Njal and fate

Last year I reread Njals Saga. I had seen a comment saying that the concept of fate in the sagas is fairly modern, with an emphasis of Njals Saga in particular. As I only remembered a little of it, it triggered a desire in me to read it again.

Njals Saga takes place on Iceland in the Viking Age. It is surprisingly easy to read, does not appear a thousand years old at all. That is, except from the many small, very thorough genealogical descriptions. Another amusing thing is the recurring courtroom dramas at the Alting. Not many would think of legal actions in the context of vikings, but that is how it was.

The law was something someone remembered from "old times". Seen with todays eyes, you could say that the judicial power came before the legislative power. However strange that sounds. The executive power didnt exist as such. The verdict was delivered and everyone went home and followed it. If one didnt, someone inevitantly took matters into their own hands and punished the convicted person (killed him), and everyone was relieved.

To be viking is only a small part of the sagas. One only went into viking for a short period as young, or if one had problems at home. Life according to the sagas was mostly courtroom dramas and the struggles of large farmers. Incidentally Njal was one of the jurisprudents, the best one according to the saga.

Anyway, what I found was not one, but a series of different concepts of fate. Here they are listed from most primitive to most modern.

1: The Nornes are mentioned several times. They are the nordic godesses of fate, that weaved peoples fate on big looms, with intestines as thread and craniums as weights. In the course of Njals Saga Iceland is Christianized. But that does not mean that the Nornes disappear. One could be Christian first, and still keep some of the old religion as secondary.

2: Several times people see hallucinations of themselves killed before it happens. For example Thord sees a bloody goat in the field. Njal that sits next to him, tells him that there is no goat. It is his own bloody body he has seen. An old woman sees flames engulfing the place, before the farm where she lives is set on fire.

3: Some people get ominous advices. You could call them conditional predictions. For example, if a certain person is your guest for more than three days, it will be your downfall. Every time such an advice is given, it is not followed, and it goes as the advice predicted. It is reminiscent of advices given in fairy tales. Sleeping Beauty is told not to go to a certain room, and we know how it goes. It is the same template. These advices could be a story teller trick that has been added later in one of the retellings, rather than an original concept of fate.

4: Some people have the ability to sit for themselves and ponder, and in this way figure out what will happen. Their predictions span quite some time and are peculiarly specific. Njal is one of those people. This concept of fate aligns with the one seen in classical mechanics with Newtons Laws, and in the Relativity Theory. It is the deterministic world, where you can calculate what the future will be if you know the current state of the world.

5: People has to act like they do, because it is in their nature. Or in other words in their personality. Even when they see the path they are on, they can fight it, but it is useless. The path is set and their nature ensures that they dont stray too far from it. Njals Saga contains many storylines where different personalities interact to do what they have to do, follow the path their personalities create together, despite the fact that it will obviously end badly. Like Gunnar that has to marry Halgerd. Everyone tells him it will end badly. He can see it himself. But no one tries to stop it. What has to happen, will happen. Zooming out a bit, you could say that the whole of Njals Saga has to happen, the way it does, according to this concept of fate.