Njals Saga Research Articles

Eski İskandinav Edebiyatında ve Hukukunda Eşcinselliğin Temsili

This paper proposes to examine the evidence for homosexuality among the early medieval Scandinavian peoples, popularly known as the Vikings. A variety of literary, legal, and religious sources from medieval Iceland and Norway provide an indirect window on Viking attitudes towards homosexuality. These include sagas such as Njal's Saga, Ljósvetninga Saga, Kristni Saga, Gisla Saga, Biskupa Sögur Íslenska Bókmenntafélag, and Fóstbræðra Saga along with the Eddaic poems Lokasenna and Þrymskviða. This literary testimony may be supplemented by evidence from the Law of Gulathing and the Gray Goose Laws (Gragas), as well as Staðarhólsbók and the Icelandic Homily Book. Homosexuality was termed "nið” in Old Norse, and the term varies according to certain actions or behaviour. In the sagas, the word "nið” was used in several ways with different meanings, to denote a coward, sexual pervert, or a homosexual. The word was mostly used in the meaning of coward and homosexual which were more or less synonymous for the Vikings.

Insult and Insight: Skarpheðinn’s Performance at theAlþingi

This article provides a reinterpretation of the character of Skarpheðinn in Njals saga through an original close reading of the sequence in which the Njalssynir seek legal support from powerful men...

The Women of Njal's Saga: An Ethics of Ambiguity?

The article applies Simone de Beauvoir's reflections on authentic being in her work The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and Julia Kristeva's concept of marginal womanhood as developed in Powers of Horror (1982) to central women characters in Njal's Saga and to the character of Njal himself. The woman Hallgerd, wife of Gunnar, asserts her power and independence by refusing to give Gunnar two locks of her hair to make bowstrings out of. The gift denied brings about the death of Gunnar. Hallgerd's refusal constitutes the culmination of a dialectic preconditioned upon de Beauvoir's concept of authentic being as a lack of being precipitating a continuous revolt and an on-going creativity, the subjective creation of being in opposition to an objective, imposed condition. The women of the saga, Hallgerd, Bergthora (wife of Njal), and Queen Gunnhild, possess a fury described by Kristeva as a marginal otherness that cannot be sublimated. Fury propels freedom and independence. The struggle for freedom is continuous as it is predicated upon the insight that the genuinely ethical task of women and men consists in seeking freedom while realizing the ambiguity of their situation: the freedom of the subject is created in opposition to an oppressive objective condition. The women of the saga engage in actions whose violence is designed to be an overt parody on the actions perpetrated by the men in the family feud. Some of the men are also aware of this ambiguity and manifestly display an ironic and self-ironic attitude to fate, i.e. the objective condition, understanding that it is a construction and a projection from within and that it is within their power to change it. This becomes apparent in Njal whose gender is indeterminate as he combines feminine and masculine features and as he accepts his death (by burning) not as the outcome of an incontrovertible fate but as a free choice.

Easy tools to get to grips with linguistic variation in the manuscripts of <i>Njáls saga</i>.

The project The Variance of Njals saga examines variation in the sixty-three medieval and post-medieval manuscripts of Njals saga from a linguistic, philological, and literary perspective. This saga is the most extensive of the Icelandic family sagas and is thought to have been composed around 1280. The following article describes methods used in the project to identify synchronic variation at a linguistic level in the fourteenth century manuscripts of the saga, and aspects of an analysis of the stemmatic relationship between manuscripts. In both fields the development of computer-based approaches has advanced notably in the last few years. However, affordable solutions customised for end-users are still lacking. The project therefore focuses on easy tools that can be applied in a short-term project with limited financial and human resources. The manuscripts are transcribed according to the conventions of MENOTA (Medieval Nordic Text Archive) in TEI-XML; a segmentation allowing for an identification of corresponding contents is added; linguistic features relevant for an examination of variation are tagged; and structures relevant for a comparison are displayed for further analysis with the help of XSLT-style sheets. The article discusses challenges that lie in the peculiarities of medieval writing (non-standardised orthography, abbreviations) and tries to outline practicable solutions. Initial results of comparisons of manuscripts based on this approach show variation not only in the semantic domain (substitution of words), but also in the syntactic domain (change of word order, usage of different syntactical constructions).

