Chapter 106 of Njal’s Saga relates one of those weird, disorienting tales that pop up here and there in the sagas, tales that remind us how very foreign these characters are to our modern world. It takes place three years after the Althing has voted to accept Christianity as the national religion. Njal, the saga hero, plays a major role in the deliberations.
There’s a man called Amundi the Blind. He’s an illegitimate son of Njal’s son Hoskuld, and has the misfortune to be blind. His father was murdered by a man named Lyting, and the sons of Njal prosecuted a case against him, winning substantial compensation. But Amundi the Blind was not a party to the lawsuit, and received nothing.
Amundi attends the Thingskalar Assembly, one of the regional Things, and Lyting is there. Amundi has himself conducted to Lyting’s tent, goes inside, and asks him what he’s going to pay him for his own loss. Lyting laughs at him. Amundi says “I don’t find that just before God…. And now may God settle matters between us.”
He turns to leave, but just as he reaches the tent door, his sight is suddenly restored. He rushes back into the tent and buries his axe in Lyting’s head. Then, as he passes out through the threshold again, his blindness returns forever.
This bizarre story is related by the saga writer without comment. Since it immediately follows the conversion narrative, and since Amundi appeals to God and is answered with a “miracle,” the implication would seem to be that God granted him his revenge. Yet the saga writer, writing (probably) in the 13th Century, is too smart to say something like that right out. It’s just part of the story – make of it what you will.
Which is good advice for all saga readers.
A strange atmosphere descends on the saga after the conversion. Murderers, and those getting revenge for murders, all now consider themselves Christians, but don’t seem to be quite sure how the new faith ought to impact their lives.
The sons of Njal, having been deceived, have wickedly murdered a man named Hoskuld, a family friend who was actually Njal’s foster son. As the men seeking vengeance for Hoskuld surround Njal’s house and realize they can’t beat the family in a fair fight, they make up their minds to burn them in their house. Their leader, Flosi, says, “There are two choices, and neither of them is good: one is to turn back, but that would lead to our death; the other is to bring fire and burn them inside, and that’s a great responsibility before God, for we’re Christian men.”
The question of how Christians deal with vengeance was in fact the central theme of a splendid trilogy called Bodvar’s Saga, by the Norwegian writer Vera Henriksen. Sadly, it’s never been translated into English. I once actually wrote to the publisher myself, offering to do the job, but they didn’t respond.