Gunnar Lambason

Gunnar Lambason is one of the burners of Njáll — and the man whose boastful lie about the Burning gets him killed in a far hall. After taking part in the burning of Bergþórshváll, he flees, like the other burners, before the relentless vengeance of Kári; and he ends up at the Orkney court of Earl Sigurd, where, asked to tell the tale of the great event, he gives a mocking, distorted account that slanders the dead and the avengers. Kári, who has tracked him there, is listening — and at the lie he strides into the hall and strikes off Gunnar Lambason's head so cleanly that it falls onto the table before the earl, the blood still on his boastful lips. Gunnar Lambason is the saga's image of the boaster brought low — the burner who not only did the black deed but lied about it for applause, and was beheaded mid-falsehood by the avenger he never knew was in the room.