Bendt Gnarli
The saga of Bendt Gnarli is one of the more complex of the dwarfish eddas for no other reason than that it spreads across a number of dwarfish generations. In all other aspects it has the obligatory fighting, war, murder and justifiable revenge. It does however provide the only example in literature of the extended Blud Feud, with the possible exception of The Book of Dwarf (if Snurri the Short Sighted is to be believed)
The edda recounts the tale of Gnarli, an aging dwarf, together with his five sons and three daughters. The story opens up with an account of Gnarli's position in dwarfish society and as the boss spokesdwarf of the Vapnatak or local council on the island of Island.
One of his sons in then murdered in somewhat doubtful circumstances at the wedding of a son of a rival family. This sets off a sequence of events that lead ultimately to the destruction of the Bendt clan of dwarfs over a period of three generations.
It is a brutish tale with much blood and maiming but it is perhaps the best extant example of the darker side of dwarf.
