These notes do not include explanations of the ’kennings’ within the poems in the Saga, since Morris has given such explanations on pp. 275–7, nor a geographical account of Grettir’s movements within Iceland, since Morris has also provided a map (p. xlix) of the relevant parts of North-west Iceland.

1. Ch. I. 1 Hiordaland was on the west side of South (p.ern Norway, and Rogaland within its southern end.

2. p. xlv. 872.

This is the traditional date, based on Heiimskringla, of King Harald Faiirhair’s victory. Modern historians date it to the mid 880s or even later.

3. Ch. I p. 1. A king called Kiarval

The sagas show a romantic (or snobbish) interest in tracing connections for their characters with Irish royalty, as instanced in the many petty kings of that country: one leading family of the Laxdale saga traced a descent from a daughter of this late 9th-century king.

4. p.2 bearserks

These warriors, possessed by battle frenzy, were reckoned especially dangerous.

5. Ch. III p. 3 was healed of his wounds

An understated credit to Norse skills in nursing and surgery.

6. p. 4 Grim the Hersir

A hersir ranked in status and authority between an earl and the ordinary freeholders.

7. Ch. VI. p. 9 a Gothlander

Gothland was a region, the traditional home of thr Gotha, which later became the southern part of Sweden. So Biorn was legally a foreigner in Norway.

8. Ch. VII p. 12 the bonders

These are the ordinary free holding farmers

9. Ch. X p. 16 weregild

The name, wergild in Anglo-Saxon law, for the compensation payable in Germanic lands for a killing or other injury

10. Ch. XII p.18 a whale driven up

The meat and oil of beached whales was a useful resource for Icelandic farmers, and their sharing often in the Sagas led to fights, as here.

11. p. 20 Thorkel Mon was law-man

The law-man or law-speaker was the chief legal officer of the Icelandic Commonwealth, choswn for his expertrise in its law and custom. He recited part of the law yearly at the meeting of the national assembly, the Al-thing, and was available for consultation on individual issues; he also presided over the council of thirty ‘godar’ (chietains) and their nominees (two each) which made new law.

12. p. 21 Thorfinn was unatoned

If a man committed or attempted a treacherous killing, such as this Thotfinn had tried against Thorgrim, compensation could be denied when he was killed in turn.

13. Ch. XIII. p. 21 Asmund’s idleness and estrangement fron his father foreshadows that of Grettir in turn from him. It was the custom for young Icelanders to go abroad in quest of wealth and glory; cf. p. 93.

14. p. 22 called Dromond

A dromond was a massive Mediteranean oared ship.

15. p. 22 signed with the cross

A symbol of adherence ro Chritianity less definite than baptism.

16. Ch. XVI p. 32 gave handsel

Shook hands as a pledge of agreement.

17. p. 32 be outlawed, and keep abroad three winters

Though Thorlel as the dominant figure of authority in Waterdale has pad the compenation for Skeggi’s death, Grettir is subjected to this lesser outlawry; presumably it was expected that a killer’s three years’ absence from Iceland would give time for the anger of the kindred of the slain to abate.

18. Ch. XVII. p. 33 wadmal

A standard kind of Icelandic cloth.

19. Ch. XVII. p. 35 chapmen = merchanta

20. p. 36 this merry may

may = maid.

21. p. 37 sink the bailers

Fill the buckets with water.

22. Ch. XVIII. p. 40 the barrow-wight

This is Grettir’s first encouner with one of the 'draugar’, not the evanescent ghosts of more southerly traditions, but physically solid ‘re-animatd corpses’, possessed of malevolent strength, and only to be disposed of by mutilatuion, as here where Grettir cuts of its head and puts between is legs, or burning.

23. p. 40 the treasure …

An heirloom of his house The treasure which Grettir has brought from the barrow is in fact ancestral treasure of his host’s family, buried with Thorfinn’s father Kari, which Grettir is morally obliged to restore to him, including the coveted sword.

24. Ch. XIX. p. 42 Earl Eric Hakonson…. King Knut the Mighty … Earl Svein

Earl Eric was the son of Earl Hakon of Lade, who, after ruling Norway for many yeas, had been defeated anf killed by King Olaf Trygvassson (reigned 998–1000). After Olaf had perished fighting King Svein Forkbeard of Denmark, that king entrusted the rule of Norway to Eric, nominally, like his father, as a vassal. Now Erichas left its government to his brother Svein, as regent for his young son, another Hakon, while Eric has sailed to join in the great Danish invasion of England, led in fact by King Svein, not yet by his son Knut, who only assumed its command after King Svein dies in 1014; in terms of the Saga’s chronology we have only reached 1011–12.

