Travels With Grettir

Hail to the Speaker.  Hail to the one who listens!  May the one who hears these words prosper because of them!  Hail to the one who listens!

Grettir Snake…    How did I get hooked up with you?

Sometimes you were a brute, a brazen crazy man, a marauder, a bandit, an outlaw, cast out from the world to the fringes, to the wasteland.  Where are you now?

I don’t know why I seek you out…

You were a risky fool, an ingrate, a loyalist… you were a muscle man, a poet, a lover of words…..ready for action.

Ah there’s the rub.  There is the reason.

 

I always wanted to go to Iceland.  That icy home of my ancestors.

You took me there and beyond.

To Iceland, to Norway, and back to Iceland.  Your family took me further afield – to the Hebrides, to the Barra Isles, to Constantinople.

I just wanted to go to Iceland.  I wanted to see hidden places and you showed them to me…

I saw your family farm in the north, in Hrutafjord…I went with you to the Althing and watched them pronounce a sentence of outlawry on you.   You were banished because you went too far.

You aimed to prove yourself, to stand up for yourself to save others who were at risk.  Some would not be so generous with their comments…

One dark night I went with you into the mound.  You found the hoard of gold and brought down the one who guarded it.  You didn’t plan to keep it for yourself.  The smell of death surrounded us there.

I heard the heartbeat of the bear as you held him off. I saw the faces of the berserks as you lured them into their crematorium.

I felt beads of sweat on your upper lip as you awaited your battle with the ghost of Glam.

How many times did I think your life was over?

You spat in the face of death.

You had enemies and you had friends.  There were boasters and henchmen, trolls and sorceresses who tried to bring you down.

I admired your supporters for they risked their own security to lend you a hand.  There was Skapti, and Thorgrim, Bjorn and Hallmund.  Some human, some that came from beyond.

You spoke your verses and they enchanted me:

High he steps and Swaggers on

Hallmund in his mountain Hall…

My battle – keen sword crawled

Like a snake over tracks of wounds

When stormy weather rained

weapons in wether – fjord

Those staunch men from Kelda

Had the chance to hold my wake

But brave Hallmund from the cave

helped me escape unscathed

Thank you Grettir for taking me to the lava fields.  Some call them the lava of evil deeds.

I never knew before how to get to such a place.

I wonder if I can find again the mountain and seaside caves, the hotsprings, the stepping stones laid by you and by Bjorn that I might cross the river.  Oh but Drangey the green Isle of Drangey.  I still dream of your presence there.

I won’t forget your songs…

Ridum Ridum, Rekim Yfir Sandinn

rennur sól á bak við Arnarfell…

I suppose others might want to meet you.

They’ll have to ask me about it

I might tell them a little, they’d have to ply me with favors – a dance in the moonlight, a heros’ tale, a little brennivin or hangikjot maybe?

I’d like to give them a hint…for I do like to talk about you.

Come to ProArts at Noon (Cathedral of the Redeemer 7^th avenue and 1^StSt. S.E. on Wednesday, March 13/2013 for a little taste of Grettir, a Sorcery Sampler – a saga performance.

Bring brave spirits and open hearts…