Gripla - 20.12.2017, Síða 118

GRIPLA118
Þorsteinn in Constantinople. although Illugi lacks his brother’s ambigu-
ous depiction and never attains monstrous status, his brother’s disruptive
influence is clear: it is because of Grettir alone that Illugi dies. Grettir thus
ultimately causes the deaths of both of his brothers,70 showing the destruc-
tive influence he has on those closest to him.
this observation is also applicable to Hörðr and his sworn brothers.
Both Hörðr and Helgi are declared outlaws for their crimes, but Geirr,
who did not take part in them, joins them voluntarily. However, he be-
comes fully involved with the actions of the Hólmverjar when he suggests
burning Hörðr’s kinsmen to death. through his actions, he is embedded
into the monstrous fabric of the Hólmverjar. Together, these men build
themselves a life on the island that comes to bear Geirr’s name. Moreover,
by taking their families and households with them into outlawry and to
Geirshólmr – thus physically separating them from society – Hörðr and
his brothers arguably contaminate them with the monstrosity that infected
them during their encounter with Sóti and which, I would argue, leads
Hörðr to act violently when he kills auðr. thus, the Hólmverjar come to
resemble a group of revenants: in their continually growing numbers, the
way they draw in troublemakers and criminals and the establishment of a
parallel society they are reminiscent of the fróðá hauntings,71 betraying the
contagious nature of their monstrous presence.
So far, the focus has been on Grettir and Hörðr exclusively, and Gísli
has largely been excluded from the discussion. Indeed, the question arises
how, or indeed, if he fits on the scale of monstrosity that is inhabited by
other major outlaws. McLennan notes that Gísli “is the least monstrous
of the major outlaws”,72 and while he also states that he shows some “am-
biguities during his outlawry”,73 he devotes much less space to him than he
does to Grettir or Hörðr, concluding that, even in his last stand, Gísli is
“not a monster”.74 Similarly, Eleanor Barraclough admits in her investiga-
tion of the role of the landscape in the outlaw sagas that “Gísli’s experience
of outlawry is embedded more consistently in the social landscape, but
70 atli is killed earlier in the saga because he gets mixed up in a feud Grettir started; Grettis
saga, 123–27 and 138–146.
71 Eyrbyggja saga, chs. 50–55.
72 McLennan, “Monstrosity,” 138.
73 Ibid., 139.
74 Ibid., 139.