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rachelmanija Apr. 23rd, 2009 12:16 pm)
rachelmanija Apr. 23rd, 2009 12:16 pm)I forgot to mention one of the very beat parts of Gunnar’s last stand. (And also forgot to mention that his halberd sings to warn of danger.)
Gunnar caught sight of a red tunic at the window. He lunged out with his halberd and struck Thorgrim in the belly. Thorgrim dropped his shield, lost his footing, and toppled down from the roof. He strode over to where Gizur and the others were sitting.
Gizur looked up at him and asked, “Is Gunnar at home?”
“That’s for you to find out,” replied Thorgrim. “But I know that his halberd certainly is.”
And with that he fell dead.
After Gunnar’s death, Gunnar’s mom is so furious with Hallgerd that the latter takes one of their two sons and flees for her life. Skarp-Hedin then takes Gunnar’s other son, Hogni, for a stroll past Gunnar’s grave. Suddenly, they see Gunnar inside, happily singing about how he’d rather die than yield. Now I know the source of the scribbled note, “Gunnar enjoys death.”
Hogni takes up Gunnar’s halberd, which his mom had forbidden to be buried with him so it could be used to avenge his death, and he and Skarp-Hedin slaughter several of Gunnar’s killers. Mord weasels out and so lives to make more trouble later, but Hogni is now out of the saga.
Meanwhile, some of Njal’s sons sail off for fun and fortune. Thrain, last seen divorcing his sarcastic poet wife and marrying Hallgerd’s daughter, does the same but separately. Over there, a snarky scoundrel named Hrapp is cutting a swathe of hilarious killings, seductions, and thefts across Scandinavia. Hrapp ends up being chased by an earl, and tries to take refuge with the Njallssons. They refuse, but Thrain reluctantly shelters him. The Njallssons somehow get blamed for this, and get in all sorts of trouble from which they barely escape with the help of a guy named Kari, who has “a magnificent head of hair.”
At this point I looked up Vikings on Wikipedia, and found an irritated note disproving the use of horned helmets, and also this, about their supposed lack of personal hygiene: As for the Vikings in the east, Ibn Rustah explicitly notes their cleanliness, while Ibn Fadlan is disgusted by all of the men sharing the same, used vessel to wash their faces and blow their noses in the morning. Ibn Fadlan's disgust is probably motivated by his ideas of personal hygiene particular to the Muslim world, such as running water and clean vessels. While the example intended to convey his disgust about the customs of the Rus', at the same time it recorded that they did wash every morning.
The Njallssons bring Kari back to Iceland, where he marries one of Njal’s daughters. Thrain brings Hrapp back, where he makes all sorts of trouble and possibly makes time with Hallgerd, though the author of the saga notes that this may be merely a scurrilous rumor.
Skarp-Hedin and friends go to ambush Thrain and friends, separated by a partially frozen river. Skarp-Hedin leaps on to a strip of ice and skates down at high speed, splitting Thrain’s head as he goes, leaping out of the way of a thrown shield, and skating so fast that no one can even touch him. Everyone is very impressed, me included.
Njal, still trying to make peace, becomes foster-father to Thrain’s son Hoskuld. (Yes, this saga has multiple Hoskulds, it’s very confusing. Especially when Mord tries to persuade Hoskuld 1 to kill Hoskuld 2.) Njal ends up brokering a match between Hoskuld and Hildigunn, the niece of a chieftain named Flosi. Hildigunn is set on marrying a chieftain, so Njal has to create a new court of Iceland in order to get Hoskuld a chieftainship so they can marry. Everyone who already hated Njal now hates him even more.
Then Iceland becomes Christian for several chapters. The best part was when Jesus gave a blind man sight for just long enough to behead someone. (This was part of the ongoing Njal vs. Everyone feud, natch.)
Mord manages to convince Skarp-Hedin and other Njallssons to kill Hoskuld and cover up his own involvement. (Mord needs to die horribly.) Hildigunn is heartbroken and furious. She tries to get her uncle Flosi to take revenge, and when he hesitates, she takes the cloak she’d saved from her husband’s body and dumps it over Flosi so the blood clots rain down on him.
Do not mess with saga women!
Njal foresees that everyone will die. Well, it is called the Saga of Burnt Njal, so yeah.
