"If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research." Wilson Mizner, 1876-1933, American Author (Please use appropriate citations)

A Comparative Study of Beowulf and Grettir's Saga

By Doré Ripley, ©2004

IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT, someone or something, is murdering the local townsfolk. As fate provides, a stranger marches into the local bar announcing his intention to kill the menacing outlaw. The fiend returns to the scene of his crimes, and, as predicted, the outsider fights and mortally wounds the brute, which limps off to a hidden lair. The hero and his comrade(s) track the wounded villain to an underwater cave and the ensuing fray results in the death of the criminal's sidekick. The stranger/hero explores the cave, discovering the carcass of the original fugitive, treasure and booty. Meanwhile, the stranger's posse thinks the hero is dead and abandons him. The hero's surprising return marks the end of his mission. Excluding the underwater cave, the plot line of Beowulf and Grettir's Saga is the premise for countless songs, sagas, epics, stories and movies (especially western and horror films). Likewise, Christianity contains the story of a redeemer rescuing mankind from evil. Although these two oral tales contain similar action sequences, differences can be found in the details and underlying moral tenor. Elemental distinctions include seasonal differences, the role of women, the actual fight scenes, the style of the combatants and their foes, how plunder is qualified, and what happens to the hero at the end of his mission. Even as the details differ, the dogmatic tonal shift can be discovered by looking at how the differing communities act in relation to what they say, and noting the variation of the characters' attitudes, from the older Beowulf's world of a pagan society working to integrate Christianity, to Grettir's Christian population, whose older heroic heathens are cast out.

Dating oral works propose myriad problems, especially when considering these are older stories that, at a particular moment during their evolution, have been written down. There is historical evidence that the Anglo Saxon Beowulf was composed, or more exactly transcribed, 900 years earlier than Grettir's Saga. According to Howell Chickering, Jr. there is only one piece of verifiable historical data in Beowulf, Hygelac's death in 521 during a raid on the Frisians (247). It is believed Grettir's Saga was "originally written in Icelandic, sometime in the early 14th century" (Killings 1). Beowulf's scop describes the fluctuation of oral composition by saying he, "found new words, bound them up truly, / began to recite Beowulf's praise / a well-made lay of glorious deed, / skillfully varied his matter and style" (871a-874b). The time gap between the two works can be narrowed to 400 years if one considers Beowulf's transcription point in the 10th century, and Grettir's Saga in the 14th century. Chickering asserts Grettir's Saga and Beowulf, "go back independently to a common original" (254), and are not evolutionary partners.

The plot outlined above illustrates the many close parallels of books 64 to 67 of Grettir's Saga and the first book of Beowulf. However, the underlying religious tenor shifts significantly from work to work. Grettir's Saga immediately identifies itself as a Christian tale through the introduction of a priest who, after becoming the stranger's sidekick, banishes the hero. Grettir's monster only appears at Yuletide, a time of Christian festivity formalized by attendance at mass. Grettir's monster reflects the same anti-celebratory mood as Beowulf's Grendel, who, instead of appearing on a holiday, arrives after the building of Heorot when, "the great monster in the outer darkness / suffered fierce pain, for each new day / he heard happy laughter loud in the hall" (86a-89b). Beowulf's Christian references are nebulous, mentioning heaven, hell and God, the King, or Lord along with mixed references to the biblical deluge and the race of giants. Of significant note, is what Beowulf doesn't mention; Noah and the ark, an integral part of the Genesis flood story, as well as Christ or any other New Testament tale or icon. In addition, Beowulf's ceremonies involve pre-Christian ideals of hospitality, not the Christian mass found in Grettir's Saga. Moreover, Beowulf contains heathens who, "prepared sacrifice in temples, / war-idol offerings, said old words aloud" (175b-176b). The runes found on Grendel's mother sword also reflect old words. Its hilt, part of Beowulf's booty, is described as an "old work of giants" (1679a), "from magic smithies" (1681a) which has engraved on it "the origin of past strife, when the flood drowned, / the pouring ocean killed the race of giants" (1689a-1690b). Genesis tells us the primordial past contained, "giants in the earth in those days" (Gen. 6:4), but the biblical story of the deluge (Gen. 7:10), destroyed malicious mankind (Gen. 6:5), not giants. The disparity, or seemingly deliberate ambiguousness, between Beowulf and the biblical inundation, as well as the race of giants, may indicate a willingness to blend Beowulf's older pagan roots with Christianity. Stories of floods and giants abound in religious doctrine.

