130 Norivay and the Norivegians 



The motives of these longer Sagas are not essentially 

 different from those of the shorter ones. Loves and 

 family feuds afford the staple of their material. They 

 deal, in fact, in almost equal proportion with the two 

 strongest passions of the human heart, — love and hate. 



As a rule, the tale is a sad one. ' A sad tale is best 

 for winter,' as Mamillius says in The Winters Talc. 

 Not seldom do we find that it is the least worthy man 

 who wins. Literature here, as it generally does, shows 

 that best part of its bias — a leaning to the losing side — 

 such as we notice in Homer's picture of Hector, who 

 far outshines in nobility his victorious rivals. So it is 

 here. Hrafn gets the better of his nobler rival, Gunn- 

 laug Snake-tongue ; in the end both fall. Kjartan, in 

 the Laxda?la Saga, is a finer and more interesting figure 

 than Bolli, who gets the better of him and wins his 

 love Godrun, just as Gunther gets the better of Siegfred 

 in the Nibelungen story. The Njiils Saga tells of the 

 slaying by the sword of the most brilliant man in Ice- 

 land, Gunnar, and the burning of the most stately and 

 venerable man, Njal. 



It must not be thought that though the Sagas deal 

 chiefly in rivalries and slayings, that the picture of 

 Iceland which they present is that of a purely anarchical 

 country. On the contrary, we cannot but be aston- 

 ished at the love of law and order which co-exists in the 

 land along with this recognition of the duty of revenge. 

 Certainly these northern republicans showed themselves 

 well fitted for self-government. And alongside of their 

 love of battle and adventure we see in them a reverence 

 for law which is almost superstitious. 



Of other superstition, or even of religious feeling, there 



