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Article Excerpt
IN CHAPTER 35 of Grettis saga Asmundarsonar, hereafter Grettir's Saga, there is a much-discussed fight scene in which the hero Grettir defeats the draugur Glamr, a revenant who recites the following words over the triumphant hero:
En pat ma ek segja per, at pu hefir nu fengit helming afls pess ok proska, er per var otladr, ef pu hefdir mik ekki fundit; nu fo ek pat afl eigi af per tekit, er pu hefir adr hreppt, en pvi ma ek rada, at pu verdr aldri sterkari en nu ertu, ok ertu po nogu sterkr.... Pu hefir frogr ordit her til af verku pinum, en hedan af munu falla til pin sekdir ok vigaferli, en flest oll verk pin snuask per til ogofu ok hamingjuleysis. Pu munt verda utlogr gorr ok hljota jafnan uti at bua einn samt. Pa legg ek pat a vid pik, at pessi augu se per jafnan fyrir sjonum, sem ek ber eptir, ok mun per pa erfitt pykkja einum at vera, ok pat mun per til dauda draga. (121) (I can tell you that you have attained half of the physical strength and manhood that you would have reached if you had not met me. I cannot take from you the physical vigor that you have already obtained, but I can guarantee that you will never become stronger than you now are, though you may be strong enough.... Up until now, you have been famous for your deeds, but from now on, outlawry and slayings will fall to your lot, and most of your actions will bring to you misfortune and ill luck. You will become an outlaw and be forced to live outside and alone, I also put this curse on you that you will always see these eyes of mine before you, and that will make it difficult for you to be alone, and that will drag you to your death.)
With these words, Grettir's enemy, although defeated in battle, acquires power over the future of the saga hero and stunts the growth of the hero's physical prowess. In addition, after acknowledging the noble qualities and fame of the hero, Glamr predicts that the hero will now become an infamous and rejected outcast on account of the deeds his strength allows him to accomplish. Finally, Glamr curses the hero so that he will see the revenant's eyes in the dark thus making the hero afraid to be alone at night. This fear of the dark is not only degrading, but it will also bring about the hero's death, which will occur outside of the comfort of human community. (2) The extent of the harm Us curse brings becomes clear later in the essay where the narrator explains that Grettir,
sagdisk nu miklu verr stilltr en adr, ok allar motgiordir verri pykkja. A pvi fann hann mikla muni, at hann var ordinn madr sva myrkfolinn, at hann pordi hvergi at fara einn saman, pegar myrkva tok; syndisk honum pa hyers kyns skripi. (122-3) (said that he was now much worse at calming himself and, above all, worse to take offence. He noticed a great difference in that he had become a man so afraid of the dark that he dared not go anywhere alone when it became dark. All kinds of phantoms appeared then to him.)
Grettir now has the ability to see what no human wants to see: the supernatural creatures that haunt the dark. As the hero himself explains, this unwanted ability is a curse that seemingly exacerbates some of his worst qualities.
For obvious reasons, the fight against Glamr has been of central concern to many scholars, particularly in relation to how this scene affects Grettir's place in his society. Robert Cook, for instance, argues that Grettir is "a victim of bad luck and even some malicious force rather than a victim of his character" (239). Analyzing Grettir's role as ah outlaw, Kirsten Hastrup argues that the encounter with Glamr causes Grettir to cross a threshold in which much of his humanity is compromised: "Not only does the fight with Glamr change the nature of Grettir's relationship to society, but in one sense, he has also reached the point of no return in moving across the boundary between the human and the non-human world" (157)--Kathryn Hume, who focuses on Grettir's humiliating fear of the dark, emphasizes the loss of control over his world that Grettir now suffers. Grettir had been seeking a world, according to Hume, "in which human society is a small stronghold surrounded by darkness and chaos, and he, the hero, can venture beyond the pale to grapple with the forces of darkness, and be welcomed back as a savior." But now with Glamr's curse,--"instead of defeating darkness, he will be haunted by it, and unable to escape it" (473). Lotte Motz combines these ideas of liminal space and the fight against chaos to argue for a ritualistic pattern in the saga that resembles similar patterns in other stories in which a hero's struggle against monsters is a rite of passage into adult male human society:
The heroes' deeds, the exhibition of strength and courage, their solitary passage to non-human regions, may recall the initiation ritual of archaic religion, the ordeals to be endured, the proofs of manhood to be given, the contact with the sacred to be achieved by young men before they are admitted into adulthood or into special classes. (93)
What these views illustrate is Grettir's special place in relation to his society: Grettir's struggles are part of a pattern of initiation in which the goal for a successful hero is to return to and be welcomed by his society, hopefully with a new status.
If Motz is correct in reading Grettir's story as a series of initiation rites, however, then Grettir is a failed initiate into human society. A social outsider once he is outlawed, he almost becomes a "natural" outsider in the saga for he seems to lose much of his human identity, particularly in the eyes of his community. While exhibiting noble abilities (physical strength, bravery, stamina, and cleverness), which could potentially benefit the medieval Icelandic farming communities into which he was born, Grettir is also a danger to the human society on the island, and much of his full-blown liminal status is a result of his rashness, lack of restraint, and inclination for physical violence or retaliation, traits he shares with many of the monsters he faces. While I do not deny the importance of the Glamr scene in terms of theme and narrative development, I would also argue that Glamr's curse is not the only reason that Grettir is a social outcast by the end of the saga, nor is Grettir simply a victim of ill luck. In fact, Grettir shows many of these dangerous qualities well before he encounters Glamr, a fact that some scholars overlook. The saga explores Grettir's problematic nature, and much of the medieval audience would have been aware that Grettir's connection to the human world is often very tenuous.
