There is a group of around 40 books that are referred to as the Icelandic Sagas. Literary critics consider them to be among the most valuable contributions to literature – right up there with Homer’s Iliad and Shakespeare’s writings. They were mainly written around the 13th century (mostly by anonymous authors) and depict the events around the time of the settlement of Iceland in the 10th and 11th centuries. Prior to these writings, the stories of the settlement were passed down orally. The one I am reading is called Njal’s Saga. I chose it because my research indicated that many people consider it to be the most developed (it is the longest) and always seemed to come to the top of the list when I was researching which one I should read. At this point, I haven’t quite finished it – I’m about 90% complete – but I am happy to have selected it. It covers an important time in Iceland’s settlement, including the adoption of Christianity and gives a very good sense of the importance of honor in the Viking times and how honor was maintained. It was not a time for the faint of heart – honor killings were a big part of society. More information on Njal’s Saga can be found here: Njáls saga – Wikipedia
As we start our journey around the country’s ring road, we spent the first couple of days (yesterday and today) in the region of a lot of the setting of Njal’s Saga. Much of the saga takes place at the Althing, which is in Thingvellir National Park (entry from July 4th), but the two characters that are central to this saga lived in the region close to the small village of Hvolsvollur. On our drive from Reykjavik yesterday, we had the best weather we have had so far – sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 70s. We stopped at a few places connected to the story and it is a beautiful area – lots of farmland and horses. Eyjafjallajokull sits on the horizon – that is the volcano that famously erupted in 2010 and shut down European airspace for several days and triggered the tourism rush to Iceland because people now knew about the country.
We stayed at a tiny little cabin on a horse farm for our two nights. It was great – quiet and scenic.
We went into the village for dinner the first night and had pretty good burgers at a restaurant called Valhalla. The real draw here is that the Saga Center Museum is located in the same building as Valhalla and totally dedicated to the story of Njal’s Saga. It takes you through a visual story of the entire saga. I was not 100% the first day, but I was certainly able to enjoy the sightseeing and the drive. The second afternoon, I lost every bit of energy I had and just had to stay in bed. We warmed up canned soup for dinner. I ran a fever of 102.6 for a few hours. My fever broke during the middle of the night and I felt better the following morning. Not sure what the bug was, but it came and went in about 48 hours.
As far as the sights we saw (and of course no buildings remain because the events took place more than 1000 years ago), we stopped at Thingskalar, which was the annual spring meeting point for this district. Several events in the saga take place here and it is still a farm today. We went to Keldur Farm, which is now a national heritage area. In recent times it was a dairy farm. One of Njal’s children lived at this farm during the saga. One feature evident at this property was a tunnel that ran from the house to the river – these were common in that era and used to escape attacks.
Near Keldur is Gunnarssteinn, where one of the biggest battles in the saga took place – we didn’t take the time to walk out to it, but the area is pretty flat and it’s easy to see where these events took place. Next up was Hliddarendi, which is now a few buildings with a great view over the valley. This is where Gunnar (one of the main characters) lived and where he met his demise.
And the last stop we made was at Bergthorshvoll, which is now just a small hill not too far from the ocean. This is where Njal and his family lived in 1011. Their enemy, Flosi, and his men came to kill Njal and his family. Njal and his wife refused to leave and Flosi started their farm on fire They died in the fire, along with one of their grandchildren and several other people. The sagas tend to mix some legend in with historical facts – remember that the stories were passed down orally for hundreds of years – but in this case, excavations show that there was indeed a fire here around that time.
Although I wanted to finish the saga before getting to this area, it all worked out well and I am happy we got to spend a couple of days seeing the sights.