Njáls saga is the longest, most complex, and most celebrated of the Sagas of Icelanders. It is set in the period between the mid-tenth and early eleventh centuries and tells mainly of events in the south of Iceland, though characters in the saga journey to mainland Scandinavia, to the British Isles and as far afield as Rome and Constantinople. The saga was written between c.1275 and c.1290: detailed legal passages in the saga show some influence from the Járnsíða law code introduced to Iceland from Norway in 1271, and the oldest manuscript fragments date from c.1300. The anonymous author was well acquainted with earlier sagas and with a range of other texts; scholars have detected echoes of the Bible, s

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Published 15 December 2003

Citation: Phelpstead, Carl. "Njáls Saga". The Literary Encyclopedia. 15 December 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14339, accessed 9 February 2010.]