thematic thread
Moderation & Its Loss
Hávamál names the virtue: be wise, but not too wise; the happiest life belongs to those who know enough but not too much. Moderation is stated here as the governing rule of living well.
The measure in all things
If Hávamál has a single governing virtue it is moderation — hóf, the sense of the right measure — and the poem returns to it again and again. A man should be wise, it says, but never too wise; the happiest life belongs to those who know enough but not too much, for the over-clever heart is seldom glad.[1] It warns sharply against drink, against the boasting tongue, against the fool who cannot hold his peace.
This is the quiet centre of the whole Norse ethical world, and it sits in deliberate tension with the heroic code of glory. The same culture that praised the bold deed also prized hóf — knowing when to stop, when to settle, when not to press a quarrel to ruin. Read across the corpus, the wisest saga figures (Njáll, Snorri the Priest) are the ones who keep this measure, and the tragedies fall on those who lose it — the overbearing chief who will not settle, the proud man who cannot let an insult pass. Hávamál names the virtue that the feud-sagas show being violated, and counts the cost.
The source text · 1
A measure of wisdom / each man shall have, / But never too much let him know; / The fairest lives / do those men live / Whose wisdom wide has grown.— havamal
a measure of wisdom each shall have, but never too much — the happiest life (Bellows 1923).
Njáll spends the whole saga counselling restraint and brokering settlements — the voice of hóf — and the tragedy is precisely that the world around him will not keep the measure he urges.
The atonement that broke at the Thing
At the Alþingi the great men laboured to settle it, and very nearly did. Njáll begged both sides to stay and let good men make an award; the suit, he said, had sprung from an ill root, and only an arbitrated peace could draw it out. Hall of the Side talked Flosi into agreeing, arbitrators were named for each side, and they shook hands on it. A huge atonement was heaped up.[1]
Then Flosi looked at the pile, saw a garment laid on top, and asked who had added it — and got no answer. He asked again, sharper, and made a savage joke at Njáll's expense, sneering at the beardlessness the saga has needled all along. Skarphéðinn answered in kind, with an insult so vicious it could not be taken back.[2] In a heartbeat the settlement collapsed. The peace was off, and both sides walked away from the law for the last time.
The source text · 2
"It seems to me as though this suit were come to naught, and it is likely it should, for it hath sprung from an ill root. I will let you all know that I loved Hauskuld more than my own sons, and when I heard that he was slain, methought the sweetest light of my eyes was quenched, and I would rather have lost all my sons, and that he were alive. Now I ask thee, Hall of the Side, and thee Runolf of the Dale, and thee Hjallti Skeggi's son, and thee Einar of Thvera, and thee Hafr the wise, that I may be allowed to make an atonement for the slaying of Hauskuld on my sons' behalf; and I wish that those men who are best fitted to do so shall utter the award."— njals saga
Njáll's plea: the suit 'hath sprung from an ill root.'
"If thou must know," said Flosi, "then I will tell thee; I think that thy father the 'Beardless Carle' must have given it, for many know not who look at him whether he is more a man than a woman."— njals saga
Flosi's 'Beardless Carle' sneer; the insults shatter the settlement.
Snorri goði is the master of measure: cool, patient, never pressing beyond what serves him. Where hot men destroy themselves, the moderate chieftain endures and prevails.
Snorri goði
The saga's true centre is Snorri goði — Snorri the Priest — who gets Helgafell and the chieftaincy young, and presides over the rest of the saga as its coolest intelligence.[1] He is unlike the saga heroes we have met: not the strongest or the boldest, but the most shrewd — patient, calculating, a master of law and timing who wins by knowing exactly when to act and when to wait.
The same Snorri threads through the wider corpus: it is to him that Guðrún turns in Laxdæla, and at his Helgafell that she ends her days. Eyrbyggja is, among other things, his portrait — the chieftain as strategist, holding a turbulent district together not by force but by judgement. Around him swirl rivals like the noble Arnkell, witches, berserks, and the dead, and Snorri navigates all of it with the same unhurried cunning.
The source text · 1
At the Spring Thing the next summer Snorri claimed his father's heritage from Bork. Bork answered that he would yield him his heritage. "But I am loth," said he, "to share Holyfell asunder, though I see that it is meet for us not to dwell in one stead together. So I will redeem my share of the land." Snorri answered: "It is most fair that thou shouldst lay the land at as dear a price as thou wilt, but fair also that I choose which of us shall redeem it."— eyrbyggja saga
Snorri gets Helgafell and the chieftaincy (Morris & Magnússon 1892).
