The Haunting of Grettir or What We Can Learn From The Icelandic Sagas
Location
Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
29-9-2022 11:00 AM
Description
“You will be made an outlaw, forced always to live in the wilds and to live alone. And further, I lay this curse upon you: these eyes will always be within your sight, and you will find it difficult to be alone.” So says Glam, the revenant in Iceland’s most famous ghost story before Iceland’s most famous outlaw, Grettir, cuts off his head. For many years, I have pondered the question of why the people of what Jesse Byock terms Iceland’s “proto-democratic” Free State, which lasted for roughly 300 years from@930 until 1264, of their own accord gave up their freedom to be ruled by the King Hakon of Norway, a ruler “more interested in furthering his own ambitions than advancing the aims of the Icelanders” (Byock). The question seems all the more pressing for those of us living in a democracy that has yet to reach the same milestone, yet seems more in danger now than at any time since the Civil War of giving up our own democratic system. In this presentation, I will explore what can happen when an independent people forgets the fundamental importance of cross-communal bonds by connecting our own current situation (and its cultural origins) to the situation of medieval Iceland. Those ancestors only survived and thrived when they worked and governed themselves together in a communal context, knowing what Grettir learns to his cost: he “cannot stand to be alone, not even to save [his] life.”
Recommended Citation
Monteverde, Maggie, "The Haunting of Grettir or What We Can Learn From The Icelandic Sagas" (2022). Humanities Symposium. 22.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2022/2022/22
The Haunting of Grettir or What We Can Learn From The Icelandic Sagas
Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094
“You will be made an outlaw, forced always to live in the wilds and to live alone. And further, I lay this curse upon you: these eyes will always be within your sight, and you will find it difficult to be alone.” So says Glam, the revenant in Iceland’s most famous ghost story before Iceland’s most famous outlaw, Grettir, cuts off his head. For many years, I have pondered the question of why the people of what Jesse Byock terms Iceland’s “proto-democratic” Free State, which lasted for roughly 300 years from@930 until 1264, of their own accord gave up their freedom to be ruled by the King Hakon of Norway, a ruler “more interested in furthering his own ambitions than advancing the aims of the Icelanders” (Byock). The question seems all the more pressing for those of us living in a democracy that has yet to reach the same milestone, yet seems more in danger now than at any time since the Civil War of giving up our own democratic system. In this presentation, I will explore what can happen when an independent people forgets the fundamental importance of cross-communal bonds by connecting our own current situation (and its cultural origins) to the situation of medieval Iceland. Those ancestors only survived and thrived when they worked and governed themselves together in a communal context, knowing what Grettir learns to his cost: he “cannot stand to be alone, not even to save [his] life.”
Comments
The Theme of September 29 is "Embracing Hope and Inclusion"
Convocation Credit: Cultural Well-Being