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51-518: Grettis saga is considered one of the Sagas of Icelanders ( Íslendingasögur ), which were written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and record stories of events that supposedly took place between the ninth and the eleventh centuries in Iceland . The earliest manuscript of Grettis saga was written down some time just before 1400 AD, and the saga is thought to have been composed in its current form in

102-514: A viking /raider. In chapter two, Önundur lost his leg below the knee and became Önundur Tree-foot, while fighting from a ship against the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair at the Battle of Hafrsfjord . King Harald won the battle and united Norway into one kingdom. In chapter 3, those who fought King Harald fled Norway for Britain and Ireland. At one point, Önundur Tree-leg fought a battle against Kjarval, who

153-538: A death sentence in practice. The concept is known from Roman law , as the status of homo sacer , and persisted throughout the Middle Ages . A secondary meaning of outlaw is a person systematically avoiding capture by evasion and violence. These meanings are related and overlapping but not necessarily identical. A fugitive who is declared outside protection of law in one jurisdiction but who receives asylum and lives openly and obedient to local laws in another jurisdiction

204-413: A farmer named Thorhall is losing shepherds, as his pasture is haunted by a wight . On the advice of a local elder named Skapti, Thorhall hires a Swedish shepherd named Glámr, hoping that the shepherd's extraordinary strength and size will allow him to defy the wight. At first, Glámr is successful, but after refusing to fast on Yule -tide, he is found dead in the snow, having driven the evil creature away at

255-404: A judgment of (criminal) outlawry was one of the harshest penalties in the legal system since the outlaw could not use the legal system for protection, e.g., from mob justice . To be declared an outlaw was to suffer a form of civil or social death. The outlaw was debarred from all civilized society. No one was allowed to give him food, shelter, or any other sort of support—to do so was to commit

306-596: A love of Norse mythology while at school at Marlborough College . In it, the ghost of Grettir speaks with two men, Craven and Ryan, who have been 'hounded' from a decadent and war-threatened Europe 'whose voice calls in the sirens of destroyers'. He urges them to recover their underlying human values, and to assert, as he has, 'the sanctity of the individual will'. He tells them to return home as an act of duty, which he calls - remembering his own defiant choice to be an outlaw - 'Your hazard, your act of defiance and hymn of hate, hatred of hatred, assertion of human values' and (in

357-433: A man could not spend more than 20 years as an outlaw according to the law (in fact, there was no such law in medieval Iceland). In chapter 77, after a debate at the assembly, it is decided that the outlawry will be lifted when he has completed the 20 years but not before. His enemies make one last effort, using sorcery to cause him to wound himself and finally defeat him, atop the cliff-sided, lonely, fortress-like Drangey off

408-472: A monster-slaying hero of old results in him becoming an outlaw . Christianity became the religion in Iceland around 1000 CE, and some scholars believe this changing morality explains why Grettir's fate is different than his pagan great-grandfather's before conversion and his pious, Christian half-brother's fate after conversion. Originally, the ill-tempered Grettir experienced some success, but his life takes

459-406: A person declared as outside the protection of the law . In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system. In early Germanic law , the death penalty is conspicuously absent, and outlawing is the most extreme punishment, presumably amounting to

510-507: A subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic sagas . They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early eleventh centuries, during the so-called Saga Age . They were written in Old Icelandic , a western dialect of Old Norse . They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature . They are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history. They reflect

561-427: A thief was expected to declare the fact without delay; otherwise, the dead man's kindred might clear his name by their oath and require the slayer to pay weregild as for a true man. By the rules of common law, a criminal outlaw did not need to be guilty of the crime for which he was an outlaw. If a man was accused of treason or felony but failed to appear in court to defend himself, he was deemed convicted. If he

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612-513: A turn for the worse after he encounters the undead shepherd Glámr in chapter 35. As a result of Glámr's curse, Grettir becomes disastrously unlucky, only grows weaker/never stronger, becomes afraid of the dark, and is doomed to loneliness, becoming an outlaw , and an early death. While in Norway in chapter 38, Grettir accidentally sets fire to a hut, killing its occupants. In chapter 46, the Althing back in

