P. 29. The genealogy of Gamli of Meals, as here recorded, seems to be
peculiar to Grettir's saga. Yet its statements are inconsistent in
the matter, for it gives this twofold genealogy of the man. See Ed.
Kaupmannahöfn: 1853.
P. 22. Ranveig was the wife of Gamli, the son of <i>Thorald</i>, the
son of the <i>Vendlander</i>.
P. 70. And (Thorir of the Pass) sold the land at Meals to
<i>Thorhalli</i>, son of Gamli the <i>Widelander</i>. His son was
Gamli, who had to wife Ranveig, the daughter of Asmund Greyhaired.
According to 'Landnáma,' this Gamli of Meals, Asmund's son-in-law,
was son of Thord, and great-great-grandson of Thorhrolf or Thorolf
Fasthaldi (Fastholding), who settled lands on the north coast of
Icefirth-deep (Isafjartðardjúp), and farmed at Snowfells (Snaefjöll).
We have given Thorhall in our translation in both places as the
man's name. Perhaps Thoraldr is nothing but a corruption of Thorólfr
fasthaldi; and Thorhalli again a corruption of the first. But Gamli
the Vendlander or Widelander, we have no means of identifying.
P. 30. 'Now in those times there were wont to be large fire-halls
at the homesteads.' The hall, <i>holl, skáli, stofa</i>, was the
principal room in every home. <i>Elda-skáli</i>, or fire-hall, as
the one alluded to at Biarg, was so called from its serving as a
cooking-hall and a sitting-hall at once. The main features in the
construction of a hall were the following: it was generally built from
east to west, in an oblong form, having doors either at one or both
ends through the south-side wall, where it met the gable end. These
two entrances were called carles'-door and queens'-door (<i>karldyrr,
kvenndyrr</i>), being respectively for the ingress and egress of
men and women. Sometimes the men's-door was adorned with the beaks
(<i>brandar</i>) of a hewn-up ship, as was the case with the hall of
Thorir of Garth, standing as door-posts on either side. The door led
to a front-hall (<i>forkáli, fortofa, and-dyri, framhús</i>), which,
sometimes at least, seems to have been portioned off into an inner
room (<i>klefi</i>), or bay, and the vestibule proper. In the bay were
kept victuals, such as dried fish, flour, and sometimes, no doubt,
beer. Within, the hall fell into three main portions: the main hall,
or the nave, and the aisles on either side thereof (<i>skot</i>):
The plan of the hall was much like that of one of our regular-built
churches without chancel, say like a Suffolk church of the fifteenth
century, the nave being lighted by a clerestory, and the aisles
running the whole way along the nave, and communicating behind the
dais. These aisles were used for sleeping-places; so that along the
whole length of the hall, and behind the dais, all was partitioned
into bedsteads, open or locked,--open, that is to say, communicating
with the nave by a doorless aperture,--locked, that is, shut out of
view from the nave (<i>lok-rekkja, lok-hvila</i>).
On the wall between nave and aisles, which was covered with a
panelling on its inside at least, were hung the shields and weapons
of the chief and his retainers, or home-men. Sometimes it was painted
with mythic subjects, and adorned with fantastic carvings; on great
occasions it was covered with hangings. Along both side-walls ran a
row of seats, called benches (<i>bekkr</i>), the north-most of which,
or the one which faced the sun, was called the nobler bench (<i>aeðri
bekkr</i>), the south-most one, the less noble bench, (<i>úoeðri
bekkr</i>). In the middle of either bench was a seat, called the high
seat (<i>öndvegi</i>); that of the nobler bench being occupied by the
chief or head of the house, unless he had for his guest a man nobler
than himself, in which case the latter took it; that of the less noble
bench being allotted to the noblest among the guests. The nobler bench
was on ordinary occasions the bench for the chief and the household.
The less noble for the guests. In front of the chiefs high-seat were
the high-seat-poles which in the early ages of Paganism in the North
were objects of much veneration, and must always accompany the chief
if he moved his abode, and point out his new homestead, if he fared
for it over sea, by the spot where they drifted ashore, as, when land
was sighted, they were thrown overboard. In front of the seat-rows
just described were placed the tables whereon the meals were put
forth. And when the number of people exceeded the capacity of the
ordinary benches, a new row of benches was placed in front of the
tables, so that there were two rows of benches down along either
side of the hall with the tables between them. The last-named rows of
benches were called <i>forsoeti</i>; and their occupiers, when seated
at table, faced those of the upper and lower bench. In the centre of
the hall, if of the fashion, as it probably was in early times, of a
fire-hall, was a narrow oblong stone-pavement, probably as long as the
rows of the benches, whereon fires were lit for heating of the room,
for cooking of food in some cases, and for the purpose of lighting up
the hall. The smoke that rose from the burning fuel found its way out
through the luffer or louvre, in the middle of the ridge of the roof
(<i>ljóri</i>); the <i>reyk-beri</i>, reek-bearer, seems to have been
a contrivance for creating draught to carry the smoke out through
the <i>ljóri</i>. In that end of the hall which was opposite to the
entrance was the cross-bench, dais (<i>pallr</i>), occupied by the
women. Here was also a high seat (<i>öndvegi á palli</i>), which was
generally taken by the mistress of the house. In our saga it seems
that the hall of Sand-heaps made an exception to this general rule, as
it apparently had the dais immediately within the doorway.
