Njal's Saga (Classics)
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Njal's Saga (Classics) Customer Reviews
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A Primer on Anarchy
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I would recommend Njal's Saga as a primer on anarchy. Not the theoretical, Emma Goldman philosophical anarchy, but anarchy as it manifests itself "on the ground" as anthropologists like to phrase it.
Njal's Saga is a great piece of literature concerning how the early Norse settlers of Iceland, often themselves outlaws back in Norway, dealt with lawlessness. The main theme is stated by Njal himself. "With laws our nation will be built up." This sentiment is echoed by several other characters throughout the tale. Another saying, uttered by more than one person is, "The hand is soon sorry it has struck," and provides the awful counterbalance propelling the plot. For here we find a historic locale in which each man must execute justice and law for himself because medieval Iceland was a place of no central authority. Therefore, only men powerful enough themselves, or with enough powerful friends, could exact just retribution for injuries sustained by their neighbors. Men were driven by a warrior honor code that forced them to take up arms or lose face and the whole saga is full of a sense of dreadful irony of how just causes are perverted by resorting to violent solutions. This society is reminiscent of Odysseus' description of the cannibal Cyclops' society where each father is a law unto his wife and children and they meet in no just assemblies. The old Icelanders had their national assembly, the Althing, and while it could render decisions based upon law imported from Norway, it was left to the aggrieved individual to exact the sentence. Therefore, Gunnar of Hlidarende could ignore the sentence of outlawry and not leave the country and his enemies were therefore free to kill him in his home without fear of legal reprisal. Njal's Saga is an actual account of what anarchy is like in a remote society based upon powerful males trying to dominate all the land and people they could based on individual might and wit and prestige. The United States prides itself on being a nation of laws and not of men. Medieval Iceland was a settlement of contending personalities, each trying to adapt traditions from the old country to their individual benefit, with no central executive authority to carry out sentences in the name of the common good. So men pursued vengeance and blood begat blood as original justifications became obscured. In other words, traditions minus authority still equals anarchy. Read Njal's Saga and you can imagine the tragedy of being a law unto yourself.
Marc Ladewig
author of [[ASIN:0741444143 Odysseus: The Epic Myth of the Hero]]
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