A Primer on Anarchy | Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics)

Great saga, not sure about this translation | Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics) | Anonymous

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	• Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics) Anonymous Penguin Classics, 2002 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The heroic tale with a new type of hero

This is one of the larger Icelandic sagas, and one of the best. It bears to keep in mind that being almost a thousand years old, if not older, the story doesn't read like the most thrilling of works, even with this excellent translation. The eponymous hero of the saga, Njal, is a type of hero not often seen in medieval literature, the sage. Njal is pacifistic in an Iceland rife with violence and chaos, giving the reader pause at the possible effect of Christian influences on the undertones within the story. Thankfully, the tale does not draw so decided a line for us. The story is truly epic in size, and has several fascinating - if not conflicting - lessons to tell. If you can be patient and work your way through this saga, you will feel rewarded and fulfilled by the end.

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A Primer on Anarchy

I would recommend Njal's Saga as a primer on anarchy. Not the theoretical, Emma Goldman philosophical anarchy, but anarchy as it manifests itself "on the ground" as anthropologists like to phrase it.

Njal's Saga is a great piece of literature concerning how the early Norse settlers of Iceland, often themselves outlaws back in Norway, dealt with lawlessness. The main theme is stated by Njal himself. "With laws our nation will be built up." This sentiment is echoed by several other characters throughout the tale. Another saying, uttered by more than one person is, "The hand is soon sorry it has struck," and provides the awful counterbalance propelling the plot. For here we find a historic locale in which each man must execute justice and law for himself because medieval Iceland was a place of no central authority. Therefore, only men powerful enough themselves, or with enough powerful friends, could exact just retribution for injuries sustained by their neighbors. Men were driven by a warrior honor code that forced them to take up arms or lose face and the whole saga is full of a sense of dreadful irony of how just causes are perverted by resorting to violent solutions. This society is reminiscent of Odysseus' description of the cannibal Cyclops' society where each father is a law unto his wife and children and they meet in no just assemblies. The old Icelanders had their national assembly, the Althing, and while it could render decisions based upon law imported from Norway, it was left to the aggrieved individual to exact the sentence. Therefore, Gunnar of Hlidarende could ignore the sentence of outlawry and not leave the country and his enemies were therefore free to kill him in his home without fear of legal reprisal. Njal's Saga is an actual account of what anarchy is like in a remote society based upon powerful males trying to dominate all the land and people they could based on individual might and wit and prestige. The United States prides itself on being a nation of laws and not of men. Medieval Iceland was a settlement of contending personalities, each trying to adapt traditions from the old country to their individual benefit, with no central executive authority to carry out sentences in the name of the common good. So men pursued vengeance and blood begat blood as original justifications became obscured. In other words, traditions minus authority still equals anarchy. Read Njal's Saga and you can imagine the tragedy of being a law unto yourself.

Marc Ladewig
author of Odysseus: The Epic Myth of the Hero

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Great saga, not sure about this translation

Njal's Saga is as good as the best that people say about it, and better. A major classic of world literature, and easily readable.

I originally read the Magnus Magnusson translation, and it made a big impression on me at the time. As I remember, the Lee Hollander translation was also good. I don't have either to hand, but I do feel they were better than Cook's. You make up your own mind. On the web, I can only find George Webbe Dassent's 19th-century translation into Scots. Compare him however, with Cook:

Several men plot the death of the hero Gunnar:

COOK: Mord said that they would not take Gunnar by surprise unless they seized a farmer named Thorkel from the neighbouring farm, and forced him to come along with them and go up to Gunnar's farm, alone, to take the dog Sam.

DASSENT: Mord said that they could not come on Gunnar unawares, unless they seized the farmer who dwelt at the next homestead, whose name was Thorkell, and made him go against his will with them to lay hands on the hound Sam, and unless he went before them to the homestead to do this.

The conspirators launch the attack:

COOK: Thorgrim the Norwegian went to the hall while the others sat down on the ground. Gunnar saw a red tunic at the window and made a thrust with his halberd and hit Thorgrim in the waist. The Norwegian lost his grip on his shield, his feet slipped and he fell off the roof and then walked to where Gizur and the others were sitting on the ground.
Gizur looked at him and spoke: "Well, is Gunnar at home?"
Thorgrim answered, "Find that out for yourselves, but I've found out one thing - that his halberd's at home."
Then he fell down dead.

DASSENT: Thorgrim the Easterling went and began to climb up on the hall; Gunnar sees that a red kirtle passed before the windowslit, and thrusts out the bill, and smote him on the middle. Thorgrim's feet slipped from under him, and he dropped his shield, and down he toppled from the roof.
Then he goes to Gizur and his band as they sat on the ground.
Gizur looked at him and said--
"Well, is Gunnar at home?"
"Find that out for yourselves," said Thorgrim; "but this I am sure of, that his bill is at home," and with that he fell down dead.

Compare also this: later, as the attack progresses, Gunnar asks his wife to cut off a lock of her renowned long fair hair and twist it into a bowstring, as his life depends on it.

COOK: "Then I'll recall," she said, "the slap you gave me, and I don't care whether you hold out a for long or a short time."
"Everyone has some mark of distinction," said Gunnar, "and I won't ask you again."

DASSENT: "Well!" she says, "now I will call to thy mind that slap on the face which thou gavest me; and I care never a whit whether thou holdest out a long while or a short."
"Every one has something to boast of," says Gunnar, "and I will ask thee no more for this."

As I remember, Magnusson rendered this as, "Everyone seeks their own reason for fame. You won't be asked again." But my memory could fail me. This is one of the most famous lines of the saga.

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A Classic for Good Reason

Njall's Saga is generally regarded as the greatest of the Icelandic sagas. It tells the story of feuding women who sow seeds of nearly total destruction in two families. It is a story of tragedy and heroism, of bravery and death, and above all of loss.

The story follows the families of Njal and that of his good friend Gunnar through feuds which both friends seek to keep under control, through the death of Gunnar and later Njal and through the quests for vengeance on the part of the sons and brothers of those killed.

As in other sagas, the supernatural world of dreams and sorcery hovers on the edge of the story, subtle but pervasive, giving a cosmic sense to the struggles.

I would highly recommend this work to anyone today. It is one of the greatest works of European literature ever written and the translation is good.

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The greatest of the sagas

This book is a must read for anyone interested in feuds, medieval societies, and Iceland. Try it out and you are sure to enjoy. Not only is the story engaging and exciting, but this great translation renders the saga beautifully in English. My wife and I read this saga before our trip to Iceland, and it made the experience mean so much more. Highly Reccomended!

Written in the thirteenth century, Njal's Saga is a story that explores perennial human problems-from failed marriages to divided loyalties, from the law's inability to curb human passions to the terrible consequences when decent men and women are swept up in a tide of violence beyond their control. It is populated by memorable and complex characters like Gunnar of Hlidarendi, a powerful warrior with an aversion to killing, and the not-so-villainous Mord Valgardsson. Full of dreams, strange prophecies, violent power struggles, and fragile peace agreements, Njal's Saga tells the compelling story of a fifty-year blood feud that, despite its distance from us in time and place, is driven by passions familiar to us all. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction, chronology, index of characters, plot summary, explanatory notes, maps, and suggestions for further reading.

Translated and edited by Robert Cook.

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