to burn it and him together, to choke a freeman, as Skarphedinn says,
like a fox in his earth, was quite against the free and open nature of
the race; and though instances of such foul deeds occur besides those
two great cases of Blundkettle and Njal, still they were always looked
upon as atrocious crimes and punished accordingly. No wonder,
therefore, then that Flosi, after the Change of Faith, when he makes up
his mind to fire Njal's house, declares the deed to be one for which
they would have to answer heavily before God, "seeing that we are
Christian men ourselves"....

One word and we must bring this introduction to an end; it is merely to
point out how calmly and peacefully the Saga ends, with the perfect
reconciliation of Kari and Flosi, those generous foes, who throughout
the bitter struggle in which they were engaged always treated each other
with respect. It is a comfort to find, after the whole fitful story has
been worked out, after passing from page to page, every one of which
reeks with gore, to find that after all there were even in that
bloodthirsty Iceland of the tenth century such things as peaceful old
age and happy firesides, and that men like Flosi and Kari, who had both
shed so much blood, one in a good and the other in a wicked cause,
should after all die, Flosi on a trading voyage, an Icelandic Ulysses,
in an unseaworthy ship, good enough, as he said, for an old and
death-doomed man, Kari at home, well stricken in years, blessed with a
famous and numerous offspring, and a proud but loving wife.




ICELANDIC CHRONOLOGY.