ABSTRACT
Brennu-Njáls saga ‘Saga of the burned Njáll’ was composed about a generation after Iceland had agreed to come under the legal control of Norway in 1261-2. The Commonwealth founded at Þingvellir in 930 with the establishment of the Alþingi had now come under increasing pressure and menace during the thirteenth century Sturling Age (named for Snorri Sturluson’s family) when increasingly brutal feuds and battles were pursued by an ever smaller, and more powerful, group of families. This was leading to such chaos and the breakdown of the law that the Alþingi decided to cede power to Norway between 1262 and 1264. Brennu-Njáls saga is a vast and moving work composed by someone with a deep fascination with the law.
