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all sketched with a few sharp strokes which leave their mark for once and for ever on the reader's mind. Strange! were it not that human nature is herself in every age, that such forbearance and forgiveness as is shown by Njal and Hauskuld and Hall, should have shot up out of that social soil, so stained and steeped with the blood-shedding of revenge. Revenge was the great duty of Icelandic life, yet Njal is always ready to make up a quarrel, though he acknowledges the duty, when he refuses in his last moments to outlive his children, whom he feels himself unable to revenge. The last words of Hauskuld, when he was foully assassinated through the tale-bearing of Mord, were, "God help me and forgive you"; nor did the beauty of a Christian spirit ever shine out more brightly than in Hall, who, when his son Ljot, the flower of his flock, fell full of youth, and strength, and promise, in chance-medley at the battle on the Thingfield, at once for the sake of peace gave up the father's and the freeman's dearest rights, those of compensation and revenge, and allowed his son to fall unatoned in order that peace might be made. This struggle between the principle of an old system now turned to evil, and that of a new state of things which was still fresh and good, between heathendom as it sinks into superstition, and Christianity before it has had time to become superstitious, stands strongly forth in the latter part of the Saga; but as yet the new faith can only assert its forbearance and forgiveness in principle. It has not had time, except in some rare instances, to bring them into play in daily life. Even in heathen times such a deed as that by which Njal met his death, to hem a man in within his house and then to burn it and him together, to choke a freeman, as Skarphedinn says, like a fox in his earth, was quite against the free and open nature of the race; and though instances of such foul deeds occur besides those two great cases of Blundkettle and Njal, still they were always looked upon as atrocious crimes and punished accordingly. No wonder, therefore, then that Flosi, after the Change of Faith, when he makes up his mind to fire Njal's house, declares the deed to be one for which they would have to answer heavily before God, "seeing that we are Christian men ourselves"....
One word and we must bring this introduction to an end; it is merely to point out how calmly and peacefully the Saga ends, with the perfect reconciliation of Kari and Flosi, those generous foes, who throughout the bitter struggle in which they were engaged always treated each other with respect. It is a comfort to find, after the whole fitful story has been worked out, after passing from page to page, every one of which reeks with gore, to find that after all there were even in that bloodthirsty Iceland of the tenth century such things as peaceful old age and happy firesides, and that men like Flosi and Kari, who had both shed so much blood, one in a good and the other in a wicked cause, should after all die, Flosi on a trading voyage, an Icelandic Ulysses, in an unseaworthy ship, good enough, as he said, for an old and death-doomed man, Kari at home, well stricken in years, blessed with a famous and numerous offspring, and a proud but loving wife.
ICELANDIC CHRONOLOGY.
| A.D. 850. | Birth of Harold fairhair. |
| 860. | Harold fairhair comes to the throne. |
| 870. | Harold fairhair sole King in Norway. |
| 871. | Ingolf sets out for Iceland. |
| 872. | Battle of Hafrsfirth (Hafrsfjöðr). |
| 874. | Ingolf and Leif go to settle in Iceland. |
| 877. | Kettle hæng goes to Iceland. |
| 880-884. | Harold fairhair roots out the Vikings in the west. |
| 888. | Fall of Thorstein the red in Scotland. |
| 890-900. | Rush of settlers from the British Isles to Iceland. |
| 892. | Aud the deeply wealthy comes to Iceland. |
| 900-920. | The third period of the Landnámstide. |
| 920. | Harold fairhair shares the kingdom with his sons. |
| 923. | Hrut Hauskuld's brother born. |
| 929. | Althing established. |
| 930. | Hrafn Kettle hæng's son Speaker of the Law. |
