Rangá (Rangriver)

The Rang River — Rangá — is the southern Icelandic river whose fords and banks are the stage of Gunnarr's most famous fights in Njáls saga. It is here, at the river-crossings near his home of Hlíðarendi, that the peerless warrior meets and overcomes the parties sent against him — most famously the ambush of Otkell and his men, where Gunnarr's bow and halberd do their deadly work and the feud climbs another fatal step. The river marks the heartland of Gunnarr's country, the ground he loves too well to leave, and the place where his prowess is shown at its height even as the killings that will doom him accumulate. The Rangá is the saga's image of the home-river as battleground — the familiar fords of a hero's own district, where his greatest fights are won and where each victory draws the net of vengeance a little tighter around him.