The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1982, Qupperneq 20

18
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER, 1982
again, because I shall learn of your death,
and then I shall have no reason to return.”
When Gunnar defied the edict of the
Law Mount, he sealed his own doom. At
harvest time, forty sturdy warriors, many
of them his enemies, visited his farm to put
an end to his life.
Gunnar showed less care in the selection
of his wife than he did in his friends. Her
name was Hallgerd. She had as many
womanly vices as he had manly virtues.
She was such a woman in whom honest
people could find nothing to praise but her
beauty. When she put up a servant to steal
for her, Gunnar slapped her face. During
his last battle, against the odds of forty to
one, his bowstring was cut in half.
‘‘Give me two strands of your hair,” he
said to Hallgerd, ‘‘and you and my mother
twist them together to make a bowstring for
me.”
“Does anything depend on that?” she
asked.
“My life depends on it,” he replied.
“Because they will never get me as long as
I can use my bow!”
“In that case I’ll remind you of the slap
on the face you gave me,” she answered,
“and I don’t care whether you hold out a
longer or a shorter time!”
“Everyone has something he is proud
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of,” said Gunnar. “Nor shall I ask you a
second time.”
Facing an inescapable doom, Gunnar did
not yield. In true Viking style, he died re-
sisting, undefeated. He gave up his life but
he kept what had made his life worth
living.
Gunnar had a friend named Njal — a
man of a different stamp than himself. Njal
was a man of peace, wise in many things
and reliable in knowledge. “He was so
well versed in the law,” says the Saga,
“that his equal could not be found any-
where. He was learned and had the gift of
second sight. He was benevolent and gen-
erous in word and deed, and everything
which he advised turned out for the best.
He was gentle and noble-minded, and
helped all people who came to him with
their problems.”
Njal had a wife named Bergthora. The
saga describes her as “a most excellent and
capable woman but somewhat harsh.” Njal
and Bergthora had three daughters and
three sons. Two of the sons were mighty
fighters. They hero-worshipped Gunnar
and had designs of following in his footsteps.
The inevitable happened. They became
involved in a blood-feud. Njal adopted the
son of one of the men they killed. His name
was Hoskuld and he married Hildigunn, a
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