Gripla - 20.12.2017, Page 104

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would exceed the scope of this article, and these sagas therefore have to be
excluded.3 Due to the nature of my approach, I will read the sagas “against
their narrative voices”, as Ármann Jakobsson termed it.4 In their sagas, the
three major outlaws are heroes, but in the present context, it is impossible
to consider the complex entanglement of heroism and monstrosity, and
the way in which different voices – both intra- and extratextual – assess
them. the focus is on the outlaws’ disruptiveness and their potential to
monstrosity in order to explore the role that stories about outlaws played
in medieval Icelandic culture and society, and I recognise the limitations
of this approach.5
Monster Theory Recontextualised
one of the features orchard noted as shared by all heroes of the type he
investigated is their problematic relationship with their fathers.6 However,
this is only part of the outlaw sagas’ depiction of their protagonists and
their relationships with the members of their families. the outlaw sagas
3 this article was originally presented at the Miðaldastofa Lecture Series, university of
Iceland, in March 2015. My thanks go to all the members of the audience for their com-
ments, and particularly to Dr Haraldur Bernharðsson, Prof. torfi tulinius, Kolfinna
Jónatansdóttir and anna-Katharina Heiniger. I also want to thank Dr Emily Lethbridge
for her helpful comments during the development of the article.
4 Personal communication.
5 this also means that other aspects of and approaches to outlawry, such as the socio-legal
one highlighted by e.g. amory (frederic amory, “the Medieval Icelandic outlaw: Life-
style, Saga, and Legend,” From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland,
ed. Gísli Pálsson (Enfield Lock: Hisarlik, 1992), 189–203) and currently employed in
Marion Poilvez’ doctoral research, has to be excluded from the discussion. Similarly, the
importance of Christian ideology in medieval Icelandic culture, and the effect this would
have had on the depiction of characters like Grettir (especially in his fight with Glámr), can-
not be discussed at this point. this has, however, been explored by scholars such as torfi
tulinius (“framliðnir feður: um forneskju og frásagnarlist í Eyrbyggju, Eglu og Grettlu,”
Heiðin minni: Greinar um fornar bókmenntir, eds. Haraldur Bessason and Baldur Hafstað
(reykjavík: Heimskringla, 1999), 283–316), Hermann Pálsson (“um Glám í Grettlu:
Drög að íslenskri draugafræði,” The International Saga Society Newsletter, 6 (1992): 1–8)
and Bernadine McCreesh (“Grettir and Glámr: Sinful Man Versus the fiend,” Revue de
l’Université d’Ottawa, 51 (1981): 180–88). for a recent and detailed overview of approaches
to and scholarship on outlaws, see Joonas ahola’s doctoral thesis, “outlawry in the Icelandic
family Sagas” (university of Helsinki, 2014).
6 orchard, “Hereward and Grettir,” 29–32.