiet’.

  In Chs. 52–6 more characters, allies of Otkel, are introduced, and on a journey east Otkel’s horse runs out of control and Otkel accidentally rides towards Gunnar while he is sowing grain in his field, striking him on the ear with his spur. Gunnar, already offended by the summons, now takes further offence, and Skammkel makes things even worse by claiming that Gunnar wept when he was struck by Otkel’s spur. Gunnar and his brother Kolskegg attack Otkel and his party on their return from the east, and kill all eight of them in a battle by the Ranga river (Ch. 54). Geir the Godi brings charges of manslaughter against Gunnar at the Althing, but at Njal’s urging the matter is submitted to arbitration. Gunnar pays the fee levied against him by the arbitrators, and comes away from the affair with honour.

  Chs. 57-66. More new characters: Starkad of Thrihyrning and Egil of Sandgil, each with three aggressive sons. Gunnar is lured into a horse fight, his horse against Starkad’s, at which his horse’s eye is put out by Thorgeir Starkadarson and Kol Egilsson. Gunnar and Kolskegg and a third brother, Hjort, are ambushed at Knafaholar by the men of Thrihyrning and Sandgil; they kill fourteen of the attackers, but Hjort is slain and buried in a mound at Hlidarendi. In the ensuing lawsuit Njal advises Gunnar and Mord advises his opponents; the matter is put up to arbitration, and once again Gunnar pays compensation and comes away with his honour enhanced.

  Chs. 67-77 round off this series of provocations, clashes and settlements. Njal had prophesied to Gunnar in Ch. 55 that if he ever killed two members of the same family it would lead to his death. He has already killed Otkel, and now Mord, who has learned of this prophecy, conspires with Thorgeir Starkadarson to see to it that Gunnar kills Otkel’s son Thorgeir. Thorgeir Starkadarson feigns friendship with Thorgeir Otkels–son and persuades him to attack Gunnar. Their first attempt is thwarted by Njal, who arranges an arbitrated settlement by which the Thorgeirs have to pay Gunnar for the attempt on his life. But they try again and ambush Gunnar and Kolskegg along the Ranga river, and this time achieve the desired effect: Gunnar kills Thorgeir Otkelsson. The killing is arbitrated at the Althing, and Gunnar and Kolskegg are to go abroad for three years. Njal warns him against breaking the settlement, and Gunnar promises not to, but in the most celebrated scene in the saga (Ch. 75), the departing Gunnar looks back at his farm Hlidarendi, comments on its beauty, and decides to return home, alone. Kolskegg goes abroad and never returns. The mass attack at Hlidarendi inevitably follows. When Gunnar’s bowstring breaks and he asks Hallgerd for two locks of her hair to replace it, she recalls the slap on the cheek (Ch. 48) and refuses. He is finally overcome, largely out of sheer exhaustion.

  Chs. 78–81 form the aftermath to the killing of Gunnar. Njal admits that since Gunnar died as an outlaw, no legal action is possible. Skarphedin Njalsson and Hogni Gunnarsson, goaded by the sight of the slain Gunnar sitting in his burial mound and chanting a verse about not yielding, execute blood vengeance against Starkad and his son Thorgeir and two others. With Njal’s aid, these killings are arbitrated at a district assembly. The statements that Geir the Godi and Hogni Gunnarsson are ‘now out of the saga’ mark an ending to the Gunnar section of the saga.

