r 38 Norway and the No7'zvegians 



Skarphedinn gave him a blow on his helm, and after 

 that dealt Sigmimd his death-blow. 



Grim cut off Skiolld's foot at the ankle-joint; but 

 Helgi thrust him through with his spear, and he got 

 his death there and then. 



Skarphedinn saw Hallgerda's shepherd, just as he 

 had hewn off Sigmund's head ; he handed the head to 

 the sheplierd and bade him bear it to Hallgerda, and 

 said she would know whether that head had made 

 jeering songs about them, and with that he sang a 

 mocking somij on Halkferda. 



Other more exciting passages might be cited from the 

 history of the Njals Saga, from which we have made 

 these two extracts. But there is none in which the 

 peculiar gifts of the narrator are better shown. 



When we come to the kings' lives we shall give 

 other extracts which display the same Saga manner, 

 and serve further to illustrate this art of literature. 



When the Saga-makers had become celebrated at 

 home, they were naturally attracted to the courts of the 

 greater northern chiefs in other lands. The Earls of 

 the Orkneys had their Saga-men ; and a series of 

 histories of the Orkney Earls, known as Jarla-Sogur 

 (Earls' Sagas) have been preserved. Probably the 

 Norse kings of Dublin had theirs, for a fragment 

 from their history has been preserved to us in the 

 Icelandic Saga Njala. It tells of a celebrated 

 battle whicli was fought in 1014 at Clontarf, between 

 the kings of Dublin and their Norse allies on the one 

 side, and the confederated Irish kings, under Brian- 

 Boroo, on the other. The Irish had their Saga or 

 history of the same battle. There are in the same 