25. p. 42 Halogaland

The northern part of Norway’s west coast.

26. pp. 43-46 Grettir, now in his mid teens, and faced with odds of twelve to one, relies initially, for once, relies on subltety rather tham on his native strength to win his battle.

27. p. 47 house-carles

Not the armed men serving kings and lords, asin late Anglo-Saxon England, but simply the carles (workmen) on the farm. Morris also habitually calls women ’carlines‘.

29. Ch. XXI. p. 53 namesakes

Boorn fhares in Norse his name with the bear Grettir has just killed.

30. Ch. XXII. p.55 Drontheim = Trondheim

31. p. 58 not bear his brother to purse

Not accept money compensation for Biorn’s death, but require his slayer’s death

32. Ch. XIV.. p. 61 Tiunsberg = Oslo

33. p. 61 wondrous wroth

Earl Svein's anger seems a little excessive, given that Grettir’s last two killings were in self-defence against ambushes with superiior numbers.

34. Ch. XXV p.64 the foster-brothers

Men sworn to brotherhood in arms. In their saga (Ch. VII) this episode of Thorgils Makson’s slaying and its sequel is also told, with brief menion of Asmund’s involvement.

35. Ch. XXVIII. pp 70–1. Bardi’s intervention here to release Audun from Grettir’s clutches may well be an invention of the Saga’s author to motivate Gtettir’s invitation to join Bardi’s following to avengs his brotherr, described in the Heath-Slyayings sags, whose surviving fragment is translated in Morrris’s Saga Library, vol. II, pp 191-259.

36. Ch. XXIX. pp. 72–3. The fighting of horse against horse with teeth and hooves, goaded by their backers, was a common sport of the Saga period, which often led to violence.

37. Ch. XXXI. pp. 76–8. Neither Bardi’s not recruiting Grettir, on the advice of his wiser foster-father Thorarin, to join his select band of six, nor his encounter with Grettir on his return from the fight are mentined in the Heath-Slayings saga; they ay well be rhe invention of this Saga’s author to explain Gretiir’s absence, despite his known strength and valour, from that famous battle. They also exemplify his touchiness over his honour.

38. Ch. XXXII. p 79 Skapti

The lawman Skapti, first appointed lawman in 1003, was regularly re-elected every three years until his death in 1028.

39. pp. 80–1. No Christian man

The presentation of ordinary farmers, here and later in the Saga, as devoutly observing the feasts and fasts of the Christian church so soon after Iceland’s official conversion in A.D. 1000, may reflect life in Grrttir’s day less than the narrator’s awareness of religious practice in his own time.

40. Ch. XXXIII. p. 84 Then they brought him to church

The presumably Christian Thorgeir, unlike the faithless heathen Glam, is in no danger of becoming a ‘draug’, and can easily br given Christian burial.

41. Ch. XXXVII. p. 92 Olaf Haraldsson won control of Norway, driving out Earl Svein, who shortly died, in 1014–15.

42. p. 94 sackless men

Men not saddled with guilt for any crime.

43. spaedom = foretelling

44. Ch. XXVII. p. 95 Bishop Sigurd

A bishop called Sigurd is once recorded In King Olaf’s company: see his saga. Ch. 120.

45. Ch. XXXIX. p. 99 to bear iron

In this ordeal presumably introduced into Norway with Christianity, a man’s guilt or innocence was tested by his bearing s bar of heated iron a certain distance. If his hand was not injured, he was reckoned not guilty. The ‘wild’ boy who challenges Grettit might be expressing a pre-Christian scepticism of such ordeals.

46. Ch. XL. pp. 101–2 bit the rim of his shield

A frequent habit of such bearserks...

47. Ch. XLII. p. 104 had he let build a church

In Iceland early churches were mostly built by men standing near their farmsteads to serve their neighbourhoods.

48. Ch. XLV. p. 109 taken my workman

Possibly Atli was bound by some agreement to service with Thorbiorn for a term not yet completed.

49. p. 110 he gave out the killing

When a man was killed, the killer was required to acknowledge his deed before witnesses, in which case that slaying might be atoned for by compensation. An unacknowledged killing counted as a treacherous murder, and was much more severely penalised. Thorbiorn, though he has attacked Atli from concealment, has thus just kept himself on the right side of the law.