  Chs. 82–94 cover the parallel and then converging adventures abroad of Thrain Sigfusson and two of the Njalssons, Helgi and Grim, and the consequences back in Iceland. Thrain is well received by Earl Hakon of Norway because of his close kinship with Gunnar of Hlidarendi, and in Gunnar’s fashion he defeats a Viking force at sea (Gunnar, though, won two sea battles against Vikings). The journey of Grim and Helgi is more perilous: they have bad weather and are attacked by Vikings. But just when the fight looks hopeless they are aided by a fleet of ships led by Kari Solmundarson, whose sudden appearance in Ch. 84 is surely the most glorious introduction of a character in the saga. Kari takes Grim and Helgi to Earl Sigurd of Orkney, and they become his followers and help him against enemies in Scotland. Another Icelander, called Killer-Hrapp, has a different kind of voyage abroad: he leaves Iceland because he has killed a man, he cheats his skipper out of payment, he seduces the daughter of his host Gudbrand of Dalarna and he burns down a temple owned jointly by Gudbrand and Earl Hakon. The earl declares him an outlaw and puts a price on his head. The three voyages intersect when Hrapp flees to Lade (the earl’s seat, close to Trondheim), where both Thrain and the Njalssons are preparing to set sail. Thrain betrays his loyalty to Earl Hakon by concealing Hrapp on his ship, and he sails away, leaving Grim and Helgi to bear the brunt of the earl’s anger, from which they barely escape with their lives. Again, Kari helps them, and on their return to Iceland Kari marries their sister Helga. Hrapp, on the other hand, spends most of his time with Hallgerd, Gunnar’s widow.

  The Njalssons make vain attempts to obtain redress from Thrain for his treatment of them in Norway, but all they receive are insults, including the same derogatory epithets from Hallgerd as in Ch. 44 when she dubbed Njal ‘Old Beardless’ and his sons ‘Dung-beardlings’. This inevitably leads to an attack on Thrain and his party as they return from a visit in the east (reminiscent of Ch. 54) and the most memorable killing in the saga, when Skarphedin splits Thrain’s head with his axe while skimming by him on the ice at the edge of the Ranga river (Ch. 92). Njal makes a settlement with Ketil of Mork for the slaying, and in addition offers to foster Thrain’s son, Hoskul
d Thrainsson.

  Chs. 95–97 bring the last of the chief players on the stage, the formidable chieftain Flosi Thordarson, his niece Hildigunn Starkadardottir and his father-in-law Hall of Sida. Njal tries to arrange a marriage between his foster-son Hoskuld Thrainsson and Hildigunn, but she declines on the grounds that Hoskuld is not a godi. Njal responds (quite contrary to the historical record) by persuading the lawspeaker Skafti Thoroddsson and the Law Council to establish a court of appeal, the Fifth Court, for which new godis will be needed, and he arranges for Hoskuld to be one of them. The suit for Hildigunn’s hand is brought up again; this time she agrees, and the wedding feast is held. Hildigunn and Hoskuld settle at Ossabaer, not far from Bergthorshvol.

  Chs. 98–9 and Ch. 106 illustrate how legal settlements never settle things. Lyting, married to the sister of Thrain Sigfusson, feels dissatisfied because he was not included in the settlement for Thrain (in fact he was not so entitled) and takes blood revenge, killing the illegitimate son of Njal, Hoskuld Njalsson. Hoskuld’s mother Hrodny transports the body to Njal and asks Skarphedin to take vengeance. Skarphedin and his brothers attack Lyting and his brothers and kill the brothers, but Lyting escapes. Hoskuld Thrainsson comes to Njal with an offer of self-judgement, and Njal accepts two hundred ounces in silver for the slaying of Hoskuld. In Ch. 106 Hoskuld Njalsson’s blind son Amundi comes to Lyting’s booth at a local assembly to ask for compensation. Lyting refuses, and Amundi miraculously gains his sight long enough to kill him.

  Chs. 100-105 contain an account of the Conversion of Iceland, coinciding in many ways with Ari’s Book of the Icelanders and Kristni saga (The Saga of Christianity). Chs. 100–103 tell of the sometimes violent preaching mission of a Saxon named Thangbrand sent out by King Olaf Tryggvason. Hall of Sida is the first to be converted, and Njal is another who accepts the new faith. But Thangbrand returns to Norway and tells King Olaf of the hostility he faced, and the king is so angry that he plans to kill all the Icelanders within his reach. Gizurthe White and Hjalti Skeggjason, however, offer to go out to Iceland and spread the faith. The climax comes at the Althing in Ch. 105, when a battle seems likely, but Hall of Sida, speaking for the Christians, asks a pagan godi, Thorgeir of Ljosavatn, to make the decision. After lying with a cloak over his head for a whole day, Thorgeir proclaims that there must be one faith – the Christian faith – and the dispute is settled peaceably.

