Njal's Saga (6 page)

Schach, Paul,
Icelandic Sagas
(Boston: Twayne, 1984).

Allen, Richard F,
Fire and Iron: Critical Approaches to
Njáls saga
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971).

Clover, Carol J., ‘Hildigunnr's
Lament', in John Lindow, Lars Lödie;nnroth and Gerd Wolfgang Weber
(eds.),
Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature
(Odense: Odense
University Press, 1986), 141–83.

Dronke, Ursula, ‘The Role of Sexual Themes in
Njáls Saga
, Dorothea Coke Memorial Lecture, University College
London (London: Viking Society, 1981).

Fox, Denton,
‘Njáls Saga
and the Western
Literary Tradition',
Comparative Literature
, 15 (1963),
289–310.

Jesch, Judith, ‘“Good Men” and Peace
in
Njáls saga
, in John Hines and Desmond Slay (eds.),
Introductory
Essays on Egils saga and Njáls saga
(London: Viking Society for
Northern Research, 1992), 64–82.

Lönnroth, Lars,
Njáls Saga: A Critical
Introduction
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).

Maxwell, Ian, ‘Pattern in
Njáls saga,
Saga-Book
, 15 (1957–61), 17–47.

Miller, William Ian, Justifying Skarpheðinn: Of Pretext and
Politics in the Icelandic Bloodfeud',
Scandinavian Studies
, 55
(1983), 316–44.

Poole, Russell, ‘Darraðarljóð:
A Viking Victory over the Irish', in his
Viking Poems on War and
Peace
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 116–56.

Sayers, William, ‘Gunnar, his Irish Wolfhound
Sámr, and the Passing of the Old Heroic Order in
Njáls saga, Arkiv
f ö r nordisk filologi
, 112 (1997), 43–66.

Sveinsson, Einar Ólafur,
Njáls Saga: A
Literary Masterpiece
, edited and translated by Paul Schach (Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1971).

This translation is based on the edition of
Brennu-Njáls
saga
by Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, Íslenzk Fornrit, 12
(Reykjavík, 1954). It differs from previous translations of
Njál's Saga
, except for Dasent's in 1861, in
attempting to duplicate the sentence structure and spare vocabulary of the Icelandic
text. Subordinate clauses, introduced by conjunctions like ‘when',
‘because', ‘who', ‘although'
and so on, are relatively infrequent in the saga (indeed in all the Icelandic sagas),
where there is a marked preference for independent clauses. The saga typically says:
‘They had a short passage
and
the winds were good' (Ch. 9),
not ‘They had a short passage
because
the winds were good.'
Often an independent clause stands alone, but at other times a group of independent
clauses is joined by a series of ‘ands' and
‘buts', producing a sentence like this: ‘Glum often raised
this matter with Thorarin,
and
for a long time Thorarin avoided it,
but
finally they gathered men
and
rode off, twenty in all,
westward to Dalir
and
they came to Hoskuldsstadir,
and
Hoskuld
welcomed them
and
they stayed there overnight' (Ch. 13). This is an
effective way of hastening the narrative when the author wants to cover a sequence of
events quickly.

Another feature imitated in this translation is the absence of the present
participle, a standard fixture in modern English and therefore natural in a passage like
this (Ch. 145) from the translation by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann
Pálsson:

Kari Solmundarson met Bjarni Brodd-Helgason. Kari seized a spear and lunged at
him,
striking
his shield; and had Bjarni not wrenched the shield to one
side, the spear would have gone right through him. He struck back at
Kari,
aiming
at the leg; Kari jerked his leg away
and spun on his heel,
making
Bjarni miss. [italics added]

Here, by contrast, is the same passage as translated in this volume, in
greater conformity with the original:

Kari Solmundarson came up to Bjarni Brodd-Helgason; he grabbed a spear and thrust
it at him, and it hit his shield. Bjarni jerked his shield to the side –
otherwise the spear would have gone through him. He swung his sword at Kari and
aimed at the leg; Kari pulled his leg back and turned on his heel, so that Bjarni
missed him.

This translation also tries to reproduce the limited vocabulary of the
Icelandic text. In describing travel, for example, there is seldom much variation beyond
‘go' and ‘walk' and ‘ride'.
Direct speech (which, by the way, constitutes about forty per cent of this saga) is
introduced by ‘say' or ‘speak' or
‘ask' or ‘answer'. This translation keeps to the
principle of minimal variation and introduces no artificial additives like
‘declare' (except in legal scenes), ‘emphasize',
‘assert', ‘respond',
‘retort', ‘reply',
‘question' and ‘inquire'. The verb
‘say' is often used with questions as well as with statements, and
the result may seem to be an over-use of that verb, as in the following:

Njal
said
, ‘I must tell you of the slaying of your
foster-father Thord; Gunnar and I have just made a settlement on it, and he has paid
double compensation.'

‘Who killed him?'
said
Skarphedin.

‘Sigmund and Skjold, but Thrain was close at hand,'
said
Njal

‘They thought they needed a lot of help,'
said
Skarphedin. ‘But how far must this go before we can raise our
hands?'

‘Not far,'
said
Njal, ‘and then nothing
will stop you, but now it's important to me that you do not break this
settlement.' (Ch. 43)

It is hoped that the reader of this translation will accept –
and even learn to enjoy – these and other efforts at fidelity, though they may
seem strange at first. The intent has been to create a translation with the stylistic
‘feel' of the Icelandic original.