The failure of measure: offered an honourable settlement, pride refuses it, and the refusal sets the saga's whole reversal in motion. Not knowing when to stop is the flaw that dooms the overbearing.
The offer, and the pride that refuses it
The news reached Þorbjörn, and grief took the old man hard. He rode to Aðalból to ask redress for his son — and got, astonishingly, a real offer. Hrafnkell, who paid no man anything, admitted this killing sat worse with him than the others he had done. He would feed Þorbjörn's household in milk and meat for as long as the old man kept house; he would settle his other children well; he would care for Þorbjörn himself to his dying day. It was, by the saga's own reckoning, a handsome price.[1]
But it was a great man's gift, handed down — not the judgement of equals. Þorbjörn wanted arbitration, the two of them naming a third man to weigh the case between them as peers. Then you hold yourself my equal, Hrafnkell said, and the peace is at an end.
His own brother Bjarni wanted nothing to do with the quarrel — know yourself, he told Þorbjörn, we are not the men to fight Hrafnkell. So the old man went down the valley to his nephew Sámr: turbulent, clever, deep in the law, and reluctant. Sámr took the case at last, almost angrily, for the sake of kinship and nothing else — warning Þorbjörn to his face that he expected no good of it.[2]
The source text · 2
The news of Einarr, his son's, death, was brought over to Thorbjörn at Hóll, and he was mightily grieved at the tidings. He now took his horse, and rode over to Aðalból to ask Hrafnkell to do boot for his son. Hrafnkell said that he had slain many a man beside this one; "for thou must know that I never pay weregild to any man, and yet people have to rest content with things so done. Yet I allow it, that I think that this my deed is rather of the worse kind among the manslaughters which I have wrought hitherto; thou, too, hast been a neighbour of mine for a long while, and I have had a good liking for thee, and we have enjoyed one another's favour; and no small tiling would have brought matters to an evil pass between me and Einarr, if only he had not ridden this horse; but now I have to regret that I spoke too much; and seldomer, indeed, should we have to regret that which we say too little than that which we say too much, and now I shall show that I consider this deed of mine a worse one than other deeds that I have done, inasmuch as I will supply thy house with dairy-produce during the summer, and with slaughtered meat when autumn comes; and in the same way I will do to thee as long as thou art minded to keep a house. Thy sons and daughters we shall fit out at my cost, and so endow them, as to make their conditions desirable. And all that thou knowest my house to contain, and of which thou mayest stand in need in future, thou shalt let me know of, nor henceforth shalt thou be in want of those things which may be requisite unto thee. Thou shalt keep house as long as thou takest pleasure therein, but when thou art tired thereof, thou shalt come to me, and I will take care of thee unto thy dying day. Let this be our atonement; and likely, it seems to me, that most people will say, that this man was dearly paid for." "This offer I will not accept," says Thorbjörn. "What then?" says Hrafnkell. Then spake Thorbjörn: "I will, that we name an umpire between us." Answered Hrafnkell: "Then thou holdest thyself as good a man as I; the peace between us is at an end." Then Thorbjörn rode away, and down along Hrafnkelsdalr. He came to Langarhus, and met his brother Bjarni, and told him the tidings, asking him at the same time to lend him a hand in these matters. Bjarni answered, saying that Hrafnkell was his equal to deal with; "for though we have plenty of money to dispose of, we are not the men to plunge into a strife with such a man; and sooth, indeed, is the old saw; 'Know one thing, know thyself!' He has made lawsuits difficult for many a one who have been mightier men of their hands than we are; and it seems to me that thou hast been somewhat short of wits in refusing such a good offer, and I will have nothing to do with this." Thorbjörn overwhelmed his brother with abuse, saying that there was in him the less of manhood, the more he was to be depended upon. So he rode away, and the two brothers parted in little love. He did not stop until he came down to Leikskálar, where he knocked at the door, and people answered the knock and came out. Thorbjörn asked Sámr to come out and see him. Sámr greeted his kinsman well, and asked him to put up there. Thorbjörn answered it slowly somewhat. Seeing that Thorbjörn was downcast, Sámr asked him for tidings, and Thorbjörn told him the slaughter of his son Einarr. "That is no great tidings," said Sámr, "if Hrafnkell slays a man." Thorbjörn asks if Sámr was minded to lend him any help: "for such is the nature of the case, that though the man is nearest and dearest to me, yet the blow has been dealt no way from malice." "Hast thou tried to have any redress of Hrafnkell?" said