  Chs. 107-23 begin with the return of Valgard the Grey, Mord’s father, to Iceland. He astutely sizes up the changed political situation – the new godi Hoskuld Thrainsson has diminished the power of Mord’s godord – and proposes as a remedy that Mord spread slander between the Njalssons and Hoskuld which will lead to the slaying of Hoskuld. Mord does as his father advises, and is successful: in Ch. III the Njalssons, together with Kari and Mord, slay Hoskuld while he (like Gunnar in Ch. 53) is sowing grain in his field. Hoskuld offers no resistance and dies saying ‘May God help me and forgive you.’ Njal is so grief-stricken at the news that he says he would rather have lost two of his sons than Hoskuld, and he predicts that the slaying will lead to his death and that of his wife and all his sons.

  The duplicitous Mord initiates legal proceedings against the Njalssons, calculating that when it is revealed that he inflicted one of the wounds, the case will be invalidated. Flosi sets out for the Althing with a large force of men and stops at Ossabaer, the home of his widowed niece Hildigunn. In one of the most emotional scenes in this saga and the best goading scene in all the sagas (Ch. 116), Hildigunn places on Flosi’s shoulders the bloody cloak in which Hoskuld was slain and charges him to accept nothing less than blood vengeance. At the Althing the Njalssons, with the help of Asgrim Ellida-Grimsson, enlist the support of Gizur the White, Gudmund the Powerful of Modruvellir in the north, and Gudmund’s brother Einar of Thvera. Other men whose booths they visit, however, refuse to give their support (Chs. 119–20).

  When Thorhall Asgrimsson, on the side of his foster-father Njal, declares the suit invalid because of Mord’s involvement in the slaying, Njal seeks for an arbitrated settlement. Flosi agrees, and each side chooses six arbitrators; their decision is that the compensation for the death of Hoskuld Thrainsson should be six hundred ounces of silver (three times the normal amount). Njal and his sons collect the money and bring it to the Law Council, and Njal places a robe and a pair of boots on top of the money. Flosi arrives, and in a scene of great tension – he senses an insult in Njal’s gifts – asks who placed the robe there. No reply. He asks again. Skarphedin asks him who he thinks might be responsible, and Flosi explodes with a vile insult to Njal, calling him by the ugly and well-worn epithet ‘Old Beardless’. Skarphedin, who showed himself a master of insults in Chs. 119–20 when they were seeking help, accuses Flosi of being ‘the sweetheart of the troll at Svinafell’ – and all hopes for peace are ended.

  In Chs. 124–30 Flosi gathers a hundred men to attack the Njalssons at home, vowing that ‘we’ll ride to Bergthorshvol in full force and attack the Njalssons with fire and iron, and not leave until they’re all dead’ (Ch. 124). The atmosphere is laden with portents: an old woman at Bergthorshvol curses a pile of chickweed, saying that it will eventually be ignited to burn Njal in his house (Ch. 124); a man named Hildiglum has a vision of a man as black as pitch setting fire to mountains by throwing a torch (Ch. 125); Njal himself has a vision of the destruction of the hall (Ch. 127). When Flosi and his men arrive, Njal has his sons go inside even though their chances are better outside, and in spite of Skarphedin’s prediction that Flosi will use fire. After some heavy fighting Flosi realizes that he will indeed have to resort to fire. He offers the women and children and Njal free exit, and most leave, but Njal and Bergthora and Kari’s son Thord remain inside and lie down together. The others continue the fight. In the fire eleven members of the household die; Helgi Njalsson is beheaded by Flosi as he tries to escape dressed as a woman. Unsuspected by the other side, and to their great dismay when they hear of it, Kari Solmundarson makes his escape in the smoke.