"Why is your axe bloody?": a reading of Njals saga

"Why is your axe bloody?": a reading of Njals saga

Conversion and Convergence: The Role and Function of Women in Post-medieval Icelandic Folktales

THE SPHERES OF CHRISTIANITY AND GENDER SCHOLARS HAVE REGULARLY OBSERVED that in Old Norse sources women often exhibit a strong opposition to the conversion to Christianity. Frequently cited as support for this opposition are the confrontations between porvaldr and Fridgerdr in porvalds pattr ens vidforla and Kristni saga as well as pangbrandr's conflict with Steinunn in Njals saga. Sources such as these have contributed to the perception of a Christian male/pagan structural opposition that has helped forge our understanding of gender roles in Norse conversion and Christianization. (1) Some scholars see this oppositional structure as evidence of a specific historical phenomenon regarding pagan women during the process of Norse conversion and Christianization, (2) while others have argued that it functions as a literary construction ultimately reflective of negative ecclesiastical views of women. (3) Recently, Sian Gronlie has challenged these interpretations altogether by arguing that they tend to overlook narrative accounts that paint women in a supportive, Christian light and adding further that even when the Christian male/pagan opposition is dearly drawn, it does not always follow that the narrative sympathy, insofar as we can discern it, lies with the Christian man (295). Rather than a gendered religious opposition, Gronlie observes a topos in Icelandic literature that instead presents a social opposition that bears a gendered imprint (310). On one side persists a female sphere--private, intimate, based in the home, and opposed to conversion--while on the other side stands the characterized as public, political, legal, and in support of conversion. This article seeks to observe these two spheres in the context of a longer view of religious development in Iceland by paying specific attention to the body of Icelandic folklore material collected from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. (4) Rather than turning to historical, literary, or archaeological sources, I look to the folk record, which preserves a social memory (as explained below) of both cultural and religious developments. As such, I intend this project to contribute a folkloristic viewpoint to that larger context, which I hope will offer a more robust understanding of Icelandic cultural and religious development. (5) I begin with a tale entitled Gullbra og Skeggi i Hvammi (6) (Gullbra and Skeggi in Hvammur), where familiar persons and events from pre-conversion Iceland appear. I then turn to a series of tales about Icelandic magic users (7) who betray much about the spheres of gender and Christian beliefs, though perhaps more through the lack of a sphere than for its prevalence. Finally, I examine the tale Alfkonan hja Ullarvotnum (8) (The Elfwoman at Ullarvatn), the morphological potency and uniquely Icelandic character of which opens the door to a vision of the reconciliation between the male and spheres. Analysis of these tales suggests that the gendered spheres observed by Gronlie have not been lost in later Icelandic folktales. Rather, the tales seem to manipulate the topos to reconcile lingering social challenges inherent in both gender and religion. ICELAND'S SOCIAL MEMORY Over the last forty years, scholars have come to recognize the reciprocal relationship between folk material and the culture that produces it. (9) Terry Gunnell has spearheaded recent endeavors to bring this methodological framework to Iceland by arguing that oral narratives act as doorways to social meaning: These earlier narrative 'doorways', however they were collected, have the potential to say something about background context and the wider living space that gave birth to them, spaces that should never be forgotten as scholars examine the structural symmetry of the door frames and the quaintness of the antique door handles (Narratives 12). Bo Almqvist has likewise remarked that Icelandic folk materials are especially valuable to folklorists, citing, among other reasons, the scope and quality of the source material, old and new, and the extent to which legends survived until recently (274). …

