CONCLUSION.
We are entitled to ask in what work of any age are the characters so
boldly, and yet so delicately, drawn [as in this Saga]? Where shall we
match the goodness and manliness of Gunnar, struggling with the storms
of fate, and driven on by the wickedness of Hallgerda into quarrel after
quarrel, which were none of his own seeking, but led no less surely to
his own end? Where shall we match Hallgerda herself--that noble frame,
so fair and tall, and yet with so foul a heart, the abode of all great
crimes, and also the lurking place of tale-bearing and thieving? Where
shall we find parallels to Skarphedinn's hastiness and readiness, as axe
aloft he leapt twelve ells across Markfleet, and glided on to smite
Thrain his death-blow on the slippery ice? where for Bergthora's love
and tenderness for her husband, she who was given young to Njal, and
could not find it in her heart to part from him when the house blazed
over their heads? where for Kari's dash and gallantry, the man who dealt
his blows straightforward, even in the Earl's hall, and never thought
twice about them? where for Njal himself, the man who never dipped his
hands in blood, who could unravel all the knotty points of the law; who
foresaw all that was coming, whether for good or ill, for friend or for
foe; who knew what his own end would be, though quite powerless to avert
it; and when it came, laid him down to his rest, and never uttered sound
or groan, though the flames roared loud around him? Nor are the minor
characters less carefully drawn, the scolding tongue of Thrain's first
wife, the mischief-making Thiostolf with his pole-axe, which divorced
Hallgerda's first husband, Hrut's swordsmanship, Asgrim's dignity,
Gizur's good counsel, Snorri's common sense and shrewdness, Gudmund's
grandeur, Thorgeir's thirst for fame, Kettle's kindliness, Ingialld's
heartiness, and, though last not least, Bjorn's boastfulness, which his
gudewife is ever ready to cry down--are all sketched with a few sharp
strokes which leave their mark for once and for ever on the reader's
mind. Strange! were it not that human nature is herself in every age,
that such forbearance and forgiveness as is shown by Njal and Hauskuld
and Hall, should have shot up out of that social soil, so stained and
steeped with the blood-shedding of revenge. Revenge was the great duty
of Icelandic life, yet Njal is always ready to make up a quarrel, though
he acknowledges the duty, when he refuses in his last moments to outlive
his children, whom he feels himself unable to revenge. The last words of
Hauskuld, when he was foully assassinated through the tale-bearing of
Mord, were, "God help me and forgive you"; nor did the beauty of a
Christian spirit ever shine out more brightly than in Hall, who, when
his son Ljot, the flower of his flock, fell full of youth, and strength,
and promise, in chance-medley at the battle on the Thingfield, at once
for the sake of peace gave up the father's and the freeman's dearest
rights, those of compensation and revenge, and allowed his son to fall
unatoned in order that peace might be made. This struggle between the
principle of an old system now turned to evil, and that of a new state
of things which was still fresh and good, between heathendom as it sinks
into superstition, and Christianity before it has had time to become
superstitious, stands strongly forth in the latter part of the Saga; but
as yet the new faith can only assert its forbearance and forgiveness in
principle. It has not had time, except in some rare instances, to bring
them into play in daily life. Even in heathen times such a deed as that
by which Njal met his death, to hem a man in within his house and then
to burn it and him together, to choke a freeman, as Skarphedinn says,
like a fox in his earth, was quite against the free and open nature of
the race; and though instances of such foul deeds occur besides those
two great cases of Blundkettle and Njal, still they were always looked
upon as atrocious crimes and punished accordingly. No wonder,
therefore, then that Flosi, after the Change of Faith, when he makes up
his mind to fire Njal's house, declares the deed to be one for which
they would have to answer heavily before God, "seeing that we are
Christian men ourselves"....
One word and we must bring this introduction to an end; it is merely to
point out how calmly and peacefully the Saga ends, with the perfect
reconciliation of Kari and Flosi, those generous foes, who throughout
the bitter struggle in which they were engaged always treated each other
with respect. It is a comfort to find, after the whole fitful story has
been worked out, after passing from page to page, every one of which
reeks with gore, to find that after all there were even in that
bloodthirsty Iceland of the tenth century such things as peaceful old
age and happy firesides, and that men like Flosi and Kari, who had both
shed so much blood, one in a good and the other in a wicked cause,
should after all die, Flosi on a trading voyage, an Icelandic Ulysses,
in an unseaworthy ship, good enough, as he said, for an old and
death-doomed man, Kari at home, well stricken in years, blessed with a
famous and numerous offspring, and a proud but loving wife.
