Editing Gunnar Hámundarson (section)

== Gunnar's death ==

Gunnar was a close friend of [[Njáll Þorgeirsson]] of [[Bergþórshvol]] and came to him often for advice. Njáll told him not to kill two men of the same family &mdash; this would lead to his death. Njáll's prediction proved right. When Gunnar killed two family members of Gissur the White, the family sought vengeance and the men set out to Hlíðarendi to do murder. Njáll advised Gunnar to leave Iceland and head abroad to escape them. Initially, Gunnar intended to depart, but when he saw his homestead from the distance, he was so moved by the beauty of it that he changed his mind and decided to remain behind. This led to the epic battle in which Gunnar was killed.

When Þorgrim and a few other grudge-bearing men were scouting around Gunnar's house, Gunnar woke up and stabbed Þorgrim through a gap with his [[atgeir]]. Þorgrim returned calmly to his comrades, who asked if Gunnar was home. “Find that out for yourselves, but I am sure of, that his [[atgeir]] is home,” he said, and then fell down dead.

At first, Gunnar managed to fight off his numerous attackers with his masterful archery. When his bowstring broke in close quarters combat, he asked his wife Hallgerður for hair from her head to mend the bow. Gunnar had slapped her previously, when he discovered his wife had stolen food from a nearby farm during a famine, and she vindictively refused. He was thus forced to confront his attackers in hand-to-hand combat and was killed as a result.