I selected Njal's Saga because I had reached the 100th follower on Instagram just as I finished Kafk'a The Trial. At that point it was my choice to either go on with hitting the Random Number Generator again or doing a different thing, and so I chose to find out what the 100th entry on the ol' Spreadsheet was and go with that. That landed me squarely inside of the Anonymous Forest (the area of the Big Book List that all have anonymous authors), and I pulled up Njal's Saga. I got a library version from I-Share while I waiting for a used copy to come in from Better World Books, and got to reading. I thought initially that I would listen to this text, but found that it was difficult to keep place names and character names straight and so I wanted to take my time with it. This 310 page read took me 12 days which is about average for me. There is some lag time in getting started reading a book because I have to find a copy first. There was a Kindle version which was free and useful though the translation was different and in my estimation more "wooden" feeling than the Penguin translation. I would pace myself with reading both as one or another opportunity was afforded to me. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more Viking Sagas from deep within the Anonymous Forest.
Live Reading Notes:
“Then the boy went away saying, "Thy manliness I will bear in mind all my life" (Njal 20).
"Well, I have been so told about him," said Gunnar, "that he is no betterer of thy temper; but as it is, thou rather needest to have it bettered. This, too, is a bad house to stay at, and I would just give both of you a bit of advice, my kinsman, not to fire up at the egging on of my wife Hallgerda; for she takes much in hand that is far from my will." (Njal 40).
Something odd occurs to me here as I read this early portion of Njal’s saga, The women of this stedt’s have a lot of agency in this world and seem to command the killings of several men and the principle men in these stedt’s seem to only constanly repair the ill will of these women. Obviously, the patriarchal mechanations of these communities is ever present, and so it is not a far-stretch to place the blame on the “overly emotional women” quarreling with each other, but it sort of makes them submissive and unable to control them which one would imagine would be a trait they would not willingly abandon.
The odd thing here too is that nothing is mentioned of Njal’s wife, Bergthora, but much more is made of Hallgerda who is depicted as blood thirsty, but Bergthora goes blow for blow with wishing and maneuvering for revenge.
Also, this constant exchange of money for making peace between Gunner and Njal seems futile because no peace is actually made.
Here is a very strange thing, Hallgerda is responsible for the warring and the murder of several men both by command and by consequence, this is taken as the comings and goings of daily life though quarrelsome to be sure. The caper of the stealing of the cheese is a multiple week process complete with an investigation.
The story of Njal is an epic one that I think deserved this tale. What is weird about the elevation of Njal in this culture is that, first, he was a beardless one which suggests that he would not be honorable and then also I don’t think Njal kills anyone in this book though I don’t remember the first portion that well as I was just getting the lay of the land while reading it. Njal is the philosopher king in this culture that I am not sure is all of Iceland or their side of the island. I couldn’t get a sense of that from the reading. I also don’t know much about Icelandic history though I know a great deal more now. Njal was a person who would give advice specifically to his friend Gunnar for the first half of the book, then after Gunnar’s death the sort of fabric of this community really falls apart. Gunnar’s death felt like it was pretty securely Gunnar’s fault, but the rest of the actions all sit inside of this sort of tragedy of human frailty and the repercussions almost feel sort of procedural after that. Even Njal’s death feels sort of inevitable if unfortunate and those carrying it out don’t have the blood in the mouth as some of the conflicts with Gunnar.
The wife climbing into bed with Njal and the boy to burn to death is a strange image that will stay with me for a long time. That scene is horrific and strange. I enjoyed reading this book, and rooted for Kari at the end to find Flosi and avenge Njal because Njal’s honor was worth so much to so many but they end in Christian reconciliation which feels false to me somehow. Flosi and Kari end up living together and that is probably the only way this saga could end or else the blood feuds would still be going to this day.
Now, I want to watch the Vikings show on the History channel because I want to see a recreation of some of these settings. I know it TV and will take liberties, be glossier than these events really were, but I want to see what the Althing looked like or the Law Rock or the booths they are talking about, or what a Northern European farm looked like or the halberds in action. I don’t know much about this time period and so it was hard to visualize some of these things.
List of my favorite Icelandic Names from this book:
Thorfinn the Skullsplitter
Aurwolf the Priest
Eynstein the Noisy
Ulf the Squinter
Hedin the Sorcerer
Vertulidi the Poet
Thorvaldsen the Sickly
Bard of the Nip
Worm Walletback
Gudmund the Powerful
Audubon the Rotten
Jorunn the Unborn
Ragnar Shaggy-breeches
Thorolf Moster-beard
Ornolf Fish-driver
Thorgils Whale-side
Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye
Onund Box-back
Grim Hairy Cheeks
Hallbjorn Half-troll
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