  Chs. 131–45. The first chapters (131–7) describe the gathering of forces for an unsuccessful attempt to hunt down Flosi, Flosi’s enlistment of support (Ch. 134), and preparations for the forthcoming legal contest at the Althing. There are two interludes, the removal of the burned bodies in Ch. 132 (those of Njal and Bergthora and the boy Thord are miraculously unburned) and Flosi’s dream in Ch. 133. In Ch. 138, at the Althing, Flosi enlists the legal services of Eyjolf Bolverksson, ‘one of the three greatest lawyers in Iceland’, and pays him with a gold bracelet. On the other side, Mord has taken over the prosecution from Thorgeir Skorargeir (Njal’s nephew), and he is to be assisted by the Njal-trained Thorhall Asgrimsson, confined to his booth with an infected leg. In Chs. 139–40 Gizur the White gains support from Snorri the Godi and Gudmund the Powerful against the men who burned Bergthorshvol.

  The legal procedures themselves begin with long and repetitive recitations of legal formulas – caviar to the general – followed by a strenuous to-and-fro argument about the validity of the panel chosen to reach a preliminary finding, with .Mord sending a messenger to Thorhall for advice in each case. When Mord and Thorhall have finally won their point, Eyjolf pulls his trick: Flosi has secretly become a thingman of a godi from the north, which means that the case has been prosecuted in the wrong quarter court (Ch. 143). Thorhall’s response is to summon Flosi and Eyjolf for having given and received payment for legal services. They present this charge before the Fifth Court, as is proper, since it involves violation of Althing procedure. But then Eyjolf tricks them into overlooking a technicality, one that was spelled out by Njal when he proposed the Fifth Court in Ch. 97 - that the number of judges must be reduced from forty-eight to thirty-six before a judgement can be rendered. When Thorhall hears about this (beginning of Ch. 145) he is so angry that he drives his spear into his leg to let the infection flow out, makes his way to the Fifth Court and kills the first man on Flosi’s side that he meets, a kinsman of Flosi. Thus begins the greatest full-scale battle
of the saga, ironically at a hallowed place where men were forbidden to fight.

  Chs. 145–59. After the battle, Ch. 145 continues with efforts at peace initiated by the ever-temperate Hall of Sida. He persuades Snorri the Godi to head an arbitration panel of twelve men, who deliver verdicts on compensation and punishment. Flosi is to leave the country for three years, and some of the others responsible for the burning (henceforth referred to as ‘the burners’) for life. Kari and Thorgeir Skorargeir refuse to be party to the agreement, but after a time, when they have killed five of the burners, Thorgeir agrees to a settlement with Flosi (Ch. 147). Kari, whose son Thord was uncompensated after being burned at Bergthorshvol, continues his course of vengeance alone, except for the company of the blustering Bjorn the White (Chs. 148-52), whose presence offers welcome comic relief. At the end of Ch. 152 Kari tells .Thorgeir that thirteen of the burners have been killed (see note 1 to Ch. 152) and that he plans to kill two more. He does this abroad, killing Gunnar Lambason in Orkney (Ch. 155) and Kol Thorsteinsson in Wales (Ch. 158), both by sudden decapitation. For the first killing he incurs the wrath of Earl Sigurd, until Flosi speaks up for him and says ‘he did what he had to do’.

  Chs. 154–7 contains an Icelandic version of the battle of Clontarf (called ‘Brian’s battle’ in the saga), fought outside Dublin on Good Friday 1014, between the Christian King Brian and heathen forces led by Earl Sigtrygg of Dublin. Its relevance to the story of Njal’s Saga is slight, apart from the fact that Earl Sigurd of Orkney died on the heathen side, along with fifteen of the burners. The account of the battle, in which Brian fell but his enemies were defeated, is followed by a number of miraculous visions in different northern countries, the most famous of which is the Song of Dorrud. The only long poem in the saga (eleven stanzas), it tells of a man named Dorrud at Caithness, witnessing through a window the weaving of a bloody web (signifying the battle) by twelve valkyries.