of one who does not pretend to Icelandic scholar-
ship, I think that translations are here less inadequate
than in almost any other language, the attraction of
the matter being So much greater than that of the
form. For those who will not take the slight trouble
to read Dasent's Njala^ or Morris and Magnusson's
Grettla, the next best idea attainable is perhaps from
Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Eyrbyggja or Mr
Blackwell's of the Kormak's Saga, or Mr Gosse's of
Egla, Njal's Saga deals with the friendship between
the warrior Gunnar and the lawyer Njal, which, prin-
cipally owing to the black-heartedness of Gunnar's wife
Hallgerd, brings destruction on both, Njal and almost
his whole family being burnt as the crowning point,
but by no means the end, of an intricate series of
reciprocal murders. For the blood -feuds of Iceland
were as merciless as those of Corsica, with the com-
plication — thoroughly Northern and not in the least
Southern — of a most elaborate, though not entirely
impartial, system of judicial inquiries and compen-
sations, either by fine or exile. To be outlawed for
murder, either in casual affray or in deliberate attack,
was almost as regular a part of an Icelandic gentle-
man's avocations from his home and daily life as a
journey on viking or trading intent, and was often
combined with one or both. But outlawry and fine
by no means closed the incident invariably, though
they sometimes did so far as the feud was concerned :
and there is hardly one saga which does not mainly or
partly turn on a tangle of outrages and inquests.