THE WRITTEN TRADITION OF THE SAGA
The liminality of this hero of the "myth" of the Icelandic Settlement Period could well have been a way for the author to explore the complex relationship between Iceland's past and late medieval Icelandic culture. The hero's link to Icelandic history is made manifest by the connections of Grettir and his family to Landnamabok. Sturlubok (3) links the early settlement of Iceland to Grettir Asmundarson's family. The following passage contains a detailed genealogy of one of the ancestral figures who is connected to the hero:
Qnundr trefotr son Ofeigs burlufotar, ivarssonar beytils, ?nundr var i moti Haraldi konungii Hafrsfirdi ok let par fot sinn, Eptir pat for hann til Islands ok nam land fra Kleifum til Ofoeru, Kaldbaksvik, Kolbeinsvik, Byrgisvik, ok bjo i Kaldbak til elli. Hann var brodir Gudbjargar, modur Gudbrands kulu, fodur Astu, modur Olafs konungs. Onundr atti fjora sonu; einn het Grettir, annarr porgeirr fl?skubak, pridi Asgeirr oedikollr, fadir Kalfs ok Hrefnu, er Kjartan atti, ok Puridar, er Porkell kuggi atti, en sidar Steinporr Olafsson; enn fjordi var porgrimr horukollr, fadir Asmundar, fodur Grettis ens sterka. (Islendingabok 1:198-9; Sturlubok 161) (Qnund Tree--Foot, the son of Ofeig Club--Foot, the son of Ivar Horse--Tail, fought against Harald the king at Hafursfjord and lost his leg there. Thereafter he went to Iceland and claimed the land from Kleifar to Ofaera, which included Kaldbaksvik, Kolbeinsvik, and Byrgisvik. He lived at Kaldbak until he was an old man. He was the brother of Gudbjorg, the mother of Gudbrand Bali, who was the father of Asta, the mother of Olaf the king. Qnund had four sons. One was named Grettir, and the second, Thorgeir Flaskback. The third son was Asgeir the Hot-Headed, who was the father of Kalf, Hrefna (whom Kjartan married) and Thurid (who first married Thorkel Kuggi and then Steinthor Olafsson). The fourth son was Thorgrim Hoary-Head, who was the father of Asmund, the father of Grettir the Strong.)
The genealogy, along with the specific places, gives the history of an important family in the saga tradition and connects all of this back ground to particular areas of Iceland; Kolbeinsvik, Kaldbaksvik, and Byrgisvik are areas associated with the history given in Sturlubok. As illustrated by the passage, Icelandic tradition connects its heroes and their ancestors to places in a very specific way. In addition, the passage confirms that, at least as early as the thirteenth century, there was a tradition about Grettir's ancestry, a family history that is important in Grettir's Saga. The great-grandfather of Grettir is Qnund, a man whose brave but futile struggle against the increasing power of King Harald of Norway is imprinted on his body through the loss of his leg; thus, Grettir is associated by blood with the struggle for independence from Harald Fairhair's rule a part of the Icelandic foundation myth in the sagas.
In Grettir's Saga, Grettir's kinship with Qnund is emphasized, and the story about Qnund's fight with Harald is developed even more than in Sturlubok. The narrator first sets up this battle, giving us the specific location: "Fundr peira Haralds konungs varo a Rogalandi, i firdi peim, er heitir i Hafrsfirsdi; hofdu peir hvarirtveggju mikit lid pessi orrosta hefir einhver verit mest i Noregi" (5) [They struggled with Harald the king at Rogaland, by the tjord which is named Hafstjord. Each side had a great force, and this battle was the greatest fought in Norway]. The details given throughout describe how difficult the struggle is for both sides until the narrator finally gives a fuller description than that in Sturlubok of how Qnund loses his leg:
Pa moltu konungsmenn: "Pessi gengr fast fram i soxin; latum hann hafa nokkurar varar minjar, at hann hafi komit i bardagann." Onundr stOd ut a bordit ferumfirti ok hjo til manns, ok i pvi var lagit til hans; ok er hann bar af ser lagit, kiknadi hann vid. pa hjo einn af stafnbuum konungs til Qnundar, ok kom a fotinn fyrir nedan kne ok tdk af fotinn; Qnundr vard pegar Ovigr (6-7) (Then the king's men said, "That warrior in the gunwale is putting up a strong resistence; let's give him something to remember that he has been in battle." Qnund stood with one foot on the gunwale, and he struck a blow. Then somebody lunged at him, and as he bore the attack, he sunk at the knees. Then one of the men on the stem of the king's ship hewed at Qnund. The blow struck just below the knee and struck off his leg. Qnund was unable to fight.)
The expansion of the story of Qnund suggests that the audience of the saga should keep Qnund carefully in mind as Grettir's story progresses. Moreover, the example of Qnund and his struggle against Harald suggests that some of the sagas, at least, were in part a glorification of Iceland's history, particularly during the Settlement Period and the Commonwealth Period.
One of the most interesting ideas about the relationship between Grettla and Icelandic histories is that Sturla Thordarson, the author of the oldest extant version of the Icelandic history, also wrote Grettir's Saga. In 1938, Sigurdar Nordal was the first to suggest Sturla's authorship of the saga, and many scholars since then have searched for evidence of Sturla's connection to Grettir's Saga (Hastrup 161). Using biographical evidence, Paul Schach notes that Sturla was a friend of Halldor Oddsson, a descendent of Grettir's sister Rannveig (124). This personal connection...
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