P. 77 (cpr. 110). It is worth observing here, that Thorvald, son of
Asgeir Madpate the younger, dwells at As in Waterdale, about 1013,
when Thorgils Makson was slain. When Grettir played, as a youth, on
Midfirth-water (or <i>cca</i>. 1010), he dwelt at Asgeirsriver. We
mention this because there has been some confusion about the matter.
On the slight authority of the Þáttr af Isleifi biskupi', Biskupa
Sögur I. 54, it has been maintained that he dwelt at Asgeirsriver
even as late as <i>cca</i>. 1035, when his daughter Dalla was wooed by
Isleif the Bishop. G. Vigfússon, Safn til Sögu Islands, I. 337. On
the other hand, the statement of Hungrvaka that he farmed at As
(<i>i.e.</i>, at the Ridge), at the time aforesaid, has given rise
to the conjecture that thereby must be meant Valdar-As, a farm in
Willowdale, near Asgeirsriver, the manor of the Madpate family. G.
Vigfússon, in Biskupa Sögur, I. 61, note 2. It seems there is no need
of setting aside the clear statement of our saga, that the As was As
in Waterdale (<i>see</i> Index), and not Valdarás in Willowdale at
all, or that Thorvald had, by 1013, moved up to the neighbouring
country-side of Waterdale, and settled among the kin of his
great-grandmother.
P. 114, 1. 1. 'The men of Meals,' is a close translation of the
original, which, however, is incorrect; for the men of Meals were
Grettir's kin-in-law, and natural allies. The saga means the men of
Meal, Kormak and his followers, and the original should be either,
þeir Mel-menn, or Mels-menn, or þeir Kormakr frá Mel.
P. 129, 1. 10, 11. We have purposely altered the text from: en þú
öruggr í einangri, <i>i.e.</i>, 'but thou stout in danger,' into:
en <i>þó, i.e.</i>, 'but stout in danger none-the-less.' The former
reading seems barely to give any sense, the last a natural and the
required one.
P. 169. Hallmund. Our saga is one among the historic sagas of Iceland
which deals with traditions of ancient belief in the spirits of the
unknown regions of the land that are interested in the well-being of
the mere men who dwell near them. Hallmund and the giant Thorir are
the representatives of these powers in our saga. Of these Hallmund is
the more interesting of the two, both for his human sympathies, his
tragic end, and the poetry ascribed to him. At one time or other he
has had a great name in the Icelandic folk-lore among the spirits of
the land, the so-called land wights <i>(land-voetir)</i>, and there is
still existing a poem of ancient type, the refrain of which is closely
similar to that of Grettir's song on Hallmund, but which is stated to
be by some cave-wight that lived in a deep and gloomy cavern somewhere
in Deepfirth, on the north side of Broadfirth. In the so-called
Bergbúaþáttr or cave-dweller's tale (Edited by G. Vigfússon in
Nordiske Old-skrifter, xxvii., pp. 123-128, and 140-143, Copenhagen,
1860), this song is said to have been heard by two men, who, on their
way to church, had lost their road, and were overtaken by the darkness
of night, and, in order to escape straying too far out of their way,
sought shelter under the lee of a sheer rock which chanced to be on
their way. They soon found a mouth of a cave where they knew not that
any cave was to be looked for, whereupon one of the wayfarers set up a
cross-mark in the door of the cave, and then with his fellow-traveller
sat down on two stones at the mouth of the cave, as they did not dare
to risk themselves too far in the gloomy abode away from the cross.
When the first third part of the night was spent they heard something
come along from within the cave doorwards out to them.[20] They signed
themselves with the sign of the cross, and prayed God's mercy to be
on them, for they thought the doings within the deep of the cavern now
grew big enough. On looking into the darkness they saw a sight like
unto two full-moons, or huge targets, with some monstrous figure
(unreadable in the MS.) between them. They thought this was nothing
but two eyes, and that nowise narrow of face might he be who bore such
torches. Next they heard a chanting of a monstrous kind and in a big
voice. A lay there was sung of twelve staves, with the final refrain
of each twice repeated.
