Njal’s Saga: Understanding the Beautiful Failure Through Words and Art
- Jason Doctor
- Aug 16
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 20
by Jason Doctor, August 2025
Jason Doctor, a volunteer with Icelandic Roots, attended both the Deuce of August festivities in Mountain, ND and Islendingadagurinn in Gimli MB this past August. While there, he and Claudia Petursson presented Njals’ Saga and the beautiful tapestry that illustrates this saga. IR presents Jason’s synopsis of Njal’s saga, how he attributes the notion of failure: Living for what he sees as his real purpose irrespective of social climbing or status.
Icelandic Roots has been following and covering information on Njal’s Saga tapestry for the past number of months. The tapestry itself resembles the Bayeux Tapestry that depicts the Norman conquest of England but there are differences.
The Norman conquest in 1066 was a once in millennium victory. A 2014 study found that even today, people with Norman surnames such as Mandeville, Darcy and Percy are wealthier, more likely to attend Oxford or Cambridge, and live on average 3 years longer than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts with names such as Smith, Baker and Carpenter. [2]
Well, Icelanders never lived a posh life. Our ancestors would endure colonization, food shortages, plague, and volcanic eruptions. To survive for a thousand years with terrible failures requires that we give meaning to it and to recognize our human value in some other way, perhaps a deeper way.
The late Western Icelandic writer, Bill Holm commented:
“The human failure in Njal’s Saga is of such size it attains a majesty.” [3]
Njals’ Saga and its failures helped our ancestors get through life and its challenges. Let's review some of these themes.
In the saga, we are first introduced to Hrút and his brother Hoskuld, father of the beautiful but manipulative and vengeful, Hallgerð. When Hallgerð is a child, Hoskuld asks his brother Hrút about what he thinks of his young daughter, Hrút tells his brother
“The girl is quite beautiful, but what I don’t know is how the eyes of a thief have come into our family.” [1]
This did not go over well but was prophetic.
Gunnar and Hallgerð
Hallgerð’s first two husbands are murdered after marital disagreements. Then she meets one of our two main protagonists Gunnar of Hliðarendi. Gunnar is taken by her beauty and asks why she is not married. Although Hallgerð warns she is difficult, he can’t resist proposing marriage.
Gunnar is described as an excellent fighter and strong. “He could swing a sword so rapidly there seemed to be three in the air at once. He was a better shot with a bow than anyone. He could jump higher than his height in full armor and swim like a seal. There was no point in competing against him in any sport.” [1]
Only later do we learn that despite his unmatched excellence as a fighter and success abroad, he dislikes killing other men and this, he believes, makes his manhood vulnerable.
Njál
Njál Thorgeirsson was a well-off property owner. The saga says, “He was so well-versed in the law that he had no equal, and he was wise and prophetic.” [1] He gave sound advice and was well-intentioned. He was “modest and had a noble spirit… he solved the problems of whoever turned to him” [1] for help.
The saga also says he was “handsome to look at, but there was one thing, no beard grew on him,” [1] and in this society this makes also his manhood vulnerable.
Hallgerð slanders Njál by gossiping that instead of having his bondmen haul manure to the fields to grow better hay, he should apply the manure to his face so that he can appear to have a beard. In early Iceland, this was grounds for revenge. Njál's sons would use this slander strategically to justify killings of people who had wronged them in other ways
Njál and Gunnar
In Chapter 36, the saga says:
“Gunnar and Njal together owned some woodlands at Rauðaskrið. They had not divided it up and each of them was in the habit of cutting what he needed, without the blame of the other.” [1]
Gunnar and Njál learned how to share space, and they shared it graciously and not begrudgingly. They know how to get along in the world. But conflict brews.
Njál’s wife, Bergþóra, and Gunnar’s wife, Hallgerð, start directing their bondservants to commit revenge killings.
Njál and Gunnar try to stay calm and make commitments to preserve their friendship. Njal says, “I will have to keep in mind the good things we’ve been saying to each other for a long time.” [1]
After the killing of one of Gunnar’s bondsmen, Gunnar states,
“I will not push this too hard: Pay me 120 pieces of silver. But I want to stipulate that if something happens from my side which you have to judge, you will not set harder terms than I have done.” [1]
For a while they simply slide the same amount of silver back and forth across the table in restitution for each killing. But this doesn’t last.
