Njal’s Saga

by Leifur Eiriksson

First published 2006

Amazon

4.4(296)

Njal’s Saga follows a network of families in tenth- and early eleventh-century Iceland whose friendships, marriages and disputes become entangled in an escalating cycle of feud. The wise lawyer Njal Thorgeirsson and the warrior Gunnar of Hlidarendi try repeatedly to use law, negotiation and compensation to contain violence, but insults, killings and the ambitions of relatives steadily undermine each settlement.

The story expands beyond private revenge to the institutions and religious changes of the Icelandic Commonwealth. The conversion to Christianity forms part of the saga’s changing social world, while later chapters connect the Icelandic feud to events abroad, including the Battle of Clontarf in Ireland. Dreams, prophecy and supernatural warnings stand beside detailed legal procedure, giving the work both the scale of a family tragedy and the breadth of a historical saga.