[Footnote 20: <i>Innan eptir</i>, as here rendered, is the reading of
the MS. from which Bergbua páttr is edited. <i>Innar eptir</i>, as the
aforesaid edition of the tale has it, is wrong.]
The poem seems to be a death-song over the cave-kin of the country by
the new change of thought brought in by Christianity.
P. 189. 'Grettir lay out that summer on Madderdale-heath, and in
sundry places, and at whiles he was at Reek-heath.' A corroboration
of the saga has been clearly set forth by the discovery of a
Grettir's-lair, in Axefirth-peak, in 1862. True the saga passes over
Grettir's doings on these vast eastern wildernesses, but tradition has
preserved the name for the place, and it shows by its construction and
position that it must have been constructed by one skilled in choosing
a good fighting stand, and a good and wide view at the same time. An
Icelandic farmer has thus given an accurate and reliable description
of Grettir's lair:
'In the summer of 1850, when I came north to Axefirth, I heard talk
of a Grettir's lair upon Axefirth-peak.... Many who had seen it made
a slight matter of it, which brought me to think it must have few
peculiarities of antiquarian interest to show. But on the 7th of
September, this summer (1862), I went with the rape-ruler Arni Jónsson
of Wood-stead to inspect the lair. Walking up to it from the level
ground below took us three minutes. The lair stands in the lower part
of a slip of stones beneath some sheer rocks between a sandstone rock,
called the carline, and the stone slip from the peak. It is built
up of stones, straight as a line, and runs, 4-3/4 ells in length, 10
inches broad, and is, within walls, 7/8 of an ell deep. The half of it
is deftly covered in with flat stones, the longest of which are 2 ells
9 inches long, and about half an ell in thickness, and a little more
in breadth. Small thin fragments of stone are wedged in between these
where their junctures do not close tight, and so firmly are they
fixed, that without instruments they may not be removed. One stone in
the south wall is so large that we deemed it fully the task of
from four to six men to move it when loose. The north side wall is
beginning to give way, where the room is covered in. On the outside
it is overgrown with black scurf and grey moss. The head end we deemed
was the one which is turned to the rock and is not covered in,
and evidently has been open from the beginning. Here the floor
is overgrown with moss, grass, thyme, ferns, crow-foot, and
lady's-mantle. In all likelihood the inmate has closed that part of
the room in with hides, when needful. On sitting up, all who went to
and fro on the road below, must have been within view; not only those
who came from the north of Foxplain (Melrakkaslètta) and Nupa-sveit,
but also far toward the north he had a view even unto the open sea,
nay, even unto Budlunga-haven. Looking southwards, he must have seen
all who came up from the outer firth; for from the lair there is a
clear view even unto Burn-river, past which the high-road goes. A
popular tradition says, too, that all who must needs pass this way,
when Grettir was in the Peak, had taken at last to going over the
top of the Peak, where there was no road, but the sheep-wilds of the
Axefirthers. The lair-bider, even if he was set on by an overwhelming
force, was not easily won, and least of all a man of such prowess as
Grettir, except by shot; for he might at a moment's notice take his
stand in the rock above his head, where one side only gives the chance
of an onset, and where there is an ample supply of loose stones, large
and small, on the Peak side of the rock to defend oneself; on three
sides sheer rocks hem in the position, and those overhead are many
times the height of a man's.'
P. 208. Knave-game. Perhaps the truer rendering would have been
'nut-game,' if indeed 'hnet tafl' here stands not for 'hnef-tafl,'
as we at first supposed. It is undoubtedly true that among the early
games of Iceland the 'hettafl,' 'hnottafl,' was a distinct kind of
game, as was also the 'hneftafl,' 'hnefatafl,' knave-game. If we
follow the text as it stands, the game that Thorbiorn played is
supposed to have borne some resemblance to what is now called in
Iceland 'refskák,' fox-play, anglice 'fox and geese,' the aim of
which is, by twelve pieces, called lambs, to bring the fox into such a
position as to leave him no place to move, whichso way he turns.
P. 240. Pied-belly we call the Ram, although the saga seems to mean
that he was called Autumn-belly, which is a name of little, if of
any, sense at all. We suppose that <i>haus-mögóttr</i>, p. 169, and
<i>haust-magi</i>, p. 184, is one and the same thing, the <i>t</i>
having spuriously crept into the text from a scribe's inadvertence.