Masculinity and Politics in Njáls Saga

The subject of this study is how masculinity is problematized in Njals Saga (ca. 1280), with the characters constantly accusing each other of not being manly. The author argues that the obsession of the saga characters with masculinity actually undermines the manly/unmanly-binary, since almost every character in the saga is subjected to ridicule about lack of manliness. While these allegations are often unfounded, sometimes they do have some foundation in reality; but even when the protagonists are indeed unmanly, they remain the most impressive characters in the saga. Thus it is possible to read the saga’s treatment of gender as critical of the norms of a misogynist society, showing how the ideal of masculinity may become so exaggerated that it becomes uncompromising and oppressive and leads to failed marriages and to outpourings of an aggressive heroism that thrives on the uneasiness of males, who know that everything may be used against them.

'NO LONGER MALE AND FEMALE': REDEEMING WOMEN IN THE ICELANDIC CONVERSION NARRATIVES

Women - it is generally agreed - are prominent among the opponents of Christianity in the literary record of medieval Iceland and Norway. Espousing conservative values, they oppose the preaching of male missionaries with a religious zeal that is, in its own way, just as evangelistic. A scene from Njals saga will serve to illustrate the point. At the centre of the saga's well-known conversion account lies an encounter between the Christian missionary Þangbrandr and the pagan poetess Steinunn, in which they debate the religious issues raised by Þangbrandr's recent shipwreck:Steinunn kom i mot honum, moðir Skald-Refs; hon boðaði Þangbrandi heiðni ok talði lengi fyrir honum. Þangbrandr bagði, meðan hon talaði, en talaði lengi eptir ok sneri þvi Qllu, er hon hafði maelt, i villu. 'Hefir þu heyrt þat', sagði hon, 'er Þorr bauð Kristi a holm, ok treystisk hann eigi at berjask við Þor?' 'Heyrt hefi ek þat', segir Þangbrandr, 'at Þorr vaeri ekki nema mold ok aska, þegar guð vildi eigi, at hann lifði'. 'Veiztu', segir hon, 'hverr brotit hefir skip þitt?' 'Hvat segir þu til?' segir hann. 'Þat mun ek segja þer, segir hon.1(Steinunn, mother of Skald-Refr, came to meet him; she preached heathenism to Þangbrandr and tried for a long time to persuade him. Þangbrandr was silent while she spoke, but spoke at length afterwards and showed up the error of everything she had said. 'Have you heard', she said, 'that Þorr challenged Christ to a duel and he did not dare to fight with Þorr?' 'I have heard', says Þangbrandr, 'that Þorr would be nothing but dust and ashes if God did not wish him to live'. 'Do you know', she says, 'who has wrecked your ship?' 'What do you say about it?' he says. 'I will tell you', she says.)Steinunn goes on to recite two skaldic verses attributing the shipwreck to Þorr. The literary accomplishment of these has long been recognized: metrically close to perfect, they make use of a range of sophisticated kennings for ships and elegantly invert the topos of the successful sea voyage in mockery of Þangbrandr and his God.2 Steinunn is not just a reluctant convert, she is the pagan equivalent of a missionary: she travels to meet Þangbrandr with the express purpose of converting him to paganism, the expressions used of her recall the vocabulary of Christian preaching ('boða heiðni', 'telja fyrir), and she argues forcefully and well for the superior power of her gods. Although initially Þangbrandr has the better of the exchange, his success is shortlived, and Steinunn's verses, contrasting Þorr's power to destroy with Christ's contemptible failure to protect, silence him as no other opponent does.3 Central to Steinunn's argument is her strong support for what she sees as the 'pagan' ideal of aggressive masculinity: her point about Christ not daring to fight is surely a parody of the Passion. Her stance is echoed later in the saga when another woman, Hildigunnr, incites her reluctant uncle Flosi to avenge the killing of her husband: she refers scathingly to all the 'powers' of 'his' Christ.4 The implication is clear: conversion can be represented as a struggle between the sexes, in which women consistently oppose and are excluded from the Christian ideals embraced so willingly by men.The attitudes embodied in this powerful contrast between Christian man and pagan woman raise questions about the historical role of women in conversion and their representation in medieval narrative. Iceland was converted to Christianity relatively late in comparison with mainstream Europe (in 999/1000) and the first accounts of this event are later still: the earliest, Ari Thorgilsson's Islendingabok, was written in c.1122-33, and subsequent retellings date to after c.1200. Despite the significant gap between event and written record, some scholars still see women's opposition to Christianity in the Norse sources as having a historical basis. Jenny Jochens, for example, asserts straightforwardly that women were 'generally conservative in religious matters' and 'adhered to the older faith for longer than men'. …

