Narrative i35 



they exact vengeance for a slain kinsman and carry on 

 a blood-feud through generations. In the Njal's Saga 

 we find Njal, the famous law-giver, living peaceably 

 with three grown sons in the house. Two of them 

 were married and had farms of their own, but chose to 

 live with their father and mother. The brothers Haus- 

 kuld and Hrut, whom we have just mentioned, though 

 they were not always on such good terms, we find in 

 every difficulty asking each other's advice, and consult- 

 ing about family affairs. 



And, when we get to the more exciting passages, few 

 literatures have produced a more vivid style of narra- 

 tion than is to be found in the same Sagas. The frame- 

 work of the stories is homely enough. We see the 

 chief — and this again reminds us of the Homeric Epic 

 — setting his men, his house-carls to work, and superin- 

 tending their labours — watching his own hay cut, and 

 going up upon the mountains to collect his sheep. 

 But how vivid may be the narrative which accom- 

 panies these plain details let one quotation suffice to 

 show us. It is taken from the Njala, perhaps the 

 most poetic of all the Icelandic Sagas. The event 

 which is here described is only an incident in the story, 

 not its climax : but the fact that it is only an inci- 

 dental touch causes the picturesqueness and vividness 

 of the narration to stand out the more conspicuously. 



There had been long a feud between the wives of two 

 great friends — between Hallgerda, the wife of Gunnar, 

 and Bergthora, the wife of Njal. Portunately the two 

 husbands swore that nothing that their wives could do 

 should bring them to a quarrel; and this oath they 

 kept till death. But as Hallgerda cannot stir up her 