From the cradle of civilization (2700 to 1000 BC), comes the tale of Gilgamesh, which presents a prehistoric deluge that, like the Bible, lasted "six days and seven nights" (XI 127). Around 700 BC, Hesiod offers an early account of primordial giants (Theogony 185), whereas Ovid's Metamorphoses, circa 5, mentions giants and a deluge where "everything is ocean, / An ocean with no shore line" (1.291-92). Farther north, the Icelandic Edda, written down between 1000-1300 AD, records the death of the giant Ymir, whose ice-water blood submerges the world (Isaak 6). The Germans were convinced a related series of events, beginning with a burning louse, led to the calling forth of spring water that drowned everything (Isaak 6). The Celts believed Heaven and Earth were giants whose children cut them up, and whose lifeblood drowned all mankind except a single male/female pair of humans (Isaak 7). The watery Welsh disaster mirrors the biblical deluge as Dwyfan and Dwyfach escape a flood, in a mastless ship, containing two of every living creature (Isaak 7). While stories of floods and giants may have older historical roots, the story of Cain and Abel is irrefutably biblical.

In Beowulf, Grendel and his mother are identified as descendants of the biblical brother- murdering, Cain (102b-107b; 1258b-1267a), a story found only in the Old Testament (Gen. 4:8 ff.). But are they true descendants of Cain? This reference can be construed as a mixed allusion of Anglo Saxon paganism and Christianity because Grendel appears to have existed before the Christian era, "unblessed, unhappy, / he dwelt for a time in the lair of the monsters / after the Creator had outlawed, condemned them / as kinsmen of Cain" (104b-107a). Hrothgar later recalls that, "two such things, / huge, vague borderers, walking the moors, / spirits from elsewhere" (1347b-1349a) inhabit his lands who, "know of no father / from the old time, before them" (1355b-1356a). It appears Grendel and his mother were adopted into the house of Cain since their birth took place in an older time, before Christianity found its way into Beowulf's society. Another seemingly Christian reference containing pagan overtones occurs during the opening scene of Beowulf as King Scyld's funeral barge is set upon the waves for his final journey. "Men cannot say, / wise men in hall nor warriors in the field, / not truly, who received that cargo" (50b-52b). Scyld's final destination vacillates between heaven and a pagan counterpart. On the other hand, even though pagan entities inhabit Grettir's community, there is no religious ambiguousness, as the icons of the old religion are systematically ignored, banished or destroyed.

The mistress of the hall in Grettir's Saga leaves her home "to spend Yule at Eyjardalsa" (1). Her husband and his men remain behind, and sometime during the night, the husband vanishes. The next year at Yule-time the mistress goes to mass, telling a servant to remain behind. When she returns, the servant has disappeared. This time, "people thought it very strange and found some drops of blood upon the outer door" (1). The hero, Grettir, hears of these disappearances, and since he is, "well accustomed to deal with ghosts and specters turned his steps" (1) to the mistress's house, appearing, seemingly, from out of nowhere. Grettir's arrival at Yule-eve in the dead of winter, contrasts with Beowulf's arrival during a time when ships can roam freely, and, "warriors made their horses rear, / let fine dark steeds go racing in contest / whenever the footing was straight and firm" (864a-866b). Good weather is essential to scouting, as Beowulf's warriors follow Grendel's mother whose "tracks / were plainly visible through the wood-paths, / her trail on the ground" (1403b-1404a). Heavy mud and snow would not be conducive to the footing needed by horses to rear and race, or for scouts to follow tracks. The coming of a stranger only differs in the season of their arrival. Their sudden entrance is also marked by their outward appearance. Beowulf has the strength of 30 men, and Grettir is described as a giant who scares all the servants. The physically powerful stranger/hero is essential to the continued existence of the community center whose leaders are feeble, the mistress being a member of the so-called, weaker sex, and King Hrothgar being too old to fight. Neither one has done anything to investigate the deadly phenomenon or attempted to rid themselves of the fiend in their hall(s). There is just a vague indifference towards ghosts and monsters.