663-420: Is an outlaw because of the deaths the fire caused. Grettir returns home to Iceland the following chapter, 47, to learn this information for the first time. This outlaw status forces Grettir to live on the edge of society and opens him up to being hunted by others and being betrayed by other outlaws. Grettir lives in various places running from enemies and slaying more monsters. In Chapter 69 he returns home to

714-407: Is an outlaw in the first meaning but not the second (one example being William John Bankes ). A fugitive who remains formally entitled to a form of trial if captured alive but avoids capture because of the high risk of conviction and severe punishment if tried is an outlaw in the second sense but not the first ( Sándor Rózsa was tried and sentenced merely to a term of imprisonment when captured). In

765-462: Is believed by some scholars to have been written by Snorri Sturluson , a descendant of the saga's hero, but this remains uncertain. The standard modern edition of Icelandic sagas is produced by Hið íslenzka fornritafélag ('The Old Icelandic Text Society'), or Íslenzk fornrit for short. Among the several literary reviews of the sagas is the Sagalitteraturen by Sigurður Nordal , which divides

816-427: Is named Grettir in Iceland, because he is rufous, a little broad and unwilling to conform to society's norms. A memorial was erected to his mother Ásdís at Bjarg in 1974. The memorial displays a relief from Grettis saga made by Icelandic artist Halldór Pétursson . Grettir is celebrated in the long poem Eclogue from Iceland in the 1938 collection The Earth Compels by Irish poet Louis MacNeice , who had developed

867-468: Is stated the Grettir's father did not care for him much but that his mother loved him a lot. It is also revealed that Grettir grew strong and that he has a fondness for poetry. In chapter 16, Grettir receives his first sentence for outlawry . While still very young, Grettir kills a person because he thinks they have taken his food bag. Despite attempts to pay compensation to the family similar to weregild , he

918-421: Is temporarily banished from Iceland and sentenced to lesser-outlawry for three years. He asks his father for a sword before he leaves, which his father refuses, but his mother Asdis gives him a family heirloom sword from her family line in chapter 17. He then leaves for Norway for the first time. In chapter 18, Grettir fights his first creature, a reanimated undead or draugr of the man named Kárr inn gamli (Kar

969-403: Is told from beginning to end. Chapter 14 describes Grettir's immediate family. Ásmundar Grey-hair and his wife Asdis have two boys: (1) the eldest brother, Atli, is quiet and gentle, and (2) Grettir, is rebellious, bad-tempered, and mischievous. He is described as red haired, somewhat freckled, and broad around the eyes. They also have two daughters: (3) Thordis and (4) Rannveig. In this chapter, it

1020-632: The Battle of Hafrsfjord against the first king of Norway Harald Fairhair . Chapters 14-85 primarily focus on the life, condemnation, and death of Grettir. Chapters 86-93 focus on Grettir's half-brother Thorstein Dromund's journey to the court of Constantinople to take revenge and, incidentally, find courtly love before spending the latter portion of his life in a monastic cell in Rome . Both Grettir's viking /raider great-grandfather and his chivalry -practicing half-brother succeed whereas Grettir's quest to become

1071-552: The Germanic peoples that appear independently in other texts like the Old English Beowulf . The saga can be split into three major sections: Chapters 1-13, Chapters 14-85, and Chapters 86-93. The first and last sections of the saga focus on Grettir's family rather than on Grettir. Chapters 1-13 primarily focus on how Grettir's viking great-grandfather Onundur Tree-foot escaped Norway to settle in Iceland after fighting in

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1122-726: The Icelandic Commonwealth votes that Grettir is an outlaw because of the deaths this fire caused. This outlaw status forces Grettir to live on the edge of society and opens him up to being hunted by others. He is repeatedly betrayed by other outlaws and, after living 19 years as an outlaw, he will die a hunted man on the lonely island of Drangey in chapter 82. In chapter 77, it is stated that Grettir would have ceased being an outlaw after 20 years. Chapters 1–13 take place before Grettir's birth and focus on his father, Ásmundar, his grandfather, Thorgrim Grey-head, and his great-grandfather Önundur. Grettir's great-grandfather Önundur had been