Sámr. Thorbjörn told all truthfully as to what had passed between him and Hrafnkell. "Never before did I know Hrafnkell to make such offer to any man, as those he has made to thee," says Sámr. "Now I will ride with thee up to Aðalból, and let us come before Hrafnkell in a humble mind, and see if he will still hold to the same offers; and I doubt not that he will behave honourably in the matter." Says Thorbjörn: "This is to be said, both that Hrafnkell will now refuse, and that such is no more in my mind now than it was when I rode away from there." Sámr says: "Heavy enough, I guess, will it be to strive with Hrafnkell in matters at law." Thorbjörn answers: "That is why ye young men never come to aught, that you flinch at all things, and I am minded to think that no man has got such milksops for kinsmen as I have. It seems to me that a man like you is putting himself in a right false position, being skilled in law and eager for petty cases, but refusing to take up this case, a great and urgent one. Thou shalt be widely reviled for this, as, indeed, thou deservest, being known as the most boisterous man in our kin. And I now see how the matter turns." Sámr answered: "By how much art thou the better off than before, even if I should take up the case, and we should both be worsted together?" Thorbjörn answered: "It would be a great relief to my mind, if thou shouldst undertake it, no matter how after that it should turn out." Sámr said: "I am right unwilling to engage in this, and it is only for the sake of kinship that I do it; but thou must know, that in thee I deem that I have no avail of any kind." Then Sámr gave his hand, and took the case off Thorbjörn's hand.— hrafnkels saga
Hrafnkell's generous offer; Þorbjörn refuses.
The news of Einarr, his son's, death, was brought over to Thorbjörn at Hóll, and he was mightily grieved at the tidings. He now took his horse, and rode over to Aðalból to ask Hrafnkell to do boot for his son. Hrafnkell said that he had slain many a man beside this one; "for thou must know that I never pay weregild to any man, and yet people have to rest content with things so done. Yet I allow it, that I think that this my deed is rather of the worse kind among the manslaughters which I have wrought hitherto; thou, too, hast been a neighbour of mine for a long while, and I have had a good liking for thee, and we have enjoyed one another's favour; and no small tiling would have brought matters to an evil pass between me and Einarr, if only he had not ridden this horse; but now I have to regret that I spoke too much; and seldomer, indeed, should we have to regret that which we say too little than that which we say too much, and now I shall show that I consider this deed of mine a worse one than other deeds that I have done, inasmuch as I will supply thy house with dairy-produce during the summer, and with slaughtered meat when autumn comes; and in the same way I will do to thee as long as thou art minded to keep a house. Thy sons and daughters we shall fit out at my cost, and so endow them, as to make their conditions desirable. And all that thou knowest my house to contain, and of which thou mayest stand in need in future, thou shalt let me know of, nor henceforth shalt thou be in want of those things which may be requisite unto thee. Thou shalt keep house as long as thou takest pleasure therein, but when thou art tired thereof, thou shalt come to me, and I will take care of thee unto thy dying day. Let this be our atonement; and likely, it seems to me, that most people will say, that this man was dearly paid for." "This offer I will not accept," says Thorbjörn. "What then?" says Hrafnkell. Then spake Thorbjörn: "I will, that we name an umpire between us." Answered Hrafnkell: "Then thou holdest thyself as good a man as I; the peace between us is at an end." Then Thorbjörn rode away, and down along Hrafnkelsdalr. He came to Langarhus, and met his brother Bjarni, and told him the tidings, asking him at the same time to lend him a hand in these matters. Bjarni answered, saying that Hrafnkell was his equal to deal with; "for though we have plenty of money to dispose of, we are not the men to plunge into a strife with such a man; and sooth, indeed, is the old saw; 'Know one thing, know thyself!' He has made lawsuits difficult for many a one who have been mightier men of their hands than we are; and it seems to me that thou hast been somewhat short of wits in refusing such a good offer, and I will have nothing to do with this." Thorbjörn overwhelmed his brother with abuse, saying that there was in him the less of manhood, the more he was to be depended upon. So he rode away, and the two brothers parted in little love. He did not stop until he came down to Leikskálar, where he knocked at the door, and people answered the knock and came out. Thorbjörn asked Sámr to come out and see him. Sámr greeted his kinsman well, and asked him to put up there. Thorbjörn answered it slowly somewhat. Seeing that Thorbjörn was downcast, Sámr asked him for tidings, and Thorbjörn told him the