50. Ch. XLVI. P. 111 Grettit’s outlawry. After Atli’s death Grettir has no adult male kinsman to put forward as a defence that the burning was accidental, not deliberate. Despite Iceland’s almost pedantic legalism, thps lawsuit was decided, ,as in other suits over deaths in the sagas, by the predominance of physical force at the court In Ch. LI Thorir is sufficiently powerful to overrule the bargain which would have ended Grettiir’s outlawry.

51. p. 111 wood-folk outaws reduced to dwelling in woods.

52. Ch. L. p. 121 for winter abode

An outlaw could live out of doors in summer, but found it easier to shelter in houisng in winter.

53. p, 11 the foster-brothers

Thorgils had backed this pair in Ch. XVII. This episode, demonstrating Grettier’s strength, does not appear in their saga.

54. Ch. LI. p. 126 three marks

A mark was two thirds of a pound of silver Laee raised to six marks: p. 144. Hence the brutal severing of Grettir’s head in Ch. LXXIV.

55. Ch. LII, p. 126 he swept up unsparingly

As an outlaw Grettir has to live by plundering the law-abiding farmers, as Snorri had foreseen cf. Grettir’s robbing travellers, as described on. pp. 132--3.

56. p. 127 the mountain-dairy

The shieling where herdsmen dwelt in summer while keeping the sheep feeding on the mountain pastures.

57. p. 130 Hrefn my kinswoman

Hrefn is Thorbiorg’s sister-in-law, wife of Kiartan, a protagonist of the Laxdale saga.

58. p. 130 Sigar’s meed

Sigar hanged his daughter Sugny’s young lover caught in her bed: Morris’s translation of the Danish ballad telling the story, ’Hafbur and Signy’, is included in his Poems by the Way.

59. Ch. LIII. p. 131 Thorstein Kuggson

This Thorstein’s mother was daughter of Asgeir, half-brother of Grettiir’s grandfather Thorgrim: see p.65.

60. Ch. LIV. pp. 133-4 Air will be shown to be the ‘land-wight’ Hallmund, later (pp. 141-152) Grettir‘s friend and protector, a sptrit of the countryside, and a benevolent counterpart of the evil trolls. The ‘half-troll’ giant Thorir, who shelters Grettir in the paradisal Thornsdale (p. 153) is of the same kind. Hallmund’s death (pp. 154–7) shows that they are not immortal.

61. p. 135 Skapti's advice

Though as the head of Iceland’s legal system, he thinks it unfitting for him to shelter Grettir, he does not feel obliged to kill or even detain the notorious outlaw.

62. Ch. LV. p. 135 there was much avail of him

Icelandic law allowed an outaw’s penalty to be reversed if he killed another outlsw; hence Gretttir’s suspicions of Grim, and later of Thorir Redbeard (pp. 137–9). Later Grettir obtains less dangerous companions: pp. 149, 158.

63. Ch. LXIX. p .143. Thorstein whom, Snorri the Goxi had slain Snorr’s killing of this Thorsrtin son of Gisli, who had impeded his lawauits, is briefly reported im the Ere-Dwellers saga, Ch. LVI (Saga Library, vol. II, pp. 154–6). This vainglorious, mockingly humiliated, Gisli, named after his grandather, ix not mentioned there.

64. Ch. LXI. p. 151 jokuls = glaciers.

65. Ch. LXII. PP. 155–6, These verses, if traditional as their number suggests ,would be the basis of the account of the fight described in Ch. LVI.

66. Ch. LXIII. p. 153. fell the horses = stun them

67. Chs. LXIV--LXVI. pp. 160--66. Grettir's struggle with these trolls is close in its outline to Beowulf’s with Grendel and his mother in the Anglo-Saxon epic, which the saga author coild hardly have known. The story was perhaps a omom topic of Northern legend. But here the sexes od the trolls, the one invading a dwelling, the other housed in a cave in watery chasm, have been reversed.

68. Ch. LXV. p. 166 the day dawned on her … a rock

Traditionally trolls turned to stone if exposed to sunlight.

69. Ch. LXVII. p. 167 the slaying of Thorstein Kuggson

This occurred in 1026, it is not reported how.. It is after the death of this powerful kinsman that Gertie coniders withdrawing permanently to the apparently impregnable refuge on Drangey, suggested by Gudmund.

