page_title: Njáls saga
section_title: Hrútur and Hallgerður
hierarchical_section_title: Njáls saga / Synopsis / Hrútur and Hallgerður
caption_attribution_description: English: From Njáls saga: Gunnar Hámundarson meets Hallgerðr for the first time at Alþingi. Illustration from "Vore fædres liv"&#160;: karakterer og skildringer fra sagatiden / samlet og udggivet af Nordahl Rolfsen&#160;; oversættelsen ved Gerhard Gran., Kristiania: Stenersen, 1898.
context_page_description: Njáls saga is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020.
  The saga deals with a process of blood feuds in the Icelandic Commonwealth, showing how the requirements of honor could lead to minor slights spiralling into destructive and prolonged bloodshed. Insults where a character's manhood is called into question are especially prominent and may reflect an author critical of an overly restrictive ideal of masculinity. Another characteristic of the narrative is the presence of omens and prophetic dreams. It is disputed whether this reflects a fatalistic outlook on the part of the author.
  The principal characters in the saga are the friends Njáll Þorgeirsson, a lawyer and a sage, and Gunnar Hámundarson, a formidable warrior. Gunnar's wife instigates a feud that leads to the death of many characters over several decades including the killing by fire of the eponymous "Burnt Njáll".
  The work is anonymous, although there has been extensive speculation on the author's identity. The major events described in the saga are probably historical but the material was shaped by the author, drawing on oral tradition, according to his artistic needs.
context_section_description: The first episode covers the period from the betrothal of Hrútur Herjólfsson and Unnr to the ugly legacy of their divorce. We are shown Hrútur's exploits in Norway, where he gains honour at court and in battle, but he ruins his subsequent marriage by becoming the lover of the aging queen mother Gunnhildr. When he denies having a woman in Iceland, she curses him so that he is unable to consummate his marriage. After Unnr divorces him, he retains the dowry by challenging Unnr's father, Mörður, to combat. Mörður refuses, as he knows Hrútur's reputation and that he will lose the fight. Because of this, Hrútr keeps the dowry. While this conforms to Icelandic law, it offends justice.
  The first chapter gives one of Hrútr's insights when he makes comments about his beautiful niece, "I do not know how thieves' eyes came into the family". The saga next follows this niece, Hallgerður, through her first two marriages.  Both husbands die by the axe of Hallgerður's doting, brutish foster-father, Þjóstólfr. Hallgerður provokes the first death but not the second, although it follows from a disagreement between her and her husband. It is Hrútr who, despite the family ties, avenges the death by killing Þjóstólfr.
caption: Gunnar and Hallgerðr at the Althing
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