Gunnar Hámundarson, The Unmatched Hero Of Njál’s Saga
Wikimedia CommonsGunnar meeting his future wife Hallgerðr Höskuldsdóttir at the Alþingi.
One of the most celebrated heroes of Icelandic sagas, Gunnar Hámundarson was also a tragic figure whose preference for peace ultimately led to his downfall.
Born in 945 in Iceland and dying in 992 at Hlíðarendi in Fljótshlíð, Hámundarson was described in Njáls Saga, as an imposing fighter. He was said to be handsome, fearless, generous, and even-tempered. His sword strokes were said to be so fast that, to his opponent, it seemed like he wielded three swords at once.
He was also a skilled archer, and in close combat his weapon of choice was the atgeir — which scholars consider to have been a halberd or glaive of some sort — taken in battle from a man named Hallgrímur while on a Viking raid to the island of Eysýsla in present-day Estonia. Hámundarson was also a skillful stone-thrower, able to hit enemies between the eyes from yards away, and an excellent swimmer.
Wikimedia CommonsGunnar Hámundarson defending himself at Ránga.
Hámundarson was also close friends with a man named Njáll Þorgeirsson, who one day warned him that if he ever killed two men of the same family, this action would lead to his death. Þorgeirsson’s prediction proved correct.
When Hámundarson killed two family members of Gissur the White, the family sought vengeance. Njáll advised Hámundarson to leave Iceland and head abroad to escape them, but when Hámundarson he saw his homestead from a distance, he was so moved by its beauty that he changed his mind and decided to remain behind. It was a fatal mistake.
During the epic battle that followed, Hámundarson took down many attackers with his bow, but his bowstring broke and he asked his wife Hallgerðr to give him some of her hair to repair it. Hallgerðr refused as petty revenge for the time he struck her — after she stole food from a nearby farm during a famine — sealing Gunnar Hámundarson’s fate.
