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Then Kolskegg began to inquire of the vessels that were sailing that summer, and he settled that he would go on board the ship of Armfin of the Bay, and Gunnar his brother would go with him. They sent down to the shore those things that they might need in foreign lands, and then Gunnar bade farewell to Njal and his men, and thanked his friends for the help they had given him.
A perfect example of a singular succession worked out by the fiction of kinship is to be found in the story of Burnt Njal, an Icelandic saga, which gives us a living picture of a society hardly more advanced than the Salian Franks, as we see them in the Lex Salica.
'They are all mad, cried Flosi, as he saw Njal and his sons and Kari, his son-in-law, take their place on the inside of the door. 'Surely none of them can escape us now; and the fight began with a spear which was thrown at Skarphedinn. But victory was not so near as Flosi thought. Man after man fell back wounded or dead, yet Skarphedinn and his brethren remained without a wound.
Then both sides halted and spoke together. Flosi's counsel was to fall on them where they stood, though he knew that few would there be left to tell the tale to their children. Njal, for his part, desired that his men might return inside the hall, for the house was strong; 'and if Gunnar alone could keep them at bay they will never prevail against us, he said.
This was the manner of the saga's growth: In the early days of the Iceland community that republic of aristocrats say, between the dates 900 and 1100 of our era, a quarrel would arise between two great families. As in the case of the Njal Saga, its cause, probably, was the ill doings of some noble woman. This quarrel would lead to manslaughter.
'Let it be the same as that which I paid for Swart, said Gunnar; and Njal laid down the money and they parted, and no ill blood was between them, though their wives were still resolved to do each other all the ill they could.
'Swart, your house servant has been killed by Hallgerda and Kol her man, said Gunnar gravely when Njal stood before him; and he told the tale as he had heard it from the messenger. 'It is for you, Njal, to fix the atonement, he said at the end. 'You will have work to atone for all Hallgerda's misdoings, answered Njal, 'and it will take all our old friendship to keep us from quarrelling now.
'Oh, never fear him, replied Bergthora, 'for he took with him the money of the atonement for the slaying of Swart, and now he can pay it over for Kol. But in spite of the atonement, beware of Hallgerda, who knows nought of promises. When Hallgerda heard of Kol's slaying, she bade a messenger ride to Gunnar at the Thing, and Gunnar sent to seek out Njal and Skarphedinn his son.
'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.
As the latter was founded on a warlike assault, the former supposed a house-firing for robbery or revenge, /4/ such as that by which Njal perished in the Icelandic Saga. But this crime seems to have had the same history as others. As soon as intent is admitted to be sufficient, the law is on the high-road to an external standard.
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