Njal's Saga, part 4
Jun. 8th, 2014 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreNjal's Saga, chapters 26 through 35.
In this section, Gunnar finds a random Norwegian and goes raiding with him, and there are some seriously awesome battles. (Oh man, the bit where Gunnar catches the spear left-handed and then throws it back and kills a dude! It is so great.) When Gunnar comes back to Iceland (now very rich from all his successful raiding) he meets Hallgerd and immediately wants to marry her, despite warnings from Hoskuld, Hrut, and Njal. So they get married and the wedding feast gets awkward (as is tradition for Hallgerd's weddings) but at least this time it's not Hallgerd's fault. Hallgerd's daughter Thorgerd also gets married. After the wedding, a quarrel begins between Hallgerd and Njal's wife, Bergthora.
So, the bit in chapter 35 where Hallgerd casually comments on Bergthora's nails and Njal's beardlessness? That's pretty insulting. The beardless thing means that Njal is insufficiently manly and (according to the notes in the text) some scholars think that deformed nails were taken as a sign of nymphomania. She is, of course, responding to a (possibly imagined) slight after being asked to move aside for Bergthora's daughter-in-law. We can tell from the chapter before that seating arrangements were kind of a big deal.
Basically what happened is Hallgerd said, "Your husband's a pansy and you're a slut," and Bergthora said, "Okay, sure, but at least I didn't kill my husband."
Hallgerd - always fun at parties.
Previous parts of this saga can be found here. All saga posts can be found here.
In this section, Gunnar finds a random Norwegian and goes raiding with him, and there are some seriously awesome battles. (Oh man, the bit where Gunnar catches the spear left-handed and then throws it back and kills a dude! It is so great.) When Gunnar comes back to Iceland (now very rich from all his successful raiding) he meets Hallgerd and immediately wants to marry her, despite warnings from Hoskuld, Hrut, and Njal. So they get married and the wedding feast gets awkward (as is tradition for Hallgerd's weddings) but at least this time it's not Hallgerd's fault. Hallgerd's daughter Thorgerd also gets married. After the wedding, a quarrel begins between Hallgerd and Njal's wife, Bergthora.
So, the bit in chapter 35 where Hallgerd casually comments on Bergthora's nails and Njal's beardlessness? That's pretty insulting. The beardless thing means that Njal is insufficiently manly and (according to the notes in the text) some scholars think that deformed nails were taken as a sign of nymphomania. She is, of course, responding to a (possibly imagined) slight after being asked to move aside for Bergthora's daughter-in-law. We can tell from the chapter before that seating arrangements were kind of a big deal.
Basically what happened is Hallgerd said, "Your husband's a pansy and you're a slut," and Bergthora said, "Okay, sure, but at least I didn't kill my husband."
Hallgerd - always fun at parties.
Previous parts of this saga can be found here. All saga posts can be found here.
