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Full Description
Njáls saga, the greatest of the sagas of the Icelanders, was written around 1280. It tells the story of a complex feud, that starts innocently enough in a tiff over seating arrangement at a local feast, and expands over the course of 20 years to engulf half the country, in which both sides are effectively exterminated, Njal and his family burned to death in their farmhouse, the other faction picked off over the entire course of the feud. Law and feud feature centrally in the saga, Njál, its hero, being the greatest lawyer of his generation. No reading of the saga can do it justice unless it takes its law, its feuding strategies, as well as the author's stunning manipulation and saga conventions. In 'Why is your axe bloody' W.I. Miller offers a lively, entertaining, and completely original personal reading of this lengthy saga.
Contents
Foreword ; Preface ; Introduction ; Njala's Unity Problem and the Very Beginning ; Marriage Formation and Dissolution ; Making a Scene ; Looking Forward: Njal's Prescience ; Bergthora vs. Hallgerd, Part I, the theory ; Bergthora vs. Hallgerd, Part II, some facts ; Otkel vs. Gunnar ; Gunnar vs. the Thrihyrning people ; The Two Thorgeirs and Death of Gunnar ; Revenge for Gunnar ; The Atlantic Interlude and Hrapp ; Setting up Thrain ; A Tale of Two Hoskulds ; Conversion and the Genius of the Law ; Valgard the Wise and Hoskuld's Blood ; Skarphedin Ascendans, Flosi's Ninth Nights ; The Burning ; Preparation for the next Althing ; The Trial of Flosi and the Battle ; Kari and Friends ; How Not To End a Saga Unless ; A Conclusion: Justice and Exits ; Works Cited