There now comes my favorite scene in the entire saga. The writing and structure is fantastic.
Skarp-Hedin and friends go to the Althing to drum up support. One by one they approach various potential supporters. But one by one, each potential supporter spots Skarp-Hedin and says something like, “Who’s that creepy, axe-clutching guy who’s fifth in line, the pale, grim man who looks like a doomed troll?”
Skarp-Hedin responds with blistering insults, of which my favorite is this: “You would be better employed picking out of your teeth the bits of mare’s arse you ate before you came here – your shepherd saw it, and was amazed at such disgusting behavior!”
A huge settlement is offered, but Flosi is insulted by the offer of a cloak, apparently because it has some effeminate aura. Skarp-Hedin offers him trousers instead, which he says Flosi will need: “You certainly will if you are, as I have heard, the mistress of the Svinafell Troll, who uses you like a woman every ninth night.”
I now kind of love Skarp-Hedin. I also feel bad for Flosi: he's obviously about to commit a heinous crime, but he never wanted to be involved in the first place, then he could hardly do nothing when covered with flakes of his son-in-law's blood, and then Skarp-Hedin said he bottomed for a troll. The only way anyone could possibly escape a horrid fate now would be to flee Iceland and be out of the saga.
Gunnar caught sight of a red tunic at the window. He lunged out with his halberd and struck Thorgrim in the belly. Thorgrim dropped his shield, lost his footing, and toppled down from the roof. He strode over to where Gizur and the others were sitting.
Gizur looked up at him and asked, “Is Gunnar at home?”
“That’s for you to find out,” replied Thorgrim. “But I know that his halberd certainly is.”
And with that he fell dead.
After Gunnar’s death, Gunnar’s mom is so furious with Hallgerd that the latter takes one of their two sons and flees for her life. Skarp-Hedin then takes Gunnar’s other son, Hogni, for a stroll past Gunnar’s grave. Suddenly, they see Gunnar inside, happily singing about how he’d rather die than yield. Now I know the source of the scribbled note, “Gunnar enjoys death.”
Hogni takes up Gunnar’s halberd, which his mom had forbidden to be buried with him so it could be used to avenge his death, and he and Skarp-Hedin slaughter several of Gunnar’s killers. Mord weasels out and so lives to make more trouble later, but Hogni is now out of the saga.
Meanwhile, some of Njal’s sons sail off for fun and fortune. Thrain, last seen divorcing his sarcastic poet wife and marrying Hallgerd’s daughter, does the same but separately. Over there, a snarky scoundrel named Hrapp is cutting a swathe of hilarious killings, seductions, and thefts across Scandinavia. Hrapp ends up being chased by an earl, and tries to take refuge with the Njallssons. They refuse, but Thrain reluctantly shelters him. The Njallssons somehow get blamed for this, and get in all sorts of trouble from which they barely escape with the help of a guy named Kari, who has “a magnificent head of hair.”
At this point I looked up Vikings on Wikipedia, and found an irritated note disproving the use of horned helmets, and also this, about their supposed lack of personal hygiene: As for the Vikings in the east, Ibn Rustah explicitly notes their cleanliness, while Ibn Fadlan is disgusted by all of the men sharing the same, used vessel to wash their faces and blow their noses in the morning. Ibn Fadlan's disgust is probably motivated by his ideas of personal hygiene particular to the Muslim world, such as running water and clean vessels. While the example intended to convey his disgust about the customs of the Rus', at the same time it recorded that they did wash every morning.
The Njallssons bring Kari back to Iceland, where he marries one of Njal’s daughters. Thrain brings Hrapp back, where he makes all sorts of trouble and possibly makes time with Hallgerd, though the author of the saga notes that this may be merely a scurrilous rumor.
Skarp-Hedin and friends go to ambush Thrain and friends, separated by a partially frozen river. Skarp-Hedin leaps on to a strip of ice and skates down at high speed, splitting Thrain’s head as he goes, leaping out of the way of a thrown shield, and skating so fast that no one can even touch him. Everyone is very impressed, me included.
