Fate is a common theme in most medieval literature since the world at such times considered it a critical determinant of the course of life. While some cultures associated fate with religion, others considered it a result of the interplay of events in life. Two such pieces of literature, Njal’s Saga and Aeneid, give the different perspectives of fate. This paper compares and contrasts the depiction of fate in the two works. It reports that while Njal’s Saga depicted fate as a necessary element in the circle of revenge, which was common in the Nordic society, Aeneid considered fate to be largely controlled by the power of gods and not the willful action of men. However, the paper reports that the two pieces of literature considered religion to be a contributor to fate though in different ways. While the Aeneid urges people to succumb to spiritual will since it determines fate, Njal’s Saga considered that religion, mostly Christianity, would avoid fate since it resulted from the desire for revenge that the Pagan religion had advocated for long.
Revenge was inevitable during the time of Njal’s Saga , and the society considered revenge as the course of fate. It is notable that each of the characters in the story knew that they would die at one time since their actions were unethical (they involved murder). Death is one of the issues of concern to the Nordic society, which the author depicted as fearless towards death. It means that to die was necessary because it was the fate of all men. For example, after committing murder, Njal, one of the characters in the story, is advised to flee to exile, and he prepares to do so. However, he chooses to stay on the day he was supposed to have left his home, which results in his death after his house had been torched (Bayerschmidt and Hollander, 1998). From this example, it is easy to argue that the character decided to stay and meet his death since it was fate. He knew he would die, and to run would have meant nothing. Therefore, to Njal and the rest of the society at the time of the story, revenge happened since it was fateful. For such reasons, the society strived to uphold honor and dignity as much as possible even while most of them were of the same social status, farmers. The society has little to relate between religion and fate. For example, most of the Nordic people were pagans, which the author considered in his works by the introduction of Christianity through Njal. People would have thought that only pagans were capable of revenge, but when the converted Christians also engage in revenge, it is realized that fate had little connection with religion.
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On the contrary, Aeneid relates fate to the effect of gods and supernatural powers. For example, Trojans were always destined to win since they considered that the most powerful god, Jupiter, controlled their winning power. The destination and direction of the course that Aeneas, a character in the epic, takes is preordained. Therefore, the various glories in battles on both land and sea and the sufferings he goes through only delayed the unchangeable destiny that fate had determined. The epic presents the power of fate above the power possessed by gods in the pyramid of the supernatural world. Fate is related more often the influence of Jupiter, and the interferences of the rest of the gods such as Juno would not affect the outcome of the events involving the Trojans. In addition, the development of each of the characters within the epic has a strong correlation with the resistance and readiness with which they deal with the directives of their fate. For example, both Turnus and Juno fight destiny in each step of their journey in life, which results in transformation of each one of them when they succumb to fate during the final resolution of the epic. In addition, Dido has a strong desire for Aeneas, but fate denies her, which results in her consummation by desire (Harrison, 1990). Another illustration from the epic is that Aeneas preserves his sanity and that of the people he leads on their journey to found an empire through the subordination of his own desires and anxieties to the demands of fate as well as the rules of piety (Harrison, 1990). Therefore, it means that the society considered fate as a divine religious principle, which determined history’s course and had culminated in the empire of the Romans.
The two pieces of literature depict fate as having a connection to religion however little. It is already argued that the Aeneid exclusively related fate to the power of gods, which means that it had a strong connection to religion. However, an earlier argument revealed that Njal’s Saga considered fate to be a result of revenge, which was common in the society. Nevertheless, the author highlights that religion would have a significant impact on fate and revenge within the society. For example, while the Nordic society was largely Pagan, Christianity had started to penetrate. In fact, one of the main characters, Njal, converted to the new religion and most people considered that he would transform in his actions since he had been a man of high reputation. Christianity quickly advocated the use of legal power in conflict resolution, which meant that it would eliminate revenge. For example, Njal used his wit to advice Gunnar, another character in the story, to hide his identity while filing a case in court (Bayerschmidt and Hollander, 1998). The author explores the fact that being religious would transform the Pagan tradition of revenge, which the society had attached to fate. Because this paper has argued that revenge meant that fate would lead to the death of people, it is possible to still argue that Christianity would transform the meaning of fate within the society. Njal had visions of how him and his family would die, which highlights that fate was somehow controlled by supernatural power. The illustration also means that people would avoid death since religion provided them a means of avoiding fate.
In conclusion, while religion provided people with a chance to escape fate, the two pieces of literature indicate that it was not possible to change it. Therefore, like most other literature of the time, the thematic approach to fate is to stress that humanity has little to do with fate; they can only delay the course of fate, but cannot avoid it entirely. This paper has compared and contrasted the perspective of fate from two authors. Specifically, as this paper has illustrated while the Aeneid considered fate to be solely controlled by the supernatural world of gods, Njal’s Saga considered that fate was a result of the human action of revenge. However, the paper finds a consensus in the way the two works approach fate by considering that religion had a role to play in determining fate. Christianity in Njal’s Saga, for example, is highlighted as having the power to eliminate the need for revenge and follow the law in settling disputes. On the other hand, the Aeneid considers that people cannot change their fate since it is pre-determined by the spiritual world.
References
Bayerschmidt, C. F., & Hollander, L. M. (1998). Njál's saga . Ware, Hertfordshire [England: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Harrison, S. J. (Ed.). (1990). Oxford readings in Vergil's Aeneid . Oxford University Press.
