Runic Wisdom in "Njal's Saga" and Nordic Mythology: Roots of an Oral Legal Tradition in Northern Europe

Abstract

A 10th-century farmhouse on an isolated, volcanic, North Atlantic island is an unlikely home for one of the most influential sources of legal lore in European history. Yet the story of the happenings in the lives of the people in and around that farmhouse, as told by an unknown author around 1280 in Njal's Saga,' is as illuminating today as it was when first told over seven centuries ago. Njal, the farmer/lawyer2 who lived and was eventually burned to death in that farmhouse at Bergthorsknoll, is one of the two main characters of the saga. His were troubled and violent times, in which blood revenge was the norm, and his words "With laws shall our land be built" still sum up our own hopes for building a stable and peaceful society. This article wil briefly describe Njal the lawyer and the legal system in which he worked. It will then discuss the fundamental importance of the spoken word not only in resolving legal disputes in Njal's Saga, but also in the legal tradition of other northern European cultures. The article will then show the links not only between the legal tradition of reciting formulas and the mystical tradition of reciting runes, but also between the main characters in Njal's Saga and corresponding figures in Nordic mythology. Finally, this article will illustrate how the decline of the oral tradition in the law hastened the