1173-552: The State Opening of Parliament ), romanticised outlaws became stock characters in several fictional settings. This was particularly so in the United States, where outlaws were popular subjects of 19th-century newspaper coverage and stories and 20th-century fiction and Western movies . Thus, "outlaw" is still commonly used to mean those violating the law or, by extension, those living that lifestyle, whether actual criminals evading

1224-414: The common law of England , a "writ of outlawry" made the pronouncement Caput lupinum ("[Let his be] a wolf's head"), equating that person with a wolf in the eyes of the law. Not only was the subject deprived of all legal rights, being outside the "law", but others could kill him on sight as if he were a wolf or other wild animal. Women were declared "waived" rather than outlawed, but it was effectively

1275-756: The "indiscriminate sexuality" of its protagonist with both men and women, and even animals, expressed in direct, non-euphemistic language. Grettis saga inspired a number of Icelandic rímur : 15th century: Grettis rímur (8 rímur, anonymous, attested in Kollsbók ) 1656: Grettis rímur (14 rímur , Jón Guðmundsson í Rauðseyjum) 1658: Grettis rímur (20 rímur , Kolbeinn Grímsson) 17th century: Grettis rímur (lost, Jón Guðmundsson í Hellu) 1828: Grettis rímur (44 rímur , Magnús Jónsson í Magnússkógum) 1889: Ríma um síðasta fund Grettis Ásmundssonar og móður hans, Ásdísar á Bjargi (1 ríma , Oddur Jónsson) 1930: Gláms rímur (6 rímur and epilogue, Sigfús Sigfússon ) Garfield

1326-519: The Cartagena fleet to be " piratic ", which allowed any nation to prey on it. Taking the opposite road, some outlaws became political leaders, such as Ethiopia 's Kassa Hailu who became Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia . Though the judgment of outlawry is now obsolete (even though it inspired the pro forma Outlawries Bill which is still to this day introduced in the British House of Commons during

1377-581: The Norse served as Varangians . While in Constantinople, he falls in love with a married woman named Spes, who helps him. After Thorsteinn Dromund completes his mission the two of them decide to spend the rest of their lives in monastic cells in Rome . Grettir Ásmundarson was reported to have been from Bjarg in Miðfjörður . At Bjarg, Grettir Ásmundarson always had refuge with his mother Ásdís. Many place names in

1428-820: The Old). Kárr was there guarding treasure in his own funeral mound/ tumulus from looters. Grettir triumphs using the sword Jökulsnautr (‘Jokul's Gift’, presumably passed down from his maternal great-grandfather Jökull Ingimundarson, son of Ingimundr Þorsteinsson who figure in the Vatnsdæla saga ). Treasures are taken from the mound after Grettir's triumph, including an heirloom sword, presumably Kársnautr (‘Karr's-loom’). He has other successful adventures in Norway as well, killing bears and berserkers . He then has to flee Norway to go back to Iceland after he kills people for an insult in chapters 23 and 24. Grettir comes back to Iceland. In Chapters 32-33

1479-679: The Queen's subjects, "whether a constable or not", and without "being accountable for using of any deadly weapon in aid of such apprehension." Similar provisions were passed in Victoria and Queensland . Although the provisions of the New South Wales Felons Apprehension Act were not exercised after the end of the bushranging era, they remained on the statute book until 1976. There have been several instances in military and political conflicts throughout history whereby one side declares

1530-1012: The ancient Norse and Icelandic legal code . In early modern times, the term Vogelfrei and its cognates came to be used in Germany, the Low Countries , and Scandinavia , referring to a person stripped of his civil rights being "free" for the taking like a bird. In Germany and Slavic countries during the 15th to 19th centuries, groups of outlaws were composed of former prisoners, soldiers, etc. Hence, they became an important social phenomenon. They lived off of robbery, and local inhabitants from lower classes often supported their activity. The best known are Juraj Jánošík and Jakub Surovec in Slovakia, Oleksa Dovbush in Ukraine, Rózsa Sándor in Hungary, Schinderhannes and Hans Kohlhase in Germany. The concept of outlawry

