Njal´s saga

Even though it first concentrates on Gunnars history and then ignores Njal during a long time, I think that the stories that are being told really deserve to have been named after the man who wrote them. It could have been possible to change the book’s title to something more extravagant and original but this title is very well deserved. Other than the fact that Njal is the one who tells the occurrences, he is also the wisest and therefore this deserves to be named after him. His way of thinking and his intelligence make him a very wise and witty man and it gives him a great advantage in terms of survival during his life. I also noticed how Njal doesn’t resolve to violence that much, and if he does, he does it in an indirectly form since he convinces others to do the dirty job of killing. I just think that it was really nice to know that this saga is named after such strong character instead having had some other important character or theme to represent it.

Choosing Death

The way in which Gunnar chooses his destiny is one that I really admire because he held his head high and even though he was warned the circumstances, he still got what he wanted, and that was to keep his honor. Njal gives Gunnar the two choices of what he can do with his life and Gunnar chooses to die by his decision and he does it fighting to the end and fighting for a good cause and that is his liberty. After he kills several men, his punishment is that he must be sent away to never return unless he stays and faces the consequences of being attacked without them needing a justification. It was also impressive how such a strong man was alble to deal with so many people trying to kill him. It is also important to notice how he was tried to be killed several times and nobody was able to accomplish it due to his great ability in battle. For example he and Kolskegg fight bravely against 30 men and are able to make them flee and they get to keep their lives. Also when he is being killed, Gunnar is able to kill 2 men before and wound life fifteen of the twenty five they had brought. It is really impressive to know what a great fighter Gunnar was since he was able to hold on so long against so many soldiers.

Geneolgy

Something that really disturbs me about this saga is the fact that they include so much geneology. It is really hard to follow and one does not know about the people that are being mentioned and they never become important. I really think that this would be interesting to know of one knew of all the people or lived during the time period because you would know who you are talking about. The geneology here is also as it was in the bible in the sense that it goes really back to old ancestors but these genealogies are much more complete than the ones on the bible, maybe not in life tracking, but in background information and description. Here they usually say where they come from and they describe a bit of the personality and physical appearance.

Honorable fights

When I look at the way fights are described throughout the book I really support my original ideas of saying how the way in which men used to fight in battles is a lot more honoring and respectable than the one we currently handle. Before you actually had to be a good fighter and be skilled at what you did because soldiers fought with weapons that would only hurt the other if he is really close and can attack back. The fights are also more personal since one can actually se and face his opponent and struggle to keep one’s life. Today, however, staying alive during combat is pure luck and even though I really appreciate the work of those who fight for me, I really consider that this way of fighting is for cowards because one can’t even see the opponent and when shooting one is lucky enough to find cover and actually shoot at the target. This fighting doesn’t depend on skill, since not many men have problems with pulling the trigger. This is why I preferred to have people fight in the old ways because a good fighter was really a good fighter that could protect himself and attack with technique, practice, and ability.

Loyalty

The relationship that Gunnar an Njal share is a friendship full of obstacles but it is nice to see how they overcome them just to stay being friends. It was very touching in my opinion when Njal tells Gunnar, “I’ll stand by you loyally as long as I live.” (p120) this shows that they really care for one another and no matter how many men Gunnar kills, Njal will always cover up for him and get out of trouble, and no matter how much their wives hate each other and begin a killing cycle, they will always manage things in a civilized way and that even if ones wife speaks wrongly of his friend and family, he will defend his friend even if it means sticking up to the wife. I think this loyalty is really good and we could even say convenient because it gets the two most powerful men of the area and unite them so they are now extraordinary in every aspect. It I s weird to think about the fact that one shares his life with people that will always be there for you and you don’t know right now who will support you and who wont and it’s just funny to know that your current best friend may later become an enemy and that a person with which not much contact is done, can actually turn out to be one of your most loyal friends of all.

Reading the future...

Due to the fact that Njal can read the future, Gunnar has a great possibility of being successful at his expeditions and whenever they go on trial at the thing, Njal knows how to respond to the different situations and Gunnar is always saved. Reading the future is a quality that many would like to posses. Today there are many people who claim to have the gift of seeing the future and get paid lots of money, imagine then if there was a man who could really tell the future and all the benefits he would get out of it. I personally do not like to know how my life is supposed to be and I don’t want somebody reading my life, feelings, and thoughts, however there are many people who would really like to know how their life is going to be. Still, this gift could also be used in negative aspects, if it falls on the hands of a bad person, he/she could use it to harm others and benefit only himself. Governments would also take advantage of this and use it to benefit their countries. I still believe that this is a very dangerous weapon that, if it falls in the wrong hands, could end the little amount of peace we currently have going on in the world. Still if the gift falls in the hands of an appropriate person, then many good consequences would arise from the management of predicting the future. This stuff reminds me of the movie “next” and also makes me think how hard it would be for so one person to hold the future in his hands and be responsible for so many actions. All I know is that is one “supernatural” ability that I wouldn’t like to posses no matter how useful it is. I would much rather turn invisible, or fly, or, I don’t know, talk with animals.

authority in marriage

In this part of the book the wives ignore their husband’s requests and begin a “war” between them. Each summer while Gunnar and Njal are at the Thing, the women send their servant to kill the other woman’s servant. This becomes a cycle that goes on until finally Njal decides he won’t accept a new servant that year before the Thing. This shows how addictive cycles are and how hard they are to stop once someone begins it. At the same time I was impressed by the amount of patience their husbands have because each time their wives kill a servant they just pay one another depending on which servant it was. These two men solve the problem in a very peaceful way both of the times while they could have gotten infuriated and attacked one another. It is also impressive how the woman disobeys the man and receives no punishment for it. I guess that represents that in that time the families weren’t ruled by either the man or the woman which makes it an equal ruling relationship. Many families are ruled in such a way in the present but there are many others in which one of the two genders has greater authority.