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Considered to be one of the finest of the Icelandic sagas, "Njal's Saga" (or "The Story of Burnt Njal") was written sometime in the thirteenth century by an unknown author and is the longest and most developed of the sagas. The source material for the saga was historical but probably drawn largely from oral tradition. The story relates events that took place between 960 and 1020, involving blood feuds in the Icelandic Commonwealth. It features memorable characters like the noble warrior Gunnar of Hlidarendi, the lawyer Njall orgeirsson, and the mildly villainous Mord Valgardsson, whose motivations and passions are familiar to people of every age and locale. The saga is divided into three parts, which describe the friendship between Gunnar and Njal, the tragic consequences of revenge, and finally the retribution of Flosi and Kari. Themes of loyalty, marriage, family honor and vengeance permeate this beautifully written and timeless epic."… (more)
User reviews
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.
And our cat is now called 'Ragnar Hairy - Breeks'
But between these dismemberments are the stories of resentment and craftiness that precede the gore, and more fascinating to me, the legal suits and maneuverings in the Althing, the medieval Icelandic assembly, to award compensation to the families of the slain in exchange for a pledge of peace. Then after all parties were satisfied, the plotting of the next round of the vendetta starts just as soon as all have returned home. Equally fascinating to me is that in the middle of all this feuding and strife—in the year 1000 by our current calendar—everyone converts to Christianity, and then continues on exactly as they did as worshipers of the old Norse gods.
"[Flosi] walked all the way to Rome, where he was accorded the great honour of receiving absolution at the hands of
The writing is so spare and to-the-point that it verges on comedy sometimes. I find the directness novel. No flowery language or wasted words. I guess that's the oral-tradition factor.
A lot of HONOR and stoic dudes that are surprisingly fragile (in terms of masculinity, but also limbs and heads seem to get hacked off with ease).
A multigenerational blood-feud that ends with two survivors of opposite factions becoming buds...as it should be, really.
And there I end my review of the saga of the Burning of Njal.
Its not an easy book, and the Penguin Edition was nicely annotated, however I found the family trees at the end to be mostly useless.