1581-515: The cost of his own life. The villagers attempt to move Glámr to the church for burial but are unable to, and he is buried where he lies. Not long after, Glámr himself rises as a revenant and begins haunting the area. In Chapter 35, Grettir fights and destroys Glámr, but the revenant uses his last breath to lay a curse on him. Glámr's curse is what leads Grettir in a different direction. As a result of Glámr's curse, Grettir becomes disastrously unlucky, only grows weaker/never stronger, becomes afraid of

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1632-424: The crime of aiding and abetting , and to be in danger of the ban oneself. A more recent concept of " wanted dead or alive " is similar but implies that a trial is desired (namely if the wanted person is returned alive), whereas outlawry precludes a trial. An outlaw might be killed with impunity, and it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill a thief fleeing from justice—to do so was not murder . A man who slew

1683-411: The dark, and is doomed to loneliness, becoming an outlaw , and an early death. While in Norway for the second time in chapter 38, Grettir will accidentally kill a hut full of people by unintentionally lighting it on fire. His older brother, Atli at the family farm will get killed by a man named Thorbjorn in chapter 45. In chapter 46, the Althing back in the Icelandic Commonwealth votes that Grettir

1734-589: The farm at Bjarg and sees his mother. She sends him off with his 15 year old brother Illugi and they head off to spend the rest of the saga on the island of Drangey off the northern tip of Iceland. Part of the reason for this if that the island has steep cliffs and can only be climbed up on with the help of a ladder than can be withdrawn. Grettir eventually becomes the longest-surviving outlaw in Icelandic history. After spending over 19 years as an outlaw, his friends and family ask for his banishment to be lifted, arguing that

1785-407: The fourteenth century, making it a relatively late addition to the genre. The author is unknown but it is believed that the saga may have been based on a previous account of Grettir's life written by Sturla Þórðarson . Whoever the author was, the author shows an awareness of the Sagas of Icelanders tradition by making references to other sagas and borrowing themes from the larger cultural milieu of

1836-407: The neighbourhood of Bjarg and indeed throughout the county bear the name of the outlaw e.g. Grettishaf, Grettistak and Grettishöfði at Arnarvatn. The late fifteenth-century manuscript Eggertsbók contains the sole surviving text of Grettisfærsla , a poem concerning a character called Grettir which is mentioned in chapter 52 of Grettis saga . The poem is notable for its thematic focus on sex and

1887-483: The northern tip of Iceland where he was staying with another brother of his named Illugi, and his slave Glaumur. Grettir's enemies succeed in killing him in chapter 82. Assuming that the tales of the saga bear any relationship to historical realities, Grettir would have died 'some time between 1030 and 1040'. His half-brother, Thorsteinn Dromund, later avenges him in a semi-comic scene in Byzantium / Constantinople , where

1938-722: The other as being "illegal", notorious cases being the use of proscription in the civil wars of the Roman Republic . In later times there was the notable case of Napoleon Bonaparte whom the Congress of Vienna , on 13 March 1815, declared had "deprived himself of the protection of the law" . In modern times, the government of the First Spanish Republic , unable to reduce the Cantonal rebellion centered in Cartagena, Spain , declared

1989-798: The poem's final words') 'your only chance'. The Australian composer Percy Grainger described the Grettis Saga as the "strongest single artistic influence" in his life. The saga was adapted in 2017 as the basis for a novel set in Sheffield by Tony Williams . "Grettir’s last stand at Drangey" is mentioned in John K. Samson 's 2011 song "Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San". Sagas of Icelanders The sagas of Icelanders ( Icelandic : Íslendingasögur , modern Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈislɛndiŋkaˌsœːɣʏr̥] ), also known as family sagas , are

2040-700: The possibility of being declared an outlaw for derelictions of civil duty continued to exist in English law until the passing of the Civil Procedure Acts Repeal Act 1879 ( 42 & 43 Vict. c. 59) in 1879 and in Scots law until the late 1940s. Since then, failure to find the defendant and serve process is usually interpreted in favour of the plaintiff, and harsh penalties for mere nonappearance (merely presumed flight to escape justice) no longer apply. Outlawry also existed in other ancient legal codes, such as

