Preview of The Burning of Njal Summary:

The Burning of Njal is a very close retelling of one of the greatest heroic stories of the Middle Ages, Njal's Saga, written by an anonymous Icelandic sagaman, or storyteller, in approximately 1280. An action-packed, fast-moving tale in the original, Treece's version accentuates these elements without sacrificing others. The result is a tale of jealousy, extreme courage and heroism, the lust for revenge, and the coming of Christianity to a pagan country. The saga is also noteworthy for its depiction of a unique political situation; the fierce and independent Vikings struggle to abide by the laws of their democratic society, essentially the first of its kind since the democratic city-states of ancient Greece.