| 930-935. | Njal born. |
| 930. | The Fleetlithe feud begins. |
| 933. | Death of Harold fairhair. |
| 940. | End of the Fleetlithe feud; Fiddle Mord a man of rank; Hamond Gunnar's son marries Mord's sister Rannveiga. |
| 941. | Fall of King Eric Bloodaxe. |
| c. 945. | Gunnar of Lithend born. |
| 955-960. | Njal's sons born. |
| 959. | Glum marries Hallgerda. |
| 960. | Fall of King Hacon; Athelstane's foster-child, Harold Grayfell, King in Norway. |
| 963. | Hrut goes abroad. |
| 965. | Hrut returns to Iceland and marries Unna Mord's daughter. |
| 968. | Unna parts from Hrut. |
| 969. | Fiddle Mord and Hrut strive at the Althing; Fall of King Harold Grayfell; Earl Hacon rules in Norway. |
| 970-971. | Fiddle Mord's death; Gunnar and Hrut strive at the Althing. |
| 972. | Gunnar of Lithend goes abroad. |
| 974. | Gunnar returns to Iceland. |
| 974. | Gunnar's marriage with Hallgerda. |
| 975. | The slaying of Swart. |
| 976. | The slaying of Kol. |
| 977. | The slaying of Atli. |
| 978. | The slaying of Brynjolf the unruly and Thord Freedmanson. |
| 979. | The slaying of Sigmund the white. |
| 983. | Hallgerda steals from Otkell at Kirkby. |
| 984. | The suit for the theft settled at the Althing. |
| 985. | Otkell rides over Gunnar in the spring; fight at Rangriver just before the Althing; at the Althing Geir the priest and Gunnar strive; in the autumn Hauskuld Dale-Kolli's son, Gunnar's father-in-law, dies; birth of Hauskuld Thrain's son. |
| 986. | The fight at Knafahills, and death of Hjort Gunnar's brother. |
| 987. | The suit for those slain at Knafahills settled at the Althing. |
| 988. | Gunnar goes west to visit Olaf the peacock. |
| 989. | Slaying of Thorgeir Otkell's son before, and banishment of Gunnar at, the Althing; Njal's sons, Helgi and Grim, and Thrain Sigfus' son, go abroad. |
| 990. | Gunnar slain at Lithend. |
| 992. | Thrain returns to Iceland with Hrapp; Njal's sons ill-treated by Earl Hacon for his sake. |
| 994. | Njal's sons return to Iceland, bringing Kari with them. |
| 995. | Death of Earl Hacon; Olaf Tryggvi's son King of Norway. |
| 996. | Skarphedinn slays Thrain. |
| 997. | Thangbrand sent by King Olaf to preach Christianity in Iceland. |
| 998. | Slaying of Arnor of Forswaterwood by Flosi's brothers at Skaptarfells Thing; Thangbrand's missionary journey; Gizur and Hjallti go abroad. |
| 999. | Hjallti Skeggi's son found guilty of blasphemy against the Gods at the Althing; Thangbrand returns to Norway. |
| 1000. | Gizur and Hjallti return to Iceland; the Change of Faith and Christianity brought into the law at the Althing on St. John's day, 24th June; fall of King Olaf Tryggvi's son at Svoldr, 9th September. |
| 1001. | Thorgeir the priest of Lightwater gives up the Speakership of the Law. |
| 1002. | Grim of Mossfell Speaker of the Law. |
| 1003. | Grim lays down the Speakership. |
| 1003 or 1004. | Skapti Thorod's son Speaker of the Law; the Fifth Court established; Hauskuld Thrain's son marries Hildigunna Flosi's niece and has one of the new priesthoods at Whiteness. |
| 1006. | Duels abolished in legal matters; slaying of Hauskuld Njal's son by Lyting and his brothers. |
| 1009. | Amund the blind slays Lyting; Valgard the guileful comes back to Iceland; his evil counsel to Mord; Mord begins to backbite and slander Hauskuld and Njal's sons to one another. |
| 1111. | Hauskald the Whiteness priest slain early in the spring; suit for his manslaughter at the Althing; Njal's Burning the autumn after. |
| 1112. | The suit for the Burning and battle at the Althing; Flosi and the Burners banished; Kari and Thorgeir Craggeir carry on the feud. |
| 1113. | Flosi goes abroad with the Burners, and Kari follows them; Flosi and Kari in Orkney. |
| 1114. | Brian's battle on Good Friday; Flosi goes to Rome. |
| 1115. | Flosi returns from Rome to Norway, and stays with Earl Eric, Earl Hacon's son. |
| 1116. | Flosi returns to Iceland; Kari goes to Rome and returns to Caithness; his wife Helga dies out in Iceland. |
| 1117. | Kari returns to Iceland, id reconciled with Flosi, and marries Hildigunna Hauskuld's widow. |
