Skarphéðinn Njálsson

Skarphéðinn Njálsson is the fiercest and most unforgettable of Njáll's sons — pale, grim-faced, axe-bearing, with a wolf-grey grin and a tongue that cannot resist a deadly jest even when silence would save his life. His weapon is the great axe he calls the Ogress-of-War, and his famous deed is the killing of Thráin Sigfússon: he comes skating across an icy river and splits Thráin's skull in passing, almost without breaking stride. But his savage wit makes enemies his father's wisdom cannot unmake — at the Thing, going booth to booth to beg support, Skarphéðinn cannot keep from insulting every chief whose help they need, and so helps doom them all. He dies in the burning of Bergþórshváll, found afterward standing upright against the gable wall, his legs burned away, having wedged his axe so deep in the wall it could not be pulled free, dauntless and mocking to the very end. The saga's great image of fearless, doomed defiance.