Njal's Saga.

Prof. Smith introduced his lecture last night by a pretty description of Monad-nock and the surrounding country, the various parts of which reflect the images of the lives and characters of Art, Egil, and Njal.

The central figures of the Saga are Njal and Gunnar, and the chief actions take place at or near their farmsteads situated within a few hours' ride of each other. Hrut and Hauskuld are brothers. Hauskuld's daughter, Hallgertha, "she with the thief's eyes" causes much of the trouble that follows. Hrut at his brother's suggestion marries Unna, daughter of Mord, a famous lawyer, but Hrut's mother lays a spell on him that thwarts his marital happiness.

Hallgertha after the death of two husbands marries Mord's nephew Gunnar, "best of fighters, most courteous of men, sturdy in everything, generous, firm in friendship." His brother Kolskegg was a good fellow and a resolute man.

Njal was fair of aspect and beardless, and so great a lawyer that his equal could not be found. Njal and Gunnar used in alternate years to entertain each other for friendship's sake. On such an occasion Hallgertha taunts Njal as being beardless, but Gunnar and Njal refuse to quarrel. Again Hallgertha makes a shameless jest on Njal, but the sturdy men remain true in their friendship to the end.

To take out her provisions Hallgertha sends a servant to steal from a neighbor, and when questioned by her husband replies it is not for men to concern themselves about the cooking. Gunnar strikes her and she says she'll not forget the blow. Gunnar is warned not to kill twice in the same lineage, but his cousin Mord treacherously causes him to kill the son of a father whom he has already killed. Gunnar is outlawed and refusing to leave Iceland is killed. His wife remembering the blow on the cheek refuses to help him. Kolskegg became captain of the warring guard at Constantinople.

The fatality that had dragged Gunnar to his death seems now to pursue the family of Njal. The conspicuous character in this second part is Skarphethin, stalwart, always grimly smiling with his battle axe upraised. He kills his foster brother, and when at the Olthing a bully upbraids him, he smiled and striking forward said "Do now one of two things Thorkell foul-mouth, sheath your sword and set down or I'll drive the axe into your head, and cleave you down into the shoulders." Thorkell sat down. Njal and his sons are attacked and the house set on fire. Skarphethin makes a grand defence, and on his death his enemies said it was better than they expected for no one feared him dead.

For a time the work of vengrance goes on. Finally Kari the avenger of Skarphethin, and his enemy Flosi are reconciled. Flosi sails to Norway in a ship not seaworthy, and was never heard of afterward. So closes the Saga.

The Njala is generally esteemed the most perfect of Icelandic Saga. As a work of art, however, Professor Smith thinks it is inferior to the Eigla. The Njal is not like the Eigla, a single picture. In it we meet with a multitude of personages all thoroughly individualized, and the phases of Icelandic life are described with sympathy and richness of detail.

The Njal of the Saga is a man in intellectual stature above his age and fellows. His was too great a nature, too clear and vigorous an intellect for the Asa teachings entirely to satisfy. The ruins of Njal's hall remain, and for the Icelander only the Thiny-fields, the site of the great moots of the commonwealth, surpass Hlitharendi (end of slope) Gunnar's home, and Bergthorshool (Bergthor's hill) Njal's home in richness of associations.

Tonight Professor Smith will bring his very entertaining and instructive series to a close. The subject will be old Norse poetry, including recitations from the original accompanied by metrical translations.