Njáls saga has influenced popular culture in different ways across a variety of media. A number of modern novels draw inspiration from the saga's plot. These include, for example, Friðrik Ásmundsson Brekkan's novels Ulveungernes broder/Saga af Bróður Ylfing (1924/1929) and Drottningarkyn (1947), Dorothy James Roberts' Fire in the Ice (1961), Henry Treece's The Burning of Njal (1964), Tim Severin's Viking-Trilogy (2005), Þórunn Erlu-Valdimarsdóttir's crime novel Kalt er annars blóð (2007), Robert Jansson's Kári's Saga: A Novel of Viking Iceland (2008), Janni Lee Simner's Thief Eyes (2011), and Bjarni Harðarson's Mörður (2014).[24][25] The Red Romance Book, a collection of heroic tales and legends published in 1905 and lavishly illustrated by Henry Justice Ford, includes three stories based on the saga: The Slaying of Hallgerda's Husbands, The Death of Gunnar, and Njal's Burning. Robert E. Howard's story "The Grey God Passes, or The Twilight of the Grey Gods" (1962) also draws inspiration from the saga.
There are also a number of poetic works inspired by Njáls saga. These include Thomas Gray's The Fatal Sisters (1768), Richard Hole's The Tomb of Gunnar (1789), Jónas Hallgrímsson's Gunnarshólmi (1838), Sigurður Breiðfjörð's Rímur af Gunnari á Hlíðarenda (1860), Grímur Thomsen's Gunnarsríma (1890) and his Íslenzkar konur frá söguöldinni (1895), and Helen von Engelhardt's Gunnar von Hlidarendi (1909). Dramatic works deriving from the saga's plot and characters include Gordon Bottomley's The Riding to Lithend (1909), Jóhann Sigurjónsson's Logneren/Lyga-Mörður (1917), Thit Jensen's Nial den Vise (1934), and Sigurjón Jónsson's Þiðrandi - sem dísir drápu (1950). Embla Ýr Bárudóttir and Ingólfur Örn Björgvinsson's graphic novel adaptation of the saga, consisting of the four volumes Blóðregn, Brennan, Vetrarvíg, and Hetjan, was published in Iceland between 2003 and 2007.[25]
In terms of film, television, and radio, the Icelandic short film called Brennu-Njálssaga (known by its English title in Europe as The Saga of Burnt Njal) was directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson and released 1981. The film is featured on the Icelandic DVD release of Angels of the Universe. Featured in the soundtrack is a song called "Brennu-Njálssaga," composed by the Icelandic new wave band, Þeyr with the collaboration of Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. This song later appeared in 1981 when the group released its single Iður til Fóta (in the cassette version only). The 1995 adventure film The Viking Sagas is inspired heavily by the saga, through it features an original plot. Episode 27 of Monty Python's Flying Circus is titled "Njorl's Saga". The "saga" in question is quite unrelated to any events in Njal's Saga, despite the similarities between the names. In DreamWorks' animated series Dragons: Race to the Edge season 3 episode 3 a small excerpt from Njáls saga is chiseled into a sword and a wall in a cave using the Futhorc runic alphabet. The trope of a man trapped in a building and burned to death drives the Icelandic TV series Trapped (Ófærð). BBC Radio 3 broadcast The Saga of Burnt Njal, an audio adaptation by Hattie Naylor based on a translation by Benjamin Danielsson and directed by Gemma Jenkins, on 24 October 2021,[26] with Justin Salinger as "Njal", Christine Kavanagh as "Bergthora", Justice Ritchie as "Gunnar", Lisa Hammond as "Hattgerd", Jasmine Hyde as "Mord" and Salomé Gunnarsdottir as "The Voice of the Saga."
The saga's influence is also discernible in other aspects of popular culture. In numerous Shanghai magazines, the Chinese composer Nie Er went by the English name George Njal, after a character in the saga.[27] The Hallgerda Mons, a mountain on Venus, is named for Hallgerðr.[28]
