Following chapters exhibit Grettir’s strength and also his ill luck, as he fights off ambushes but arouses ever more enmity. Banished from most men’s dwellings, he lives as a brigand and sheep-stealer, giving ever more people cause of grievance against him. He finds hospitality with a marginally human host, Thorir, called a “giant” and a “half-troll.” Grettir later boasts that “he had had a great deal of fun with Thorir’s daughters, and they liked it too, for there were not many visitors around.” Grettir remembers Lent, but “observed the fast… by eating only suet and liver” (p. 130). The significance of this remark might be interpreted in more than one way. It could mean that Grettir, banished from the Christian community, still tries to honor human ways, and, restricted to a meat diet, denies himself a pleasing variety of cuts from the sheep, getting sufficient calories and nutriments to keep going, but denying himself some of the pleasures of the table; or the detail could be meant as a bit of ironic humor, that in his present career, while law-abiding folk are keeping the Lenten fast, Grettir has so little regard for it that he feeds richly on fried liver, a delicacy. His sport with the half-troll’s daughters suggests that Grettir isn’t doing the best he can to live as a Christian.
A reflection: In the setting of this time and place, there are no jails or prisons. When a crime has been committed, the matter may be settled on their own by negotiations between chieftains representing the parties concerned, or the persons at odds may appeal to the Law-Speaker at the annual Althing assembly. Compensation may be agreed upon in the form of pieces of silver. The disputed matter may also be the occasion of the origin, or the continuation, of a blood-feud. A criminal may be sentenced to outlawry. Anyone finding him may kill him without incurring legal penalty. People are not supposed to shelter and feed outlaws, although it seems they may give him assistance and then send him away. My sense is that, at this time, Iceland is to be thought of as becoming Christian, and that Grettir’s outlawry would mean that he is deprived of the sacraments – not that we ever see Grettir praying or exhibiting other signs of piety. His virtues are natural ones of courage, endurance, and, I suppose, keeping his word.
Grettir is terribly unlucky. Remember that he volunteered to dispose of the undead Glam on behalf of others, not to defend a household of his own. (His older brother inherited the family property.) But Glam’s curse has the effect, as it were, of working Grettir’s ever greater withdrawal from, or ejection from, the society of mankind. It's as if he is gradually becoming less human himself.
This reminds me of the Icelandic folktale "Trunt, Trunt, and the Trolls in the Fells," which may be read here:
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In the Icelandic tale, a member of a group of searchers after edible moss is attracted away from human society and becomes more and more trollish himself.
(Incidentally, that tale has reminded me of Blackwood's "Wendigo." In both you have people in a remote setting and one of them is withdrawn by a supernatural summoner and becomes less human -- that sort of idea.)
But one of the intriguing things about all this is that the setting is so specific. You can look at a map and have a pretty good idea, even sometimes an excellent idea, of where something is supposed to have happened. Likewise the details about various historical persons would make it possible to get pretty close to a date for when the events are supposed to have happened. This contrasts with, say, the Iliad and the Odyssey – anyway, as far as I know, the Greeks didn’t concern themselves with figuring out when the narrated events were supposed to have happened.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 28 Mar 23 | 12:07PM by Dale Nelson.