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Fedelm
Apr 21, 2013

It's called Ursa Major, not Ursula Merger. And that's not even it. That's Orion.

ToxicFrog posted:

Meanwhile, I only just got my copy of Njal's Saga, so I'll be starting that today and reporting in long after everyone else has moved on to The Sign of Four. :v:

At my pace you and I will probably finish Njal's saga at the same time. Listening to this helps though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-WWQj254UQ

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ToxicFrog
Apr 26, 2008


Done :toot:

Honestly, this was one of those books that is an interesting read but not an enjoyable one, at least for me. No matter how interesting the subject matter is, the prose comes across as extremely dry, and I had difficulty keeping track of all the names. The extensive footnoting helped, but was also a pain, because I was reading on an e-reader and they did the usual (dumb) thing of putting all the footnotes at the end of the book with really tiny links rather than putting them at the end of the chapter or even paragraph.

I think the most baffling part, for me, was the lead-up to the creation of the Fifth Court, where Njal -- who thus far generally dealt honestly with everyone who seeks his advice -- starts deliberately giving people bad legal advice, so that their cases won't be resolved, so that there will be demand for creation of the Fifth Court, so that there will be a need for more Godis, so that his foster-son can become a Godi, so that he will have the stature to get married.

Pegnose Pete
Apr 27, 2005

the future
I enjoyed reading this back in Uni. We had a class built around using Njal's Saga and Bloodtaking and Peacemaking to study the legal processes of the Althing and whatnot. After finishing both books the class was divided up into families, we were assigned basic character traits and had to write a backstory, and then our professor took on the role of Odin and would dish out situations for us to deal with. Like, Sigrund stole a sheep from X family's house, but the older siblings of both houses are already engaged. We could either try and retaliate without paying attention to the law or bring the cases to the Althing and try to get the other party found guilty. Also someone's cheese shack just caught on fire. It was a good time and probably why I remember this book so fondly.

Pegnose Pete fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Feb 22, 2018

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