state of mind which was so carefully captured by the author.It seems that the author had access to Iceland’s historical records. He then utilized his literary skill to create fantastic stories that encompassed the history and values of his medieval community, thus producing Njal’s Saga. “In the late 12th century, Icelandic authors began to fictionalize the early part of their history (c. 900-1050), and a new literary genre was born: the sagas of Icelanders” (Hermann Palsson, pg. 4). Many of the sagas written were similar in that they were used merely for entertainment purposes and were based on true history. So by comparing these with the documents that are strictly historical, it becomes clear how much of the truth was actually embellished to please the audience using very clever literary devices.The sagas are written stories that are based in factual data, but some of the accounts have been construed or completely made up to satisfy the strong oral tradition that was used. “Though a good deal of the subject matter was evidently derived from oral tradition and thus of historical value for the period described, some of the best sagas are largely fictional; their relevance to the author’s own times mattered perhaps no less than their incidental information about the past” (Hermann Palsson, pg. 4). These sagas were used merely for Nowell, 6entertainment purposes so when the storyteller would run out of things to say, or need to make something more interesting, he would embellish a true story, or make up a false story. It was also not uncommon for the storyteller to add spiritual elements for a bit of mysticism and excitement.The structure of Njal’s Saga may be very telling about the history of Iceland during this time period. According to E.G. Turville-Petre, “the author of Njal’s Saga must have also consulted genealogical lists, and books about early Icelandic Law”...
