Njålssoga (edition 2003)

I really enjoyed this one. There's some likeable characters -- even from my soft-hearted modern point of view -- who I really got to care about, which isn't always the case with sagas. I was kind of sad when they went out of the saga. The translation is good, clear and easy to read, and there's helpful footnotes, a good introduction, and other helpful supplementary material. As with all sagas, there's an awful lot of names, but it's still pretty easy to follow.

I found some of it amusing in a somewhat macabre way -- especially at the beginning, with Hallgerd's bloodthirsty nature. In the end, the "eye for an eye" mentality of the characters becomes amusing because of the excess of it, to me. Gunnar and Njal are refreshing in their refusal to feud with each other.

A lot of the saga is based on the points of the law, as well as the killing, which is interesting. Someone compared it to a John Grisham book for the Norse, which... well, I can see their point.

ETA: I can confirm from doing my own translations that the Penguin edition has a very good translation: reasonably accurate, and idiomatic while keeping a good flavour of the original style. ( )

Njál's Saga, also known as the Saga of Burnt Njál, describes events in Iceland and elsewhere around the year 1000. The saga is basically the story of a feud and the two generations of men and women who take part in it. It is unknown how much, if any, of the saga is based on real events.

Medieval Iceland had no king. It was governed instead by a very strict and elaborate set of laws enforced by chieftains who acted as judges. All matters of law were decided by civil suit at the annual Assembly. If you killed a man, you owed his family a sum in compensation known as "weregeld." It didn't matter whether you ambushed him and murdered him in cold blood or you killed him in self-defense: you still owed compensation. Unless, of course, his family or friends killed someone in return. Then you were even. This notion of human life as a commodity of exchange, with minimal consideration for motive or morality, is so totally alien to our modern way of thinking that it takes some time to adjust to it.

The story begins with a young woman named Hallgerd. When her uncle meets Hallgerd as a young girl, he says "Beautiful this maiden certainly is, and many are likely to suffer for it." This turns out to be a dramatic understatement, for Hallgerd's beauty is the death of three husbands and dozens more besides. Even after her death, men will be dying from the feud she will soon begin.

Njál, the central character, is, ironically, one of the few men in the saga who never lifts a sword in combat. He is a prosperous farmer, knowledgeable in the law, and blessed with a second sight that lets him see the future. Njál advises his friend and neighbor, Gunnar, when Gunnar marries Hallgerd and is drawn into a series of conflicts by her. Unlike Njál, Gunnar is a mighty warrior, and his prowess in battle is almost superhuman.

Gunnar is also the first of several major characters who will journey away from Iceland back to the ancestral homelands in Norway. There will also be visits by Gunnar and others to Sweden, the Baltic shores, and the British Isles. Late in the story two adversaries actually make pilgrimages to Rome, but these journeys, unfortunately, are not described in any detail. They do this because, around 1000, Iceland converts to Christianity. This is described in the saga, although the Christianization of its inhabitants has remarkably little impact on Iceland's legal system and its custom of prolonged blood feuds.

The saga is lively enough to read, notwithstanding the long legal battles over compensation for the slain. Some of the scenes of battles and sea voyages are quite stirring, but the chief attraction of Njál's Saga has to be its depiction of a unique society and its valiant, but brutal, code of conduct. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1426782.html

In a week when people have been thinking about Iceland for other reasons, it was odd to be reading Njal's Saga, much of which takes place around the very slopes of Eyjafjallajökull. Though actually I found certain similarities also with the developing world today; Njal's Saga is in part about modernisation of an agrarian society, and the challenges caused by economic change to traditional patterns of internal conflict resolution. It was recommended to me ages ago by this detailed review; I can't add a lot more to what she says, except to add my praise for the sparse writing style, the three-dimensional characterisation, the (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to resolve family feuds through law rather than blood, the sense of a small, isolated community which is none the less intimately connected with the rest of the Norse world (one of the set-pieces towards the end is the Battle of Clontarf). Tremendous stuff. ( )

Arguably the most famous of the Icelandic sagas, this history tells of Njal, his sons, friends and surrounding people. It is from the 13th centuary and covers many topics including feuds, impotence, marriage, law etc. Two of the main characters are Gunnar and Njal. Njal is a well known wise man who is an expert in the laws who many turn to for advice. Gunnar is his close friend, but unfortunately their wives do not get on. Gunnar's wife begins a blood feud with Njal's wife where they keep killing people to try to get their husbands to fall out. It's a bit eye for an eyeand very petty.

There are villians and heros and eventually both Gunnar and Njal are killed. Gunnar is killed in battle and Njal is burnt to death in his house with his wife. His sons take their revenge and go after the burners and the feuding continues. Parts of it are an excellent view inside Icelandic life at the time mentioning local food etc. It was also interesting to read about the laws at the Althing.

It's not all blood, guts limbs and heads being chopped off. It has a sense of humor and a charm to the story, although it did loose me a little after Njal was killed. I loved reading the tale after not long having visited Iceland, it made me want to go back even more. I hope to read more of the sagas in the future. ( )

It’s hard to beat the Icelanders when you are looking for a tale of feud and revenge. ( )