The Ever Lasting Game

One of the strongest themes I began to think about while I read the Njal Saga was vengeance. Vengeance leads us to committing terrible acts we many times wish we hadn't done. It makes us suffer more and it makes things from worse to worse because each time the vengeance becomes more powerful. In the Njal, this happens to become a habit. It all started when Gunnar's wife, Hallgred ordered one of her servants, Kol, to kill Svart, one of Bergthora's servants. When Kol killed Svart, Berthgora was full of anger which lead her to taking revenge on Kol. She hired a new servant called Atli and ordered him to: "Go and look for Kol until you find him, for you must kill him today- if you want to do my will." Atli went and killed Kol so Hallgred got even more mad. So she ordered someone to go and kill Atli. And it went like that and so on. Many people died because of Hallgred's and Bergthora's revenge.

It only takes one vengeance to cause a lot of suffering. Because of two people's thisrt of revenge, more than five people died. And even worse, many people who were innocent, who were good people became killers, murderers because of it. "More men than I expected have known become killers." (pg.67). Vengeance just leads to more veangeance which leads to more suffering. Apparently, it is not enough to take revenge once. It is necessary for the vengeance to keep on going. And each time there is more pain and there are more people, who had nothing to do with the problem, get involved. Revenge doesn't seem to end. It is said to be the ever lasting game.