Njal's Saga, Chapters 30-38

What's the Thing? Everyone always going there, but honestly the name the Thing doesn't tell us much about the nature of the thing. Is it just some convenient excuse to send all the men away so that their wives can kill each other's slaves unmolested? I sort of like the name, though. The Thing. It sounds so exotic and mysterious.

These were particularly violent chapters. First it was Gunnar and his raiding, with some very descriptive fight scenes, which I found, in all honesty, boring and too masculine for me. But then Njal and Gunnar's wives had some disagreement over their nails, and they proved themselves quite as fierce as their hubbies by sending their servants to kill each other while their husbands were at the Thing and then bragging about it. I wonder if that was just the character of those particular ladies or if all women had that kind of mentality back then.

Another thing I find interesting is that people very often say, "Well, if that's meant to happen, so be it," and do whatever they want to do. I find that a very Christian belief. God has everything planned out, so I can do whatever I want and if things turn out bad it was His will. I think it's a very lazy belief. I could easily say, "Well, I don't want to do this blog, and if I flunk English it's God's will and not my fault," then go watch TV, but that would simply be an excuse for laziness or lack of judgment. It's a stupid thing to say/think.