Vengeance is never mentioned in Grettir's Saga. In Beowulf, revenge is the motivating factor for most human interaction. Feuds keep men fighting, and when that gets old or expensive, money and/or women are exchanged for peace. The pagan daughters of Beowulf are expected to act as dutiful wives, hostesses and advisors to their one-time enemy. This symbolizes a fundamental difference between Beowulf and Grettir's society; the distinction between the warrior and the peacemaker, pagan and Christian, man and woman. Beowulf's society is made up of soldiers, where women are bargained away as peace weavers. Beowulf's women may own property, but they don't own the hall they live in, as the mistress in Grettir's Saga. Grettir must deal with the mistress of the hall for hospitality, not Beowulf's king or queen. In addition, the importance of vendetta can be seen when viewing the actions of Beowulf's community, whose pagan warriors engage in combat and raids. At the same time, these soldiers talk "Christian" even though it's more of an Old Testament, eye for an eye sort of discussion, or the desire for God's favor in conflict.

While battling the monster Beowulf discovers in its underwater lair, God is present. "The warrior Geat might have perished then, / Ecgtheow's son, somewhere under the earth, / had not his war-shirt given good help, / hard ring-netting, and holy God / controlled the fight, the mighty Lord, / Ruler of skies, decided it rightly" (1550a-1555b). But is the "Ruler of skies" truly the Christian God, or some amorphous combination of pagan and Christian deities. God's adversaries on earth are the monsters Grendel and his mother, whose magic sword Beowulf presents to King Hrothgar as booty. Its "strange gold hilt was placed in the hand / of the gray-bearded king, wise war-leader, / old work of giants; after the fall of the devils / it came to the hands of the lord of the Dane-men, / from magic smithies; once the fierce spirit, long God's opponent, guilty creature, / and his murderous mother had quitted this world" (1676a-1683b). Even when distributing the spoils of combat, an older pagan magic has a hand God's righteousness. Hrothgar's sermon speaks of God's wonder, not in his miraculous works, but as a commentary on fate. "It is always a wonder how God the Almighty / in His full understanding, deals out to men / their wisdome of mind, their lands, nobility" (1725a-1728b). Further, the King's speech contains a parable of the king whose pride and avarice leads to God's anger. "Angry and covetous, he gives no rings / to honor his men. His future state / is forgotten, forsworn, and so is God's favor, / his portion of honor from Heaven's hall-ruler" (1749a-1752b). Pagan warriors receive their mainstay from the generosity of their war leaders and the king who is stingy commits a sin against the community. Christian peace is never mentioned. In other words, Beowulf's community acts like pagan warriors and talks like Christians. This can be juxtaposed against Grettir's community, which relies on a priest for direction who continually frets about his flock's pagan penchants. Even though vengeance is a key value in Beowulf's community, Beowulf's Danish warriors, like the farmers of Grettir's Saga, make no effort to rid themselves of the monster. In either case, it takes the sudden appearance of a strange warrior or heathen giant to bring hope to each community.

The coming of the unknown hero marks a point of divergence between Grettir's Saga and Beowulf. Grettir suspects villainous ghosts and makes numerous excuses to get rid of the mistress, so he can investigate the hall. She treats the hero with the same ambivalence as the monster, not appearing suspicious of Grettir's motives, or sudden appearance. She assumes Grettir must be a brave man, and he makes clear he does not " care for a monotonous life" (1). At this point, the characters of Grettir's Saga still have no definite idea of the happenings in the hall each Yule-eve. Grettir enables the mistress to go to mass, carrying her across an overflowing river by placing the mistress and her little daughter on one arm, while clearing away icebergs with the other. When the mistress finally arrives at church, everyone wonders how she got there, to which she quips that she doesn't know whether it was a man or a troll that delivered her. The priest rejects the pagan possibility, "it was certainly a man though unlike other men. 'Let us keep silence over it; may be that he means to help you in your difficulties'" (2). Like Beowulf, Grettir has superhuman strength, however, the ceremony of acceptance at Hrothgar's aristocratic hall has been replaced by an intolerant Christian mass in Grettir's Saga from which the hero is excluded. The priest unsure of Grettir's Christian status decides it's best to keep quiet about the whole thing. Like Beowulf, Grettir's hero fights alone against an unknown entity, but unlike Heorot's society of warriors who accept, but ignore, the murdering demon in their midst, Grettir's community condemns their pagan roots, including not only the troll, but the hero, and constructs a society based on destructive denial.

