SAGA OF GRETTIR ASMUNDSON, THE STOUT

(AND THE OUTLAW)

INTRODUCTION

William Morris’s translation of Grettir’s saga, Grettla in Icelandic, was one of the earliest that he made of the tales of stubborn Norse heroism which later strongly affected his ethical views. It was first published in 1869. In it, too, he began to develop the archaic style, hewing closer in vocabulary and syntax to that of his sources, which he was to use in much of his later poetry and romances, in contrast with the expansive manner of his verse of the 1860s. Ian Felce has, however, argued that, despite such intended faithfulness, Morris has, to suit the prejudices of his Victorian readership, in a few places intentionally softened the obscenity and brutality of the original text.(1) When Morris travelled to Iceland in the 1870s he did not apparently come within sight of his hero’s final refuge on Drangey. But in 1871 he passed close to Grettir’s ancestral home at Biarg, and noted the place where, according to tradiition, Grettir challenged Bardi on his return from the fight on the Heath, also the water of his boyhood ball-play, and the mound where Grettir’s head was supposedly buried.(2)

It was once believed, probably by Morris also, that Grettir's saga had originally been composed in the classic period of saga writing in the 13th century, though revised later. The references in some places to assessments of Grettir by the 13th-century lawyer and politician Sturla Thordsom (pp. 171, 227), led to its original authorship being ascribed to him. But the manner of the story-telling, with the frequent incursions of the supernatural, and many verses, mostly from Grettir's lips, differs greatly fom the plain, down-to-earth style of the Saga of the Icelanders, reliably ascribed to Sturla, and makes this unlikely. The actual composition of Grettir’s saga may more plausibly be placed well into the 14th century. Its author several times gives details of the daily life of Grettir's time, as of the use of a ’fire hall’ in a manner suggesting that they might be unfamiliar to his expected audience (e.g. pp. 24, 37). He would have been aware of a variety of mentions of Grettir in earlier sagas, such as that to his hero’s prowess in swimming, in a contest with Biorn of Hiardale (p. 143), and of a mass of traditions about a man distinguished for the massive strength and courage which enabled him to combat successfully, against the disturbance of of ordinary social life, by the invasions of lustful and violent bearserks, trolls, and the embodied ghosts of the dead. Grettir was also famous for enduring for many years, by his valour, and occasionally by guile (e.g. pp. 158–9), a life in the wilderness, subject to an unjust outlawry, and succumbing finally only to sorcery. The author elaborated or added episodes in which Grettir is bought into contact with notable personages, recorded in sagas about the early 11th century, whose lives and careers overlapped with his manhood. Thus Grettir ldwes for some time under the protection of that Biorn (pp. 142–3, 151–2). He is made a house-mate of that notoriously quarrelsome pair, the Sworn Brothers, Thorstein and Thormod, without fatal results (pp. 121–4). When he is linked to the famous fight on the Heath, it does not seem too likely that non-events such as his privately decided exclusion from Bardi’s combat team and his eventually bloodless resentment at that exclusion, (pp. 71-2, 77-8) would have been preserved in tradition of Snorri the Codi, noted for the craftiness (also used to moderate the feuds of others) with which, rather than sheer force, he mostly overcame his adversaries, Grettir is made to show a respectful apprehension, leading him to spare Snori’s easily defeated son. (pp.169-7) The author has also taken care to mention sites where Grettir was believed to have lifted up great rocks, or tried to (pp. 32, 75), and to report the occasional unearthing of spear-points and bones that could be linked to Grettir (pp. 119–20, 220). He shows too a good acquaintance, perhaps based on study of such sources as the ’Land-taking Book', with the genealogical lore about leading Iceland families, though he might have invented pedigrees for minor characters. If the many verses included are not derived from the traditions about Grettir, he has also shown a respectable grasp of Icelandic poetical techniques. He was also well acquainted with the traditional Icelandic proverbs, mostly spoken by Grettir, and italicised by Morris, of which so many are asserted.

Of his hero’s origins and character the author has sought to provide a favourable impression. He has taken care to provide his history, in the manner of the classic sagas, with a prologue recounting his ancestry, and a sequel describing the fortunes of his kindred. Besides furnishing Grettir with a distant kinship (p. 1) with King Olaf the Holy (not confrmed in Hemskrimgla), he has given him (pp 2 seqq.) a grandfather, Onund Treefoot, involved both in the resistance to King Harald Fairhair‘s conquest of Norway, and in the departure to Iceland, abandoning their landholdings in Norway (cf. pp- 5, 10) of those who could not brook that king’s supposed tyranny, although Onund’s exploit, as reported consisted mainly of piracy around the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Grettir himself is reported as beng generally admired for his great valour and strength. His opponents are sometimes described as overbearing and 'violent' (e.g. pp. 74, 1742). Morris has presented such a 'ruffler', unique in his Burgdale, in The Roots of the Mountains, (ch. X). Grettir, however is seldom thus stigmatised except by his enemies (e.g. p. 151; but cf. p. 69.) Although the narrator has mentioned the ill luck noticed by observers, from King Olaf downwards, which seems to cling to his hero (pp 76, 100), he has not concealed the weaknesses, which also contribute to Grettir’s destruction. He has several, physical and psychological. Grettir’s might is not superhuman: especially when faced with supernatural opponents, he can be almost defeated until he makes a final effort. Such combats moreover take a physical toll on him, (pp. 89–91, 162–3), Grettir does not claim to be able to fight more than four men at once (p. 78), and occasionally evades combat. (p. 158) Morally his tragic fault is an excessive jealousy of glory, combining a desire for recognition of his genuine great qualities, and too much haste in resenting slights against him. Of his ten or so killings (in his teens) of non-supernatural beings before his final outlawry (those after it are almost all in self-defence, often against odds), one is in justifiable revenge for his brother’s murder. Most of the others are provoked by insults to his own and his family’s honour, of which Icelandic ethics would not individually have disapproved, but in some of which he has taken offence rather hastily. Grettir must also be in action: when given shelter by friendly land-wihts, he soon quits it, however beautiful its landscape, because he is bored. (pp. 141, 152-3) The narrator has provided a contrast to his quick-tempered hero in his two more level-headed brothers: the ‘gentle’ good farmer Atli, who nevertheless does manfully in his first fight (p. 106) and the brave young Illugi, who, barely twenty, willingly accepts death rather than forego his right to avenge his brother. (pp. 203–4)

Around his hero’s life the narrator has developed a presentation of society as it was portrayed in the classic sagas which he would have read. The shedding of blood, often provoked by almost casual slights, is settled by lawsuits and judgements at the Al-thing, the national assembly, or occasionally at the local Things, which had jurisdiction over particular districts. (e.g. pp. 107, 176) At either court a decision might be in practice be obtained by the weight of the number of supporters brought in to back up legal argument. It becomes clear, too, that Grettir’s prolonged survival depended not simply on his own courage and endurance, but on the implicit support of his well-born kindred: although they were too weak to shelter him long themselves, they were sure to resent his slaying. He had also the admiring sympathy of several chieftains, who though they might not be ready, owing to his notorious outlawry and his quick temper, to give him house-room for more than a single winter, were willing to tolerate his presence within their territory for longer, before asking him to move on (e.g. pp. 131, 132, 151). The narrator does not, however, disguise how troublesome Grettir was to the ordinary farmers within such districts, driven as he was by need to prey on their resources, (e.g. pp. 126, 135) and to plunder passing travellers. (pp. 133–4). It was only hatred inspired by a bloodfeud, or general exasperation, (cf. p. 149) that would cause large-scale attacks on him. His final killing, assisted as it was by sorcery, aroused supposedly widespread displeasure, and his killer, moved chiefly by thirst for gain, was swiftly driven into exile.

For modern taste the saga should have ended with the far-away killing of the murderer by Grettir's long-unseen half-brother. The subsequent love intrigue between that brother and a Byzantine lady, including ingenious tricks, forms an anti-climax, despelling the expected severiity of the saga atmosphere. But for a late medieval writer, perhaps attracted to recently introduced, even fashionable, French subject matter, it might provide a fortunate, even a pious, conclusion, for Grettir's kin, if not for himself. This episode might betray the relative fictionality of his tale; if much of its earlier part was also if not invented, then heavily developed from the tradition, Grettir’s saga might be considered as an early precursor of the historical novel. For Morris nevertheless, who surely accepted the substantial truthfulness of the narrative, it furnished a profoundly affecting example of the fortitude under great difficulties of the Icelandic character: So Grettir became one of the two Icelanders to whom he dedicated a poem, the sonnet which precedes his translation.

NOTES TO INTRODUCTION

1. I. Felce, William, Morris and the Icelandic Sagas (D. S. Brewer 2018), pp. 69--73).,

2. William Morris, Icelandic Journals int. J. Morris (Centaur Press, 1969), pp. 98--100. See below, pp. 28-9, 76--8, 205, 208.