Iceland: Njal’s Saga to be completed tonight at the Icelandic Saga Centre in Hvolsvöllur, South Iceland

NordenBladet – Njal’s Saga, the best-known among the sagas of the Icelanders, will finally be completed tonight – on tapestry, that is. Since February 2013 – for seven years and seven months – a group of about 20 women have gathered two nights a week, needle in hand, at the Icelandic Saga Centre in Hvolsvöllur, South Iceland, to sew a 90-meter-long tapestry depicting this famous saga, Morgunblaðið reports.

The location for the project is no coincidence, for this part of the country provided the setting for Njal’s Saga.

A Bayeux stitch, or laid couching work – a stitch used in the Viking Age – has been used for the project. The yarn is a type of Icelandic woolen yarn that has been dyed locally, using natural herbs. On average, about 13 meters have been sewn every year, according to the tapestry’s website.

Artist and literary scholar Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir designed the pictures that were printed on the tapestry to be sewn.

All the work has been done on a voluntary basis, and numerous people have taken part in the project in addition to the core group of 20. Visitors to the Saga Centre who over the years have wished to take part in the stitching have received instruction and then recorded their name in a special book, along with the part of the project they have completed.

That book already includes 12,500 entries.

Shortly, the tapestry will formally be delivered to the local government of Rangárþing eystra, South Iceland. It remains to be seen where the public will be able to “read” this colorful version of Njal’s Saga, since suitable housing for it is still being sought.

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Njáls saga, Brennu-Njáls saga or “The Story of Burnt Njáll” 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. Njáls saga is the longest and most highly developed of the sagas of Icelanders. It is often considered the peak of the saga tradition.

Njáls saga, like the other sagas of Icelanders, is anonymous. There are, however, many theories about the saga’s authorship. The oldest idea, attested in the early 17th century, is that Sæmundr fróði wrote the work. Other suggested authors include Sæmundr’s sons, Jón Loftsson, Snorri Sturluson, Einarr Gilsson, Brandr Jónsson and Þorvarðr Þórarinsson.

The saga is now believed to have been composed in the period from 1270 to 1290. Among written sources which the author likely used are Laxdæla saga, Eyrbyggja saga and Ljósvetninga saga as well as the lost sagas Brjáns saga and Gauks saga Trandilssonar. The author must, however, have derived the bulk of the material in the saga from oral tradition which he manipulated for his own artistic purposes. Opinions on the historicity of the saga have varied greatly, ranging from pure fiction to nearly verbatim truth to any number of nuanced views. It can be regarded as certain that Njáll and Gunnarr were real historical people and their fateful deaths are referred to in other sources. Gabriel Turville-Petre said, “It was not the author’s purpose to write a work of history, but rather to use a historical subject for an epic in prose”.