slaughter of his son Einarr. "That is no great tidings," said Sámr, "if Hrafnkell slays a man." Thorbjörn asks if Sámr was minded to lend him any help: "for such is the nature of the case, that though the man is nearest and dearest to me, yet the blow has been dealt no way from malice." "Hast thou tried to have any redress of Hrafnkell?" said Sámr. Thorbjörn told all truthfully as to what had passed between him and Hrafnkell. "Never before did I know Hrafnkell to make such offer to any man, as those he has made to thee," says Sámr. "Now I will ride with thee up to Aðalból, and let us come before Hrafnkell in a humble mind, and see if he will still hold to the same offers; and I doubt not that he will behave honourably in the matter." Says Thorbjörn: "This is to be said, both that Hrafnkell will now refuse, and that such is no more in my mind now than it was when I rode away from there." Sámr says: "Heavy enough, I guess, will it be to strive with Hrafnkell in matters at law." Thorbjörn answers: "That is why ye young men never come to aught, that you flinch at all things, and I am minded to think that no man has got such milksops for kinsmen as I have. It seems to me that a man like you is putting himself in a right false position, being skilled in law and eager for petty cases, but refusing to take up this case, a great and urgent one. Thou shalt be widely reviled for this, as, indeed, thou deservest, being known as the most boisterous man in our kin. And I now see how the matter turns." Sámr answered: "By how much art thou the better off than before, even if I should take up the case, and we should both be worsted together?" Thorbjörn answered: "It would be a great relief to my mind, if thou shouldst undertake it, no matter how after that it should turn out." Sámr said: "I am right unwilling to engage in this, and it is only for the sake of kinship that I do it; but thou must know, that in thee I deem that I have no avail of any kind." Then Sámr gave his hand, and took the case off Thorbjörn's hand.— hrafnkels saga
Sámr reluctantly takes the suit.
Hallgerd's slap and the chain of killings it begins show the opposite of hóf — the inability to let a grievance go — turning a household quarrel into a death-feud.
The slap
The trouble came as Njáll said it would, and it came over food. In a hard season Hallgerða sent a slave to steal cheese and butter from Otkell's store at Kirkby — a neighbour who had refused to sell Gunnarr supplies. When Gunnarr found the stolen food on his table, he understood at once where it came from.[1]
He struck her. One blow, across the face, in front of the household. “Never shall I be a receiver of stolen goods,” he told her — and Hallgerða, who forgot nothing, told him she would remember that slap and pay it back when it would cost him most.[2] It is one of the coldest promises in the sagas, and unlike most threats in this story, it is kept to the letter.
The source text · 2
Now Gunnar is about to ride to the Thing, but a great crowd of men from the Side east turned in as guests at his house.— njals saga
Hallgerða has Otkell's store robbed.
Now Gunnar is about to ride to the Thing, but a great crowd of men from the Side east turned in as guests at his house.— njals saga
Gunnarr strikes Hallgerða; she vows to repay it.
And the hard-won return of measure: after a saga of blood, the feud ends only when both sides finally choose restraint over one more killing. Moderation is what the corpus arrives at, exhausted, as wisdom.
The kiss at Svínafell
Kári turned at last for home. Sailing late in the season, his ship was dashed to pieces on the Icelandic coast in a gale — and of all the houses he might have made for, he chose, deliberately, to go to Flosi's hall at Svínafell and, as the saga puts it, put Flosi's manhood to the proof. He walked in out of the storm, his enemy of all these years.[1]
Flosi knew him the instant he entered. He sprang up, went to meet him, kissed him, and sat him in the high-seat at his own side. They were reconciled with a full atonement — and Flosi gave Kári the hand of Hildigunnr: Höskuldr's widow, the woman whose blood-stiff cloak had set the whole burning in motion. The feud ends in the marriage-bed of its own beginning.[2]
Flosi, grown old, later sailed for Norway in a ship men told him was unseaworthy; he said she was good enough for an old and death-doomed man, put to sea, and was never heard of again. And there, the saga says plainly, the story of Burnt Njáll comes to its close — not on a killing, but on two enemies who had taken everything from each other choosing, in the end, peace.
The source text · 2
Now they ask Kari what counsel was to be taken; but he said their best plan was to go to Swinefell and put Flosi's manhood to the proof.— njals saga
Storm-wrecked, Kári goes to Flosi at Svínafell.
Flosi asked Kari to be there that winter, and Kari took his offer. Then they were atoned with a full atonement.— njals saga
Flosi rises, kisses Kári; full atonement; Hildigunnr to wife.
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