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The piece, as the poet said, is a "tragedy of doom," of deepening and darkening omens, as in the Odyssey and Njal's Saga. The battle scene, with the choruses of the monks, makes a noble close. FitzGerald remained loyal, but it was to "a fairy Prince who came from other skies than these rainy ones," and "the wretched critics," as G. H. Lewes called them, seem to have been unfriendly.
So it was done, and not a whit too soon, for a very great company scattered over the country, seeking Flosi and his Band of Burners for by this ill name men knew them. As for Kari himself, he begged Hjallti, Njal's cousin, to go with him to Bergthorasknoll and find Njal's bones and bury them.
And he sent for his son Mord and bade him stir up strife between Njal's sons and their brother Hauskuld the priest, for he ever hated Njal, and longed to be avenged on him. So Mord fared to Hauskuld, and told him tales of what his brothers had said of him, but Hauskuld bade him begone, for he would listen to none of his stories.
By ill-fortune, Njal and Gunnar owned a wood between them, and when Njal and his sons departed to the Thing, Bergthora, Njal's wife, ordered Swart her servant to cut her some branches for kindling fires from this very forest.
'Let no man sleep to-night, said Njal, 'but take heed to his arms. The band of Njal's foes, headed by Flosi, had ridden to a valley behind the house, and had fastened their horses there. After that they walked slowly up the path, to the front of the house, where Njal and his sons, and Kari, his-son-in-law, and his thralls, thirty in all, stood up to meet them.
Now it would be easy for me to bring forward many close parallels between Homer and the old Irish epic story of Cuchulainn, between Homer and Beowulf and the Njal's saga, yet Norsemen and the early Irish were not students of Homer!
'She works ill wherever she goes, replied Njal, 'and you will never cease making atonements for her; but he said no more, for he was a wise man and wasted no words, and when Gunnar asked him to come to the wedding feast he gave his promise that he would be there. The winter after Gunnar's wedding, he and Hallgerda were bidden to a great feast at Njal's house.
Thus things went on for many months, and whenever Mord met one of Njal's sons, or Kari, who had married their sister, he had new stories to tell them, till at length their hearts grew hot, and they determined that they would slay Hauskuld, lest perchance he might first slay them. Hauskuld was sowing his corn when his brothers, and with them Mord, Valgard's son, came up to kill him.
'Are you riding back to your wife? asked he of Kari, his son-in-law; and Kari made answer, 'Whatever happens to you, happens to me! and they all stayed at Bergthorasknoll. In the house dwelt an old, old woman, so old that she had nursed Bergthora, Njal's wife, and she was wise and could see into the future.
So Kol took his axe, though he was ill at ease, for he knew that evil would come of it, and he mounted one of Gunnar's horses and fared to the wood. He soon saw Swart and his men piling up bundles of firewood, so he left his horse in a hollow, and crouched down behind some bushes, till he heard Swart bid the men carry the wood to Njal's house, as he himself had more work to do.
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