Njal's Saga, Chapters 19-29

I actually started reading the book from chapter one, just because I hate starting a book in the middle and ending up spending the rest of the book trying to figure out what's going on. It must have helped, because I don't find the names nearly as confusing as everyone else seems to, even though sometimes I do have to pause and remind myself of who so-and-so is.

Anyway, though the book is a bit strange and confusing, I think I'll really like it once we get deeper into the plot, which I haven't quite figured out yet. There are all the stories about marriages and divorces and murders and war, and though in the back it says that the saga's a "chronicle of a fifty-year blood feud," I haven't seen many signs of that yet. Certainly there are a lot of murders, especially of Hoskuld's son-in-laws, but they seem more concerned about making peace than starting a half-century blood feud.

I also like two things about the saga: the fact that women seem more independent than in other books we've read, and the fact the Njal isn't some brave and blood-thirsty warrior, which is what I'd imagined, but a brilliant and relatively peaceful man. It's a refreshing change.