sorrow. That duty over, the body was laid in the cairn with goods and
arms, sometimes as we see was the case with Gunnar in a sitting posture;
sometimes even in a ship, but always in a chamber formed of baulks of
timber or blocks of stone, over which earth and gravel were piled....


CONCLUSION.

We are entitled to ask in what work of any age are the characters so
boldly, and yet so delicately, drawn [as in this Saga]? Where shall we
match the goodness and manliness of Gunnar, struggling with the storms
of fate, and driven on by the wickedness of Hallgerda into quarrel after
quarrel, which were none of his own seeking, but led no less surely to
his own end? Where shall we match Hallgerda herself--that noble frame,
so fair and tall, and yet with so foul a heart, the abode of all great
crimes, and also the lurking place of tale-bearing and thieving? Where
shall we find parallels to Skarphedinn's hastiness and readiness, as axe
aloft he leapt twelve ells across Markfleet, and glided on to smite
Thrain his death-blow on the slippery ice? where for Bergthora's love
and tenderness for her husband, she who was given young to Njal, and
could not find it in her heart to part from him when the house blazed
over their heads? where for Kari's dash and gallantry, the man who dealt
his blows straightforward, even in the Earl's hall, and never thought
twice about them? where for Njal himself, the man who never dipped his
hands in blood, who could unravel all the knotty points of the law; who
foresaw all that was coming, whether for good or ill, for friend or for
foe; who knew what his own end would be, though quite powerless to avert
it; and when it came, laid him down to his rest, and never uttered sound
or groan, though the flames roared loud around him? Nor are the minor
characters less carefully drawn, the scolding tongue of Thrain's first