Miller, William Ian. The Two Thorgeirs and Death of Gunnar: Chapters 67–77

• Author: Miller, William Ian
• Title: The Two Thorgeirs and Death of Gunnar: Chapters 67–77
• Published in: Why Is Your Axe Bloody?: A Reading of Njáls Saga
• Place, Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press
• Year: 2014
• Pages: 134-43
• E-text:
• Reference: Miller, William Ian. Why Is Your Axe Bloody?: A Reading of Njáls Saga. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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Annotation

Miller looks at Gunnar’s enemies, the two Þorgeirr‘s, and their two very different nature, stressing the high number of enemies the hero gathered along the way. Mǫrðr‘s character is discussed shortly with a focus on his avoiding the spotlight in his actions against Gunnar. Miller looks at Gunnar’s violating his outlawry sentence as an act of defiance against his enemies óvinafagnaðr (joy at enemies’ strife), rather than a longing for Hallgerðr. Miller finishes with a rather short analysis of the attack on Gunnar’s farmstead, analyzing the deaths of Þorgrímr and the dog Sámr. His discussion of Gunnar’s death mainly raises the question of whether or not Hallgerðr‘s hair could have saved his life.

References

Chapter 75: stefndi Gissur öllum óvinum Gunnars í Almannagjá; Chapter 68: Nokkuru síðar fór Þorgeir Starkaðarson í Kirkjubæ að finna nafna sinn; „ As I indicated, Gunnar’s enemies include all kinds of people, many of them without a streak of villainy. The author nicely makes the two Thorgeirs serve as emblems for the moral range of people who will kill Gunnar, from Mord to Gizur“ (p. 134).

Links

• Written by: Yoav Tirosh
• Icelandic/English translation: