Njal's Saga, Chapters 78-92

These chapters focused mostly on Njal's sons and some new characters, such a Harpp and Thrain.

Njalssons went raiding for a while, and though they were very successful they landed into some trouble. To cut a long story short, they made some new friends, made some new enemies, had a fight with them, and won.

Harpp was one of those enemies, as well as Thrain. Harpp was a cruel man who liked killing, and Thrain was his friend. They were both killed in an ambush by Njalssons.

I liked the way Thrain kept fooling the Earl when he was was looking for Harpp. It was funny the way they would hide Harpp somewhere, the Earl would come, not find him, then on his way back realize where he probably was, turn back, and Harpp would have been put somewhere else. Very clever and amusing.

The Icelandics seem to value honor a lot, and obviously honor comes from killing people you don't like, and always fighting till death, which was mentioned when people had to fight impossible odds, or when there was a fight going on between Njalssons and Harpp. I think honor is a nice concept, but it should be gained in more peaceful ways then fighting till you died and murdering people who insult you. I like the fact that Njal is very well-known and honored although he has yet to be shown to kill anyone, even though he doesn't seem to disapprove of it. If that's how people judged you back then, it says a lot Njal that he could be respected despite the fact he wasn't a bloodthirsty warrior.