Composed at the end of the fourteenth century by
an unknown author, The Saga of Grettir the
Strong is one of the last great Icelandic sagas.
It relates the tale of Grettir, an
eleventh-century warrior struggling to hold on
to the values of a heroic age becoming eclipsed
by Christianity and a more pastoral lifestyle.
Unable to settle into a community of farmers,
Grettir becomes the aggressive scourge of both
honest men and evil monsters - until, following
a battle with the sinister ghost Glam, he is
cursed to endure a life of tortured loneliness
away from civilisation, fighting giants, trolls
and berserks. A mesmerising combination of pagan
ideals and Christian faith, this is a profoundly
moving conclusion to the Golden Age of the saga
writing