Gripla - 20.12.2017, Qupperneq 124

GRIPLA124
ástríki mikit af Ásmundi, fǫður sínum, en móðir hans unni honum mikit. […]
‘Nú muntu verða af þér at draga slenit, mannskræfan,’ segir [Ásmundr] […]
‘Aldri er dugr í þér’ [He did not have much love from his father Ásmundr,
but his mother loved him greatly. […] “now you will have to get rid of your
sloth, you miserable coward,” he said. […] “You are good for nothing”].94
this might be the reason why Grettir turns against his father’s animals as
well as against his father himself: as a boy, he is mostly unable to avenge
the insult on the offender and therefore takes it out on those below him
in the hierarchy, until he gets a chance at harming his father himself.95
thus, Grettir first turns against society in the context of paternal abuse,
killing and maiming his father’s farm animals – a severe crime in a society
that relies on animals for its survival. the pattern of Grettir’s negative
economic impact has been established, and it plays a major role in the rest
of the narrative.
another pattern established in his interaction with his father is Grettir’s
lack of control, his constant seeking for approval and recognition, and his
tendency to take everything personally, and these get him into trouble. His
encounter with auðunn at the games exemplifies this tendency: auðunn
throws a ball over Grettir’s head, and he varð reiðr við þetta, ok þótti Auðunn
vilja leika á sik [became angry at that and thought that auðunn wanted to
make fun of him].96 Insight into Grettir’s thought process reveals that he
takes auðunn’s move as an attempt at humiliating him. Because of his
father’s abuse, he is used to such humiliation and therefore more sensitive
to it than other people. this causes him to react violently because he has
never learned to regulate his emotional responses adequately. Later, Grettir
constantly searches for recognition and respect, and ultimately for a place
94 Grettis saga, 36–38.
95 Ármann Jakobsson, in “troublesome Children in the Sagas of Icelanders,” Saga-Book 27
(2003): 17 notes that “Grettir’s violence has no purpose: it is meaningless and uncalculated”,
only to state later in the same article that “psychological explanations for [Grettir’s] rebel-
liousness, such as the need to gain the attention of an indifferent father, are hinted at”,
21. I would argue that there is more than a hint at psychological explanations, especially
in Grettis saga, but also in the other outlaw sagas, when it comes to the effects of abuse
on the future criminals. See further rebecca Merkelbach, “Vera varð ek nǫkkur: fathers,
abuse and Monstrosity in the outlaw Sagas,” Bad Guys and Wicked Women: Villains and
Troublemakers in Old Norse Literature, eds. Daniela Hahn and andreas Schmidt (München:
utz Verlag, 2016), 59–93.
96 Grettis saga, 43.