Sparked off by a seemingly trivial affront " a versified insult, a brawl over the rights to a beached whale, unsanctioned wooing of a woman, or one party allowing livestock to graze a neighbour's land, " conflict generates highly complex structures where at every point there are many options for resolution
Compensation may be paid in silver or in kind, as agreed between the antagonists, or arbitrated informally by third parties or at local assemblies; but in many cases honour will only be satisfied by a duel, or by revenge in the form of woundings or killings against any member of the family, not necessarily the perpetrator. Thus a series of violent acts may be triggered. Njáls saga provides a famous example, where despite the mutual goodwill of Njáll and his dashing friend Gunnarr, their wives instigate an escalating series of revenge killings in which the victim is each time of higher status and more closely related to the leading characters. It is also in Njáls saga that the hero's enemies resort to the most desperate course of action by burning Njáll and family inside their farmhouse. .
SETTING .
Most of the action in the Sagas of Icelanders takes place in the isolated settlements and sweeping landscapes of medieval Iceland. The characters are seen discussing matters of concern in the main rooms of their (rarely described) turf and stone farmsteads, or in the temporary booths at the Althing or national assembly. They fight in hay-fields, ford rivers or ride across lava fields. Most of these sagas also have a wider theatre, and collectively they range through the known world from Greenland to North Africa, from VÃnland in North America to Russia and Byzantium. The majority of the foreign episodes, however, are set in the Nordic-speaking realms of mainland Scandinavia and the British Isles.
