Gripla - 20.12.2012, Page 194

GRIPLA192
At the Alþingi, kári sölmundarson seeks to avenge the burning of njáll
and his sons. kári has two well-known and very prominent Christians on
his side, Gissur hvíti and Hjalti skeggjason — the two men who fought so
vigorously for Christianity during the Icelandic kristnitaka. on the oppos-
ing side is flosi Þórðarson and the sons of sigfús with Hallur and his son
Ljótur, who is said to be fifteen years old at this point. the situation is
therefore not one of Christians against heathens; it is a more complex issue
of men who are seen to be in the right against men who are seen to be in
the wrong. earlier in the saga, in ch. 115, it has been prophesied that Ljótur,
who is Hallur’s favourite son, will become the greatest and longest living
chieftain in his family if he survives three visits to the Alþingi (normally
a very peaceful event) (íf 12, 287).47 But during this particular assembly,
which is Ljótur’s second, fighting breaks out between kári and flosi.
Hallur and Ljótur intervene in the melee at which point a spear strikes
and kills Ljótur but no one knows who threw it. Hallur helps separate the
fighting forces and a truce is arranged for the duration of the Alþingi. It is
never revealed who threw the spear. In the present discussion, this episode
is noteworthy for two reasons: firstly, the rather mysterious manner of
Ljótur’s death and secondly, Hallur’s reaction to his son’s death.48
the story of Ljótur’s death appears to have been fairly well known.49
even so, it remains very much a marginal episode in Njáls saga, which
makes little use of it in terms of drawing morals from or attaching sym-
bolism to it, despite the fact that it is an episode that readily lends itself to
symbolic interpretation, especially in a Christian context.50 the intention
47 Ljótur þotti bezt höfðinga efni austr þar; honum var þat spát, ef hann riði þrjú sumur til þings ok
kœmi heill heim, at þá mundi hann verða mestr höfðingi sinna frænda ok ellstr; hann hafði þá
riðit eitt sumar til þings, en nú ætlaði hann annat (íf 12, 287), “Ljótur was thought to be the
most promising man in the east to be a chieftain, and it had been foretold that if he rode to
the thing for three summers and came home safe and sound, he would become the great-
est chieftain in his family, as well as the longest lived. He had already ridden once to the
Althing and now he was going for the second time” (CSI 3, 115).
48 I am grateful to Haki Antonsson for inspiration regarding a number of issues discussed
below.
49 Ljótur is also mentioned in Sturlunga saga; in Geirmundar þáttr Heljarskinns ch. 7 (jón
jóhannesson et al. 1946 1, 10), where he is said to have a daughter named Guðrún; and in
Þorsteins saga Síðu-Hallssonar (íf 11, 305), where the mention of him appears to depend on
Njáls saga.
50 Had Njáls saga had an overtly hagiographical agenda or a greater focus on Ljótur or Hallur,
this incident might well have been exploited more immediately.