Are Women More Powerful Than Men In The Njal's Saga

When I started reading Njal’s Saga I wondered what kind of role women will have in this text. Normally, if you think of the past, you would imagine that women have less power than men or at least that was what I thought. As I continued reading I noticed that the Power that women have is not as small as I thought. Women in this book have power. When Gunnar and Njal had the slaying of their slaves, it was not because of their decision, it was the decision of their wives. When Hallgerd said to her slave Kol to go and kill Svart, she handed him a weapon and said that she would take full responsibility. Bergthora did not react to well to this attack. “Go and look for Kol until you find him, for you must kill him today,” pg 61 and that was how Bergthora counterattacked Hallgerd. The point of this is that Gunnar “returned from the Thing and reproached Hallgerd,” pg 60 but then Hallgerd continued her attack to Bergthora’s household. In many other points of History women who defied their husbands were brought to death, but in Njal’s time it seemed as if women had the same power as men. Another thing that I expected more about women is that the marriages were fixed by their parents. When Gunnar asks for the hand of Hallgerd she tells him “if it is in your mind, you must ask my father,” pg 52 so the marriages are still settled by money, power, and fame. Women had the power to slay people, but not enough to choose who they were going to marry?