After delivering the mistress to mass, Grettir returns to her hall and barricades himself in. Towards midnight, "a huge troll-wife" (2) enters and rushes at Grettir with a "trough in one hand and a rather large cutlass in the other" (2). Both Grettir and Beowulf face cannibalistic opponents, however, while Beowulf first battles the male Grendel, Grettir's first fight is with a female, whose strength equals his own. By contrast, Beowulf's female opponent doesn't share his might, "Terror was the less / by just so much as the strength of women, / attack of battle-wives, compared to armed men" (1282b-1284b). This passage not only acknowledges the contribution of "battle-wives" to a warrior community, but also highlights the physical differences between men and women's strength. The hero must battle a male and a female opponent before delivering their respective communities from danger and reinstating the hospitable sanctity of the hall.

By the time Grettir and the troll-wife tumble outside the hall "they had broken up all the fittings of the outer door and borne them away on their shoulders" (2). Likewise in Beowulf, the hero's battle with Grendel, results in the hall being "badly damaged / despite iron strapping inside and out, / its hinges sprung open" (997b-999a). Finally, Grettir lops off the troll-wife's arm with his sword rather than ripping it from the socket with his bare hands, like Beowulf. Beowulf nails Grendel's arm to the hall, but Grettir takes no trophy, in Grettir's community that makes no sense. Grettir's hall was first the domain of a farmer, then inherited by his wife, which now makes it the domain of a woman, not the mead-hall of warriors who revel in tales of vengeance while admiring and distributing booty from their seemingly endless conflicts. After the heroes' first conflict they re-enter the hall, Beowulf returning unscathed, while Grettir finds himself badly wounded.

During his battle with the troll-wife, Grettir is beaten black and blue, and when he returns to the mistress's hall, he asks for a priest. It's not clear whether he thinks he is going to die, nonetheless the priest arrives and Grettir tells the priest the tale of his titanic struggle. The priest doesn't believe Grettir, telling him he needs physical proof. As before, when the priest rejects the notion of a troll delivering one of his congregation, the prospect of a genuine heathen hero battling a troll-wife, forces the priest to again go into denial, demanding physical proof. While there may be religious ambiguousness in Beowulf, pagans are treated as a subset religious order that lose their Christian way, so to speak, from time to time. There are no priests to question barbarian motives, only kings praising the efforts of the warrior. It is the pagan style warrior, Beowulf, who destroys the ancient Grendel, like the giant heathen, Grettir, who destroys the Icelandic troll-wife.

After receiving her deathblow, Grettir's troll-wife vanishes. After Grettir recovers, and in order to prove the truthfulness of his story, he leads the priest to the spot of the troll's disappearance where they discover a cave under a waterfall. Grettir decides to investigate, leaving the priest behind; in the same way Beowulf left his fellow warriors waiting for him. Like Beowulf, Grettir dives in and discovers the underwater lair of a giant. When both Grettir and Beowulf arrive in their respective monster dens there is a fire burning (Beowulf 1517; Grettir 3). Horrible fiends immediately grab the heroes and another deadly battle ensues. Beowulf's "mere-wife" (1519a) is killed by her own sword, "a victory-bright blade / made by the giants" (1557b-1558a). But, when Grettir's giant reaches back to get a similar sword hanging in his cave, Grettir takes advantage of the move and "struck at him and cut open his lower breast and stomach so that all his entrails fell out into the river and floated down the stream" (3). Both caves contain swords; one expressly magical, one monstrous. After gutting the giant, Grettir's priest sees the debris and runs off home certain Grettir has been killed. Likewise, when Beowulf's Scyldings viewed "the turbulent water saw blood drifting up, / a churning foam" (1592a-1593a), they "gave up the cliff-watch; the gold-friend departed, / went home with his men" (1601a-1602a). Both Grettir's Saga and Beowulf contain successful follow-up monster fights, in underwater caves containing blades, where the heroes are mistakenly given up for dead by some or all of their companion(s).