Njal, still trying to make peace, becomes foster-father to Thrain’s son Hoskuld. (Yes, this saga has multiple Hoskulds, it’s very confusing. Especially when Mord tries to persuade Hoskuld 1 to kill Hoskuld 2.) Njal ends up brokering a match between Hoskuld and Hildigunn, the niece of a chieftain named Flosi. Hildigunn is set on marrying a chieftain, so Njal has to create a new court of Iceland in order to get Hoskuld a chieftainship so they can marry. Everyone who already hated Njal now hates him even more.
Then Iceland becomes Christian for several chapters. The best part was when Jesus gave a blind man sight for just long enough to behead someone. (This was part of the ongoing Njal vs. Everyone feud, natch.)
Mord manages to convince Skarp-Hedin and other Njallssons to kill Hoskuld and cover up his own involvement. (Mord needs to die horribly.) Hildigunn is heartbroken and furious. She tries to get her uncle Flosi to take revenge, and when he hesitates, she takes the cloak she’d saved from her husband’s body and dumps it over Flosi so the blood clots rain down on him.
Do not mess with saga women!
Njal foresees that everyone will die. Well, it is called the Saga of Burnt Njal, so yeah.
There now comes my favorite scene in the entire saga. The writing and structure is fantastic.
Skarp-Hedin and friends go to the Althing to drum up support. One by one they approach various potential supporters. But one by one, each potential supporter spots Skarp-Hedin and says something like, “Who’s that creepy, axe-clutching guy who’s fifth in line, the pale, grim man who looks like a doomed troll?”
Skarp-Hedin responds with blistering insults, of which my favorite is this: “You would be better employed picking out of your teeth the bits of mare’s arse you ate before you came here – your shepherd saw it, and was amazed at such disgusting behavior!”
A huge settlement is offered, but Flosi is insulted by the offer of a cloak, apparently because it has some effeminate aura. Skarp-Hedin offers him trousers instead, which he says Flosi will need: “You certainly will if you are, as I have heard, the mistress of the Svinafell Troll, who uses you like a woman every ninth night.”
I now kind of love Skarp-Hedin. I also feel bad for Flosi: he's obviously about to commit a heinous crime, but he never wanted to be involved in the first place, then he could hardly do nothing when covered with flakes of his son-in-law's blood, and then Skarp-Hedin said he bottomed for a troll. The only way anyone could possibly escape a horrid fate now would be to flee Iceland and be out of the saga.
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And poor Flosi. I like Flosi a lot.
And Killer-Hrapp. He's actually a stock character; he or someone very like him shows up in several sagas.
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Many of whom also seem to be named Hrapp.
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In a modern, American story, the other characters would one by one wise up and distance themselves from Skarp-Hedinn, or even turn him over to some authority (cops, rival group) as a sacrifice to restore the peaceful order. But in an Icelandic story, well, you know the title already.
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ObPersonal: We also visited the approximate spot where SK ice-skated Thrain's head off with one whack. Which turns out (the saga never makes this explicitly clear) to be at the foot of the hill that had the wood that Gunnar and Njal jointly owned, the one involved in Hallgerd & Bergthora's tit-for-tat slayings. It's a few kilometers inland from Gunnar's fall-and-look back.
(One reason for all the repeating names is that people named children after friends and ancestors. Hoskuld 2 is, in fact, Hoskuld 1's great-grandson, through Hallgerd and Thorgerd. The two Mords are also related.)
ETA: It occurs to me, I really ought to have linked to our Iceland photos from the relevant day.
---L.
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I love Skarphedin at that Alþing scene. "Who is the one who walks fifth in line ..." I think the guy who's doing the asking for help actually does at one point more or less say: "Yo. Skarphedin. Not helping."
The conversion of Christianity used to seem pretty irrelevant to me ("and now, a commercial break while we change religions ...") but then I realized that among other things, it informs the tensions between Mord and his father than lead to Mord inciting the killing of Hoskuld.
Which really is the single most awful act of the saga in some ways. I tend to wonder--what on earth did Mord say to them? And was it really about that, or somehow still about the tensions between the Njalsons and Hoskuld's father Thrain?
There is somewhere a saga--forgetting which (Ergryggia?) where a guy, after killing someone, spouts poems about how he's doomed, doomed, doomed. His friends tell his to chill, he says no, I'm doomed. And then--he leaves the country. And is out of the saga. And I was left shouting after him, "Wait, wait, you get back here!" Who knew that sometimes you actually could duck out of a doomed destiny?