Hallgerð’s wrath extends to others. Morð Valgerdson, a local Chieftain and Gunnar’s relative, stokes the anger of people who might act to harm Gunnar and Njál. Njál senses this but can’t quite put it together. One night, unable to sleep, he tells his daughter-in-law:
“Many things are passing before my eyes…I see fierce personal spirits of many of Gunnar’s enemies, but there is something strange about them–they seem in a frenzy but act without purpose.” [1]
Is this Morð’s doing? Or is it senselessness of hatred? Maybe it is both.
Gunnar is eventually banned from Iceland due to his keen ability of defending himself and the intense frequency of the killings. He falls off his horse on his departure. Looking back at his farm, he speaks with quiet beauty: “Lovely is the Hillside. Never has it seemed so lovely to me as it does now.” He decides to stay, which leads to his death.
Gunnar has a deep, emotional bond with his land, even in the face of his own demise. He tells others he is “weary of killing men”. He would rather fail. This is the first we see of this transcendent notion of failure: Living for what he sees as his real purpose and not for a culture of revenge.
The saga continues: after Gunnar dies several characters travel to Norway and there are various conflicts that finally ends with a period of peace. The introduction of Christianity to Iceland is described. [4]
But later, Morð agitates Njal’s sons into killing Njál´s foster son. This leads to a tide of violence that culminates in the deliberate burning to death of Njál and his whole family, including his wife and grandchildren, inside his house. While one of Njál's sons wants to fight, Njál convinces him to accept failure. Like Gunnar, Njál sees failure as his best option. Only a friend and in-law, Kári Sæmundsson, escapes to exact revenge for the killings.
But the burning echoes throughout the rest of the saga. As things calm down, the characters realize that the burning tore apart their humanity and everyone was deeply affected. Flósi, the leader of the burners, calls it an “evil act”. He has a dream that names the names of those responsible. There are many revenge killings by Kári. By the end of the saga, Kári and Flósi make peace.
The burning of Njál and his family was a national tragedy. It teaches us that our worth is not in conquest or dominance. Even today, we live in a frenetic world where, like in the Saga, people jockey for position, they don’t always get along and may sometimes let envy get the best of them. Our culture clings to a traditional idea of failure tied to not meeting our competitive goals. Keep Njal's Saga in mind as you navigate this world.
With the help of the Icelandic Roots database, let’s return to 1066, two weeks before the Norman Conquest.
The Norwegian King, Harald “Harðráði” Sigurdsson (IR# I174847), was marching to visit York before taking England. But he was ambushed by the English at Stamford Bridge and died of a wound to the throat. His defeat left the English army compromised. Fourteen days later, the Normans won at Hastings, conquering England against a weakened English force.
King Harald’s grandson, Magnus Barefoot, would raid and colonize the Hebrides and Ireland as Viking power waned. Magnus married his daughter Þóra to an Icelandic chieftain at Oddi. Their son would foster Snorri Sturluson, Iceland’s great poet and historian.
By then, Njál had lived and died. But his story was still told around the fire. Þóra likely knew it. While her Viking great-grandfather had failed to conquer England, she and her descendants, our ancestors, became part of a literary culture that dignifies the human experience.
That culture lives on through our storytelling. Through the retelling of Njál’s Saga. Through Claudia’s tapestry.
To me, that is a beautiful failure.
References
Cook, R. (Ed.). (2001). Njal's saga (Vol. 6). Penguin UK.
Clark, G., & Cummins, N. (2014). Surnames and social mobility in England, 1170–2012. Human Nature, 25(4), 517-537.
Holm, B. (2013). The music of failure. U of Minnesota Press.
Fox, D. (1963). Njáls saga and the Western literary tradition. Comparative Literature, 289-310.
Additional information regarding Njál's Saga and the Tapestry:
View the Saga tapestry and meet Claudia:
August 14-21 Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tapestry presentation and classes, with the Hekla Club and Danish American Club
Sept. 5 Rapid City, South Dakota, event at St. Martin Village
Sept. 6 Rapid City, South Dakota, event at Rapid City Public Library
Sept. 8 Denver, Colorado, event with Icelandic Association of Colorado
Sept. 9 Boulder, Colorado, Presentation for Handweavers Guild of Boulder
Sept. 13 Boulder, Colorado, Embroidery classes with Handweavers Guild of Boulder
(Sept. Date Pending): Boulder, Colorado, event with University of Colorado at Boulder/Nordic Program)
Oct. (Date Pending): Tapestry showing at the Icelandic Embassy to the United States, Washington, D.C.