As is common in translations from Old Icelandic, the spelling of proper
nouns has been simplified, both by the elimination of
non-English
letters and markings and by the reduction of inflections. Thus
‘Hallgerðr' becomes ‘Hallgerd',
‘Höskuldr' becomes ‘Hoskuld', and
‘Sámr' (pronounced, roughly, ‘Sowmer')
turns dully into ‘Sam'. Characters are frequently identified in
terms of their fathers, and readers will soon grasp that ‘-dottir'
means ‘daughter of ' and that ‘-son' means
‘son of '. Place names have been rendered a trifle more
conservatively than is usual, ‘Laxardalr' becoming
‘Laxárdal' rather than ‘Lax River
Valley'.

The following table of some of the main events of the saga and of early
Icelandic history is based on the research of Gudbrandur Vigfússon and Finnur
Jónsson, as reviewed by Einar Ólafur Sveinsson in his 1954 edition of
the saga. The dates are of course approximate, even for the events that actually took
place (indicated in bold face). Of course, most events in the saga are fictional, and
the dates estimated here are meant only to give an overview of the time span and
sequence of events. It should be mentioned that the Establishment of the Fifth Court is
out of historical sequence in the saga; the general view is that it took place in
1004.

There was a man named Mord whose nickname was Gigja. He was the son of Sighvat the Red, and he lived at Voll in the Rangarvellir district. He was a powerful chieftain and strong in pressing lawsuits. He was so learned in the law that no verdicts were considered valid unless he had been involved. He had an only daughter named Unn. She was beautiful, well mannered and gifted, and was thought to be the best match in the Rangarvellir.

Now the saga shifts west to the valleys of Breidafjord. A man named Hoskuld lived there, the son of Dala-Koll.
¹
His mother was Thorgerd, the daughter of Thorstein the Red, who was the son of Olaf the White, the son of Ingjald, the son of Helgi. Ingjald's mother was Thora, the daughter of Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye, who was the son of Ragnar Shaggy-breeches. Thorstein the Red's mother was Unn the Deep-minded; she was the daughter of Ketil Flat-nose, the son of Bjorn Buna. Hoskuld lived at Hoskuldsstadir in the valley of Laxardal.

Hrut was Hoskuld's brother; he lived at Hrutsstadir. He had the same mother as Hoskuld, but his father was Herjolf Hrut was a good-looking man, big and strong, a good fighter, and even-tempered, a very wise man, harsh towards his enemies but ready with good advice on important matters.

It happened once that Hoskuld held a feast for his friends, and his brother Hrut was there and sat next to him. Hoskuld had a daughter named Hallgerd; she was playing on the floor with some other girls. She was tall and beautiful, with hair as fine as silk and so abundant that it came down to her waist.

Hoskuld called to her, ‘Come here to me.'

She went to him at once, and he took her by the chin and kissed her. Then she went back.

Hoskuld said to Hrut, ‘How do you like this girl? Don't you find her beautiful?'

Hrut was silent. Hoskuld asked again.

Hrut then answered, ‘The girl is quite beautiful, and many will pay for that, but what I don't know is how the eyes of a thief have come into our family.'

Hoskuld was angry at this, and for a time the brothers had little to do with each other.

Hallgerd's brothers were Thorleik, the father of Bolli; Olaf, the father of Kjartan; and Bard.

It happened once that these brothers, Hoskuld and Hrut, rode together to the Althing. A great many people were there.

Hoskuld said to Hrut, ‘I wish, brother, that you would improve your way of living and take a wife.'

Hrut said, ‘I've thought long about that and been of two minds. But I'll do as you wish – where should we look?'

Hoskuld said, ‘There are many chieftains here at the Thing, and a good selection of brides, but I have one in mind for you. There's a woman named Unn, the daughter of Mord Gigja, a very wise man. He's here at the Althing, and his daughter too, and you can see her now if you wish.'

The next day, when men were going to the Law Council, the brothers saw some well-dressed women outside the Rangarvellir booth. Hoskuld said to Hrut: ‘There's Unn, the woman I told you about. How do you like her?'

‘Well enough,' he said, ‘but I don't know whether we're meant to be happy together.'

They continued on to the Law Council. Mord Gigja was explaining legal matters, as usual, and then went to his booth. Hoskuld and Hrut rose and went to Mord's booth and entered it. Mord was seated at
the far end. They greeted him. He rose to receive them and gave Hoskuld his hand. Hoskuld sat down next to him, and Hrut sat down beside Hoskuld.

They discussed many things, and Hoskuld came around to saying, ‘I want to propose an agreement between us: Hrut wants to make a marriage agreement for your daughter and to become your son-in-law, and I will not withhold my support.'

Mord answered, ‘I know that you are a great chieftain, but I know nothing about your brother.'

Hoskuld said, ‘He's a better man than I am.'

Mord said, ‘You will have to come up with a large sum for him, since she will inherit everything I have.'

‘You won't have to wait long for what I propose,' said Hoskuld: ‘he shall have Kambsnes and Hrutsstadir and everything as far as Thrandargil. He also owns a trading ship, now at sea.'