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needed to turn a person into a monster than a sentence of full outlawry
alone, it does seem to provide a trigger that then leads a character to be-
come a monster in the eyes of society. After all, if Grettir or Hörðr had
never been outlawed, they would not have had to turn to raiding and thus
would not have become as socially disruptive as they turn out to be in their
position as outsiders. Such triggers can be found in other types of social
monsters as well: death is what turns a troublemaker into a monstrous un-
dead creature; a certain innate pattern of behaviour, something in one’s eðli
[nature],51 is what it takes for a man to go berserk; and it requires a specific
kind of knowledge to allow a man or woman the use of harmful magic.
All of these triggers involve a boundary-crossing, a transgression of the
norms and laws of nature and society that leads to the character becoming
hybrid.52 outlaws, too, exhibit transgressive traits: they overstep a societal
boundary when they commit the crime that causes them to be sentenced to
outlawry. these crimes are perceived as so grave and disruptive that they
warrant a person’s exclusion from society.53 The status as an outsider, as
someone who constantly walks on the edge of society but is isolated from
it, then facilitates the second boundary-crossing that leads these characters
partially out of the world of ordinary human experience. this can be seen
in Grettir’s association with trolls (of the mountain-dwelling variety), as
well as in Gísli’s haunting dreams that gain more and more control over his
waking life as his outlawry progresses. Hörðr – who founds his own paral-
lel society – presents a slightly different case since he does not experience
the same amount of isolation as Grettir and Gísli. It is possible, however,
to argue that the magic used to eventually bring him down, and the herfjö-
51 this ascription of berserkism to something that lies in a person’s eðli is found in berserkr
descriptions both in Eyrbyggja saga (eds. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson), 67,
and Vatnsdæla saga (ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson), 97.
52 according to Yasmine Musharbash, “Introduction: Monsters, anthropology, and Monster
Studies,” Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond, eds. Yasmine Musharbash and
Geir Henning Presterudstuen (new York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 9, in a culture that
distinguishes between humans and animals, monsters can be either a mix of those two cat-
egories, or can transcend either, or can be less than either. Berserkir, in their animalistic be-
haviour, are an ontologically mixed category, while revenants can be argued to be sub human
while also being hybrid in their undeath, and magic-users potentially transcend human
limitations because of the superhuman power they have due to their magical knowledge.
53 that the legally prescribed exclusion from society does not reflect the practice as described
in the literary sources has been argued by frederic amory, “the Medieval Icelandic out-
law,” and further discussed by Eleanor Barraclough, “Inside outlawry,” esp. 366–68.