Njal's Saga
by Anonymous · first published 2002
14mentions
3recommended by
8HN commenters
2009–2024first – last mentioned
38% recommend63% neutral
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"Monopoly on violence" always sounds scary, but the alternative is what... A duopoly on violence? It's worth reading Njal's Saga from Iceland. They had a government with no monopoly on violence, and the saga is essentially about an endless blood feud. Short of eliminating violence altogether, restricting it to one institution,…
on “Who Would Support Deploying the Military to Domestic Protests?” ↗Njal's Saga was my favorite, so far. With others I've read (Canterbury Tales, Decameron, 1001 Nights) it was mainly the wow-this-is-pretty-different factor keeping me reading.
on “Hugging a Medieval Book” ↗Tempting, thanks. Wasn't one of the original Norse sagas about Greenland? I haven't read it either, but I can say that Njal's Saga (mainly on Iceland) is very good.
on “Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish?” ↗…https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69730 A few brief mentions: James Joyce's "Ulysses", though I had a tough time getting through it; some of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories (e.g. "The Minister's Black Veil"); "Njal's Saga" (I liked the Penguin edition with the translation by Magnusson and Pallson); the great works of classic fantasy (Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison, William Morris, Arthur Machen); the essays of Ralph Waldo…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?” ↗…this theory supported by evidence? Actually I think that a monopoly on violence might be a good thing. The number of bodies that can engage in violence is either 0 or 1, or many. I read a translation of Njal's Saga which takes place in pre-literate Iceland. The erstwhile "government" had no monopoly on violence, except to assign cash damages in lawsuits. What the saga describes is basically a continuous blood feud.
on “Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?” ↗It would be interesting to know how successful the system was. I read a translation of the Icelandic Njal's Saga which deals with the traditional Icelandic legal system. What the book describes is basically a decades long blood feud. They had a system of fines for offenses including murder, but the verdicts never…
on “Somali Law (2013)” ↗I think it's a personality thing. I started Njal's Saga years ago (my frame of reference is that I heard of it on Slashdot) and I'm about 3/4 of the way through. I haven't picked it up in years (I think it's under the bed) but someday I will, whenever I get…
on “Productivity vs. Guilt and Self-Loathing” ↗I read a translation of Njal's Saga while on a trip to Iceland. It was basically the story of a decades-long blood feud. That's what came to mind when I read this article.
on “The Philippines is in the midst of a brutal war on drugs” ↗You're probably talking about Njal's Saga. There is a feud that degenerates into exactly that--but it is also clear if you read the story that this is not the normal way disputes get settled. We got a saga out of it precisely because the standard…
on “Medieval Iceland and the Absence of Government” ↗While on a family trip to Iceland, I read a translation of Njal's Saga. Granted, you have to read it in light of the fact that it wasn't written down until a long time after the events happened. But it describes Iceland's ancient legal system in some detail. If you killed…
on “Need advice or assistance for son who is in prison” ↗…When I used to commute by train, I read a lot. Mostly fiction (discovered there was going to be a Jurassic Park movie when someone next to me noticed I was reading the book!). Still haven't finished Njal's Saga...
on “[Ask HN Commuters]: What do you do on your commute to work?” ↗An acquaintance on another forum suggested this relevant passage from Friedman's "Machinery of Freedom" [1]: There is a scene in Njal's Saga that provides striking evidence of this stability. Conflict between two groups has become so intense that open fighting threatens to break out in the middle of the court. A leader of one faction asks…
on “Somali Law (2013)” ↗…were an era of epic poetry, therefore all the descendant institutions from the Middle Ages belong to the methods/standards of epic poetry. It's nonsense on stilts. Forcing Pindar's odes, Homer's epics, Njal's Saga, Dede Korkut, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Arthurian legends to follow the rules of the scientific method, and citation, and falsifiability, and judging them as stylistically and culturally deficient…
on “Before I reach my enemy, bring me some heads” ↗…the little old website). It's complete, as it contains all the sagas and tales. This is a good selection from above: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/53454/the-sagas-of-the-icela... (notably missing: Njal's Saga, but that's also available separately). There are more sagas, though. Just not of the Icelanders. For example the saga of the Volsungs. If you are interested in general norse mythology then yes, Gaiman's…
on “Study: DNA corroborates “Well-man” tale from Norse saga” ↗