'Why is your axe bloody?'

William Ian Miller is the Thomas G. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively on the bloodfeud, especially as it is manifested in saga Iceland. Previous works include Bloodtaking and Peacemaking (1990), Eye for an Eye (2006), Audun and the Polar Bear (2008). He has also written about emotions, mostly unpleasant ones involving self-assessment, and various vices and virtues. Thus his books: The Anatomy of Disgust (1997), The Mystery of Courage (2000), Humiliation (1993), Faking It (2003), and most recently Losing It (2011) about the loss of mental acuity that comes with age, which includes a non-negligible share of saga matter and some from biblical Israel too. He is also Honorary Professor of History at the University of St. Andrews, and has been a Visiting Professor over the years at Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Bergen, and Tel Aviv.

Foreword ; Preface ; Introduction ; Njala's Unity Problem and the Very Beginning ; Marriage Formation and Dissolution ; Making a Scene ; Looking Forward: Njal's Prescience ; Bergthora vs. Hallgerd, Part I, the theory ; Bergthora vs. Hallgerd, Part II, some facts ; Otkel vs. Gunnar ; Gunnar vs. the Thrihyrning people ; The Two Thorgeirs and Death of Gunnar ; Revenge for Gunnar ; The Atlantic Interlude and Hrapp ; Setting up Thrain ; A Tale of Two Hoskulds ; Conversion and the Genius of the Law ; Valgard the Wise and Hoskuld's Blood ; Skarphedin Ascendans, Flosi's Ninth Nights ; The Burning ; Preparation for the next Althing ; The Trial of Flosi and the Battle ; Kari and Friends ; How Not To End a Saga Unless ; A Conclusion: Justice and Exits ; Works Cited