Why Was Grette The Strong, Icelandic Poet And Warrior Afraid Of Darkness?

A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Grettir’s saga is considered one of the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur) written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This literary work of the unknown author is believed to include stories of events that supposedly took place between the ninth and the eleventh centuries in Iceland.

Monument of Grettir the strong in Bjarg, Miðfjörður. Image credit: Eysteinn Guðni Guðnason – CC BY-SA 2.5 DEED

Once, a long time ago, there was a poet and a warrior. His name was Grette the Strong (Grettir Ásmundarson, an Icelandic outlaw). His superpower was widely known even among the strongest berserkers.

These were times of change in Iceland. The Vikings and, among them also, Grette had begun to be Christianized and decided to build a church. Everybody in Iceland knew that one among them did not want to accept the Christian faith was the sheepherder, Glåm. He was a big-grown, sloppy male widely known as a wife oppressor and a troublemaker. The man was proud of his pagan faith and mocked his neighbors, who had gone over to the “white Christ.”

Strange things happen all the time, so it’s a life.

Then, one day, Glåm never came home from herding the sheep. His worried wife sent away some of the neighbors to search for him. They found Glåm ᴅᴇᴀᴅ on the side of a mountain, torn to pieces by some unnatural force. Their only explanation that such a thing could happen was punishment.

“Yes, yes,” people said. “There, he paid the price for his pagan faith.”

Moreover, they also noted that there was something strange about the body of Glåm. No matter how people tried to free the body, it didn’t work. Finally, a monk arrived to pray for the deceased Glåm and two strong oxen to transport him to the resting place. Not even this was possible, and these powers did not help to move the body.

There was nothing else to do. Finally, a monk arrived to pray for the deceased Glåm and two strong oxen to transport him to the resting place. Not even this was possible, and these powers did not help to move the body. There was nothing else to do.

After Glåm died, he started going around at night and riding on people’s rooftops until they collapsed. Now, everybody knew that he become a “draug“, a living corpse possessed by some evil spirit, and no one could protect himself. But at the same time, the village residents didn’t want to move either.

In a council, the village’s peasants decided to summon the great Hero Grette. Naturally, the man was attracted by the idea of encountering such an opponent; he felt deeply honored.

He decided to spend the night in the only possible house with the rooftop still spared.

From the 17th century – Icelandic manuscript AM 426 fol., now in the care of the Árni Magnússon Insтιтute in Iceland. Unknown author – Public Domain

It was also decided that if draugen came running at night, Grette would try to leave the place quickly. At first, the evening was peaceful; later, it darkened, the wind increased in strength, and a hollow terrifying howl was heard over the hills. Suddenly, the roof arched over Grette’s head, but he remained in bed, waiting. The house began to sway from time to time as if a hurricane snatched it, and in the end, Glåm himself came crashing through the roof, and suddenly caught sight of Grette.

Grette – Glåm Wrestling Over The Hills

There was an extended tug-of-war between the two opponents until Glåm fell to the floor. Then Grette rushed at him, and they began a powerful wrestling. Glåm was undoubtedly no easy opponent, and soon, he had started to break Grette’s embrace.

Then, the powerful Icelander threw the corpse behind him straight into the bearing of the house plank, and the whole building collapsed.

But the combatants did not seem to take any notice of what happened, and the fight continued over the hills and down to the cliffs of the sea. The wrestling appeared to be no end. Suddenly, the clouds drifted away, the full moon lit up with its pale glow, and at this moment, Grette looked in his opponents’ eyes fixed on Glåm’s face. For the first time, Grette saw Glåm’s bizarre look.

“Night and day you will have my eyes before you,” the draugen pronounced a death curse on Grette.

Suddenly, the paralysis of the hero Grette broke, and he drew his scissor sword and swept off Glåm’s head. Then, he grabbed this and pushed it up so far in Glåm’s ᴀss that it could not be pulled out.

The incident was highly embarrᴀssing to the terrible draugen Glåm that he never again appeared in the neighborhood. No one heard from him again.

What was Glåm’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅly curse about? Glåm hurled a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly curse at Grette, who always saw the opponent’s hideous eyes before him, and he remembered his words: “You will have my eyes in front of you night and day”?

Grette was afraid of the darkness from that day and “dared not be alone as soon as dusk fell.” ¹

The hero still had many adventures, but these made him an outlaw, constantly deeply troubled by the powers of witchcraft. Glåm’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅly curse always haunted the hero and never lost its power.

Written by – A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

Expand for references

References: