Njáll Þorgeirsson (
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
: ;
Modern Icelandic: ) was a 10th and early-11th-century
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
ic lawyer who lived at
Bergþórshvoll in Landeyjar,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
. He was one of the main protagonists of ''
Njáls saga
''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) or ''"The Story of Burnt Njáll"'', is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020.
The saga deals with a process of blood feuds in the I ...
'', a medieval
Icelandic saga
The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early e ...
which describes a series of blood feuds.
Biography
Njáll was the son of Þorgeir gollnir Ófeigsson. His paternal grandfather had fallen out of favour with the king and therefore decided to leave Norway but as he had prepared and was about to leave when the king's errandmen came to him and took his life. After that his grandmother and their children and her brother left for Iceland. ''Njáls saga'' does not in important events contradict other sources but in details such as genealogy it sometimes contradicts the ''
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and ove ...
'' which is thought more trustworthy. The name Njáll is a Norse derivative of the Irish name Niall.
Njáll lived in Bergþórshvoll and was married to Bergþóra Skarphéðinsdóttir. He is described as a kindly, wealthy, non-violent, and handsome man, but beardless, suffering from the peculiar condition of not growing any facial hair. He was a great lawyer — supposedly unequalled in wisdom and predictive powers — and solved the problems of every man who came to him for counsel. He was a close friend of chieftain
Gunnar Hámundarson
Gunnar Hámundarson () was a 10th-century Icelandic chieftain. He lived in Hlíðarendi in Fljótshlíð and is probably better known as Gunnar of Hlíðarendi ( non, Gunnarr á Hlíðarenda). He features prominently in the first half of Nj ...
of
Hlíðarendi.
After his sons become involved in a dispute, the farmstead at Bergþórshvoll is surrounded by a hundred men and put on fire. By then, Njáll was an old man and was offered the chance to leave. He chooses to stay and dies in the fire with the rest of his family — hence ''Njáls saga'' has also been called ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' meaning "Saga of Burning Njáll".
See also
*
Skarphéðinn Njálsson
References
Other sources
Full text of ''Njáls saga'' with English translation at the Icelandic Saga Databaseh1>
External links
Njál´s Saga Centre websiteIcelandic Saga & Heritage Association website
10th-century Icelandic people
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