2091-472: The sagas into five chronological groups (depending on when they were written not their subject matters) distinguished by the state of literary development: This framework has been severely criticised as based on a presupposed attitude to the fantastic and an over-estimation on the precedence of Landnámabók . It is thought that a number of sagas are now lost, including the supposed Gauks saga Trandilssonar – The saga of Gaukur á Stöng. In addition to these,

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2142-439: The same punishment. Among other forms of exile , Roman law included the penalty of aquae et ignis interdictio ("interdiction of water and fire"). Such people penalized were required to leave Roman territory and forfeit their property. If they returned, they were effectively outlaws; providing them the use of fire or water was illegal, and they could be killed at will without legal penalty. The interdiction of water and fire

2193-434: The sentence of capital punishment. It was, however, imposed on defendants who fled or evaded justice when sued for civil actions like debts or torts. The punishments for civil outlawry were harsh, including confiscation of chattels (movable property) left behind by the outlaw. In the civil context, outlawry became obsolete in civil procedure by reforms that no longer required summoned defendants to appear and plead. Still,

2244-498: The struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Icelandic settlers. The Icelandic sagas are valuable and unique historical sources about medieval Scandinavian societies and kingdoms, in particular regarding pre-Christian religion and culture and the heroic age. Eventually, many of these Icelandic sagas were recorded, mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries. The 'authors', or rather recorders, of these sagas are largely unknown. One saga, Egil's Saga ,

2295-401: The texts often referred to as the "Tales of Icelanders" ( Íslendingaþættir ) such as "Hreiðars þáttr" and "Sneglu-Halla þáttr" of the kings' saga Morkinskinna could be included in this corpus, as well as the contemporary sagas (written in the 13th century and dealing with the same period) incorporated into Sturlunga saga . Outlaw An outlaw , in its original and legal meaning, is

2346-416: Was a party who had defied the laws of the realm by such acts as ignoring a summons to court or fleeing instead of appearing to plead when charged with a crime . The earliest reference to outlawry in English legal texts appears in the 8th century. The term outlawry refers to the formal procedure of declaring someone an outlaw, i.e., putting him outside legal protection. In the common law of England ,

2397-455: Was abolished in 1938. Outlawry was, however, a living practice as of 1855: in 1841, William John Bankes , who had previously been an MP for several different constituencies between 1810 and 1835, was outlawed by due process of law for absenting himself from trial for homosexuality and died in 1855 in Venice as an outlaw. There was also a doctrine of civil outlawry. Civil outlawry did not carry

2448-407: Was accused of a misdemeanour , then he was guilty of a serious contempt of court which was itself a capital crime. In the context of criminal law , outlawry faded out, not so much by legal changes as by the greater population density of the country, which made it harder for wanted fugitives to evade capture, and by the adoption of international extradition pacts. It was obsolete when the offence

2499-502: Was king around Dublin . In chapter 7, Önundur tree-foot visits southern Norway to assist kin. In chapter 8, he leaves Norway and arrives in Iceland to settle for good in chapter 9. Önundur dies and is buried in tumulus in chapter 11, after which the saga's focus shifts to his son Thorgrim Grey-head and his son Ásmundar Grey-hair. Asmundar fathers Thorstein Dromund while visiting Norway in Chapter 13 and then returns to Iceland. Grettir's life

2550-482: Was reintroduced to British law by several Australian colonial governments in the late 19th century to deal with the menace of bushranging . The Felons Apprehension Act (1865 No 2a) of New South Wales provided that a judge could, upon proof of sufficiently notorious conduct, issue a special bench warrant requiring a person to submit themselves to police custody before a given date, or be declared an outlaw. An outlawed person could be apprehended "alive or dead" by any of

2601-635: Was traditionally imposed by the tribune of the plebs and is attested to have been in use during the First Punic War of the third century BC by Cato the Elder . It was later also applied by many other officials, such as the Senate , magistrates , and Julius Caesar as a general and provincial governor during the Gallic Wars . It fell out of use during the early Empire . In English common law , an outlaw

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