P. 243 (cpr. 207, 225, 272). 'In such wise Grettir lost his life, &c.'
The hardest thing to account for, or to bring to an intelligible issue
in Grettir's saga, is the incongruity between the statements as to his
age at his death and the number of years of his outlawry, as compared
with the truthful account of the events told in the saga itself. From
the time when Grettir slew his first man, all the events of the
saga may be traced clearly year for year up to his death, and their
truthfulness is borne out whensoever they chance to run parallel to
events mentioned in other trustworthy sagas, and they fall in with the
right time nearly without an exception. But the statement on the page
referred to above, that he was fourteen years old when he slew Skeggi,
that he was twenty when he dealt with Glam; twenty-five when he fell
into outlawry, and forty-four when he was slain, is utterly confuted
by the chronology of the saga itself.
These numbers given above are obviously made to fall in with the story
in page 225 about the talk of the time of his outlawry at the Thing.
The question is stated to have been this: whether he had been a
fraction of the twentieth year an outlaw, his friends hoping that in
such case a part might count <i>pro toto</i>. But the truth of the
matter was that he had neither been an outlaw for a fraction of the
twentieth year, nor even for anything like nineteen years. He was
outlawed at the Thing held in 1016, his year of outlawry dated from
Thing to Thing; this talk befell in 1031, consequently he had been
full fifteen years and no fraction of a year in outlawry. The story,
therefore, of the twenty years, or nineteen years and a fraction, of
outlawry falls utterly to the ground when brought to the test of the
actual facts as recorded in the saga.
But, despite of this, it is not to be supposed that this episode at
the Thing in 1031 is brought in at random and without any cause. There
are two obvious reasons for assigning twenty years to the length of
Grettir's outlawry, and for bringing into the tale a discussion on
that subject just where it is done. The one we may call the reason of
traditional belief, the other the reason of dramatic effect. Grettir
was indisputably for all reasons the greatest of Icelandic outlaws,
and the fond imagination of his biographers at all times urged them
to give the longest endurance to the time of his outlawry above all
outlaws, without inquiring closely as to whether it agreed with
the saga itself or not. The other, or the dramatic motive, lies
in bringing in the discussion on this long outlawry just at this
particular Thing of 1031; for it was obviously the teller's object to
suggest to the reader the hope of the great outlaw's legal restoration
to the cherished society of man just before the falling of the
crushing blow, in order to give an enhanced tragic interest to his
end, and he undoubtedly succeeds in doing this. To these reasons,
besides others less obvious, we imagine this main inconsistency in
Grettir's saga is to be ascribed.
Nevertheless, it is worth observing that blunders of scribes may have
in a measure been at work here. If we are not mistaken most of the
existing MSS. of our saga state that when he fell (p. 243) 'he was one
winter short of--<i>var hánum vetri fátt á</i>'--whatever number
of years they give as his age. And we venture the suggestion
that originally the passage ran thus: var hánum vetri fátt á hálf
iv{tugum},[21] <i>i.e.</i>, he lacked one winter of thirty-five years,
when he was slain. If a subsequent scribe committed the easy blunder
of dropping I before V, the reading of our original (Edition, 53)
would be the natural result, and an offspring of that same blunder
would also as easily be the other reading, common to one class of the
Grettir MSS.: var hánum vetri fátt í v{tugum} or í hinum v. tug, by
dropping the syllable 'hálf.'
[Footnote 21: A man of twenty, thirty, forty, &c., is in the Icelandic
expressed by the adjective <i>tvítugr, prítugr, fertugr</i>; a man
twenty-five, thirty-five, &c., is <i>hálf-prítugr, hálf-fertugr</i>,
&c.; the units beyond the tens are expressed by the particle
<i>um</i>, a man of twenty-one, thirty-seven, or forty-nine, is said
to have <i>einn</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, vetr. winter) um = beyond, tvítugt,
sjö um þrítugt, níu um fertugt, &c.]
If the whole passage on page 243, beginning with the words quoted in
the commencement of this note, be not indeed a later interpolation, we
believe that all that follows the words, 'till the time when he dealt
with Glam, the Thrall,' must, indeed, be taken as an interpolation of
later commentators.
Our suggestion recommends itself in this at least, that it brings
about full harmony between the statements, here treated of, and the
saga itself, for when Grettir left the land in 1011 he was fourteen
years of age, and twenty years later, or 1031, he fell. How far his
age thus given agrees or not with the decrepitude of his father, who
died in 1015, having been apparently already a bedridden man for some
time, is a matter of itself, and need not affect the accuracy of our
suggestion, which, however, we only put forth as a conjecture, not
having within reach the MSS. of Grettir's saga. A critical examination
of these might, perhaps, allow of a more positive discourse on
this vexed point, which to all commentators on Grettir has hitherto
remained an insoluble riddle.
P. 251, 1. 12. The original makes Asdis daughter of Skeggi the
Short-handed. This is here corrected agreeably to Landnáma, and other
records of her family.