After Beowulf kills Grendel's mother, a magical "cave-light shone out / a gleam from within, / even as from heaven" (1570b-1571b). Comparatively, Grettir has to kindle a light to explore his cave. Both heroes explore these underwater dens, with Beowulf uncovering and then hacking away at the corpse of Grendel (1585-1590), and Grettir discovering the bones of the two missing men. Grettir wraps the bones in a skin; conversely, Beowulf whacks off Grendel's head for a trophy. Along with Grendel's head, Beowulf departs with the hilt of the magical sword, whose blade has now melted, "as ice itself when the Father unwinds / the bonds of frost" (1608a - 1609a), and heads for the mead-hall to celebrate with his remaining men. Grettir does not take the sword of the giant with him, he is returning to a town of farmers that has a fear of warriors and their prizes, not praise for them. When Grettir escapes the lake, he heads for church. In addition to the bones of the two men, Grettir has a "rune-staff" (4) recording his victories over the two monsters (4), which he leaves at the church for the priest to find, then disappears. Beowulf's booty hilt also contains a magical text, "runes / set down in order, engraved, inlaid, / which told for whom the sword was first worked" (1694b-1696b). When next Grettir meets the priest, Grettir tells him he was unfaithful by running away. Comparatively, even though it's obvious what has happened, Beowulf is more magnanimous towards the Scylding's abandonment, making no mention of it when he celebrates with Hrothgar in his hall. At the close of battle, the gold rune-covered hilt and bloody booty of vengeance in Beowulf's mead-hall celebration, is replaced by a rune-staff and empty church in Grettir's Saga. The execution of the monsters highlights the differing values of the two communities: Beowulf has avenged his fellows, while Grettir rids the world of some distasteful pagan leftovers. Beowulf remains a vibrant integral part of his culture whereas Grettir disappears, an outcast in a Christian society.

Beowulf and Grettir's Saga are oral tales that were written down at least four hundred years apart whose differing moral tones offset the contrasting story details. The winter's high Christian holiday marks the invasion of the monster in Grettir's Saga, by contrast, the monster of Beowulf arrives nightly. Regardless, the Christian farmers and pagan warriors seem unable to deal with the monster in their midst. It takes a stranger of unknown origin to rid their respective communities of the danger lurking in their halls. The two stories highlight differences between the roles of women, tactics of hand to hand combat, individual foes, and the type and role of plunder. The battle scenes closely resemble one another with a mystical trophy being part of the heroic booty. Both Beowulf and Grettir's Saga make specific Christian references, along with many pagan allusions, however, the heathens of Beowulf accept the Christian God, while the Christians of Grettir's Saga banish the pagan hero.

Works cited

Beowulf. Trans. Howell D. Chickering, Jr. New York: Random House, 1989.

Chickering, Howell D. "Introduction." Beowulf. Trans. Howell D. Chickering, Jr. New York: Random House, 1989. \

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Maureen Gallery Kovacs. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989.

Hesiod. Theogony. Trans. Richard Lattimore. Ann Arbor: U of MI P, 1991.

Isaak, Mark. "Flood Stories from Around the World." The Talk. Origins Archive. 4 July 2004. <http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html>

Killings, Douglas B. "Introduction". The Saga of Grettir the Strong (Grettir's Saga). Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #9. 28 June 2004. <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir/>

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Rolfe Humphries. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983.

The Saga of Grettir the Strong (Grettir's Saga). Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #9. 28 June 2004. 1-19. <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir/gr64-81.html>