The Mirror of Justice: Literary Reflections of Legal Crises

This text studies major works of literature from classical antiquity to the present that reflect crises in the evolution of Western law: the move from a prelegal to a legal society in Eumenides; the Christianization of Germanic law in Njal's Saga; the disenchantment with medieval customary law in Reynard The Fox; the reception of Roman law in a variety of Renaissance texts; the conflict between law and equity in Antigone and Merchant of Venice; the 18th-century codification controversy in the works of Kleist; the modern debate between pure and free law in Kafka's Trial and other fin-de-siecle works; and the effects of totalitarianism, the theory of universal guilt and anarchism in the 20th century. Using principles from the anthropological theory of legal evolution, the book locates the works in their legal contexts and traces them through the gradual dissociation over the centuries of law and morality. It thereby associates and illuminates these masterpieces from an original point of view.

Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation in "Njal's Saga"

Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation in "Njal's Saga"

Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation in "Njal's Saga"

This paper argues that whether Njal's Saga (a medieval Icelandic family saga) accurately describes litigation or correctly identifies legal rules in medieval Iceland, those descriptions primarily serve a literary function. The author uses law and litigation to accelerate or retard the plot in order to enhance dramatic tension.

Runic Wisdom in "Njal's Saga" and Nordic Mythology: Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe

Runic Wisdom in "Njal's Saga" and Nordic Mythology: Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe

Runic Wisdom in "Njal's Saga" and Nordic Mythology: Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe

Runic Wisdom in "Njal's Saga" and Nordic Mythology: Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe

Runic Wisdom inNjal's Sagaand Nordic Mythology—Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe

(1991). Runic Wisdom in Njal's Saga and Nordic Mythology—Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe. Law & Literature: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 21-39.

Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation inNjal's Saga

The Icelandic Saga is a kind' of prose narrative depicting conflicts among powerful families during the two centuries after 870 A.D.2 that mark the first Norwegian settlement of the area. Anonymous third person narrators, who generally seem disinterested in the events they describe,3 are characteristic of the family saga. Like narrators of modern novels, they often prefer to let the saga characters speak directly rather than to report the characters' comments in indirect speech. The seemingly objective narrator, with his use of direct speech, occasionally has led readers to conclude that the family sagas accurately record historical events.4 Supposedly this history was transmitted orally until it began to be committed to parchment in the late 12th century.5 In the scholarship of recent decades, however -especially native Icelandic scholarship -the claim has been made that the family sagas were fictional (not historical) accounts composed in a written form.6 There have even been attempts to identify the author of these otherwise anonymous works.7 Although few scholars still hold to the theory that the family sagas constitute accurate reportage of historical events, a sizable number continue to argue that the family sagas have their genesis in an oral tradition.8 The conflicts and feuds described in the family sagas reach their climax in the courtroom as well as on the battlefield. Every family saga depicts at least several attempts to settle differences through lawsuits, mediation, and arbitration. Often a humiliated weaker party is forced to yield the right of self-judgment to the stronger. The legal system and judicial process form part of the stock material from which the family sagas are constructed. Of all family sagas, Njal's Saga contains the greatest quantity of legal matter.

Fire and Iron: Critical Approaches to Njals Saga

Fire and Iron: Critical Approaches to Njals Saga

Njals Saga and the Western Literary Tradition

Njals Saga and the Western Literary Tradition

The Valkyrie Episode in the Njals Saga

The Valkyrie Episode in the Njals Saga