70. Ch. LXIX. p. 173 one sea-mile only

Drangey is four miles offshore (p. 173).

fifteen or sixteen winters.

This count may perhaps run from Grettir’s first outlawry ’for Skeggi’s killing, disregarding the single year between his two journeys to Norway when he was ‘in law: Chs XXVII-XLV; cf. p. 188.

71. Ch. LXX. P. 174 tables a chess-like board game.

72. Ch. LXXIII. pp. 178–9 This long and elaborate pledging of peace follows a traditional formula, adjusted to incorporate Christian elements, and resembles one included in the law-book and in the Heath-Slayings saga (Saga Library, vol. II, pp. 245–6).

73. Ch. LXVIII. p. 187 twenty winters’ outlawry

There is no definite provision in Icelandic law for an outlawry to be set aside after twenty years, but the narrator may be suggesting that a sympathetic law-man would be prepared to issue a ruling to that effect, thus increasing the pathos of Gerttir’s slayimg so close to potential acquittal, freedom, and safety.

74 Ch. LXXXII. pp. 195–6. The second, third, and fourth verses of this poem ascribed to Grettir refer to fights, which the author has not developed in his narrative, so may be derived from the traditions about the hero.

75. Ch. LXXXIII. p. 198 the rest are not named

Presumably in the tradition which the author was following.

76. Ch. LXXXIV p. 203 forty five winters

Here and later in this paragraph the author has over-estimated Grettir’s life by up to ten years. Morris’s note (pp.234–7) suggests that the ‘forty five’ may be a mistranscription.

77. Ch. LXXXV. p. 204 at the dawning

Illugi’s killing is delayed until daybreak because a killing at night counted as murder.

78. p. 205 greeted = wept

79. Ch. LXXXVII. p. 206 Thorod Drapa-Stump

This Thorod, who had a blood-feud against Grettir’s family for the killing of his brother Thotbiorn Oxmain, is moved by local patriotism, and a forthcoming marriage alliance (p. 207) to join Grettir’s kin in protecting their property from outsiders fom another district further east.

80. p. 207 to take out execution after

Illugi Thorbiorn had presumably intended to hold a ‘court of confiscation’ to seize the property which Illugi would have inheirited, on the pretext that by aiding the outlawed Grettir, he had himself become an outlaw.

81. Ch. LXXXVII. p 209 the days of the Sturlungs

The 13th century, when the Sturlung family were powerful in Iceland.

82. Ch. LXXVII. p. 210 Micklegarth = Constantinople

83. Ch. LXXXIX. p 211 the Varangians

The guard recruited originally from men of Scandinavian origiin, which served the Byzantine emperor from the late 10th century.

84. p. 211 Michael Kataluk

Michael Calaphates, emperor 1034–41. The author would have known his name and approximate date from King Harald’s saga in Heimskringla.

85. Ch. XC. p 215 The Lady Spes

The Saga of King Harald Sigurdsom (king of Norway 1047- 66) includes a similar story, (chs. 13-14), telling how while serving in Byzantium he was delivered from imprisonment (for alleged embezzlement) by a Greek princess who loved and married him. The author is not apparently aware that the word ’Spes’ in Latin means ’Hope’.

86. pp. 217--18 built forth over the sea

The author was apparently aware that Constantinople, unlike most medieval cities, was mostly surrounded by water, but not that it had sea-walls.

87. Ch. XCI. p 219 The bishop

The author imagines a trial by an oath in Western Christian fashion, like the ordeal, to be under church supervision.

88. Ch. XCII. pp. 220-22. The oath

The trick by which Thorstiein in disguise falls while carrying Spes over water and thrusts between her legs, so enabling her to swear to her innocence, is very like that by which Tristan once enabled Iseult to ’prove’ her innocence of adultery with him: their story was current in Iceland as a saga from the 13th century.

89. Ch. XCII. p. 223 Magnus the Good

Son and heir of St. Olaf. He regained Norway from Danish rule and reigned 1035–47, latterly with his father’s half-brother Harald.

90. Ch. XCIV. p. 224 King Harald… was hard

His saga shows with what vigour he eliminated actual or potential opponents among the Norwegian aristocracy.

91. p. 224 fallen into eld

On this saga’s chronology Thorstein would br approaching sixty. 

92. p. 224 sixteen winters agone = A.D. 1047.

93. Ch. XCV. p. 227 Sturla the Lawman

The 13th-century Law-Speaker to whom the authorship of this saga was once ascribed: see Introduction.