Chieftains & the Uncanny
Glúm of Þverá
The unpromising boy
Glúm began as the least likely of heroes: an awkward, silent, seemingly dull young man, slighted at home and abroad, with none of the early brilliance of a Gunnarr or an Egil. The saga lets him be underestimated — by his own family and by the men who would later learn, too late, exactly what he was.[1]
His turn came on a visit to his Norwegian grandfather, the great chief Vigfúss. There, provoked, the quiet young man killed a dangerous berserk who had been terrorising the hall — and revealed the cold, decisive violence under the dull exterior. Glúm is the saga world's study of the late-blooming, dangerous man: the one no one watches until he has already won.
The source text · 1
There was a man named Bödvar; he was the son of Vikingakari, and the brother of Sigurd the father of Vigfuss, whose daughter was Astrida, the mother of Erik father of another Astrida, the mother of Olaf, the son of Tryggvi. Vikingakari was the son of Eymund the pirate, the son of Thorir. Bödvar was the father of Oluf the mother of Gizor the white. When Eyiolf and his wife Astrida got out to Iceland, Ingiald was dead, and Eyiolf succeeded to his property and his office as priest. Ingiald had a daughter named Ulfeida, who was married to Narvi of Hrisey. Four children of Eyiolf and Astrida are mentioned, of whom Thorstein was the eldest, but his share of the inheritance was paid him when he married, and he dwelt on Eyjafirth as long as he lived, and has little to do with our story. The second was Vigfuss, who married Halfrida, the daughter of Thorkel the tall from Myvain. Glum was the youngest of their sons, and the daughter was named Helga. She was wedded to Steingrim of Sigluvik, and their son was Thorvald Tafalld, who comes up afterwards in this story. Vigfuss, however, died very soon after his marriage, leaving one child, who survived him a short time only, and thus it came to pass that all his property vested half in Halfrida and half in Glum and Astrida, for Eyiolf was dead before this happened. Then Thorkel the tall moved his establishment to Thverà, and Sigmund his son with him. The latter was a man of much importance, an looked forward to becoming chief of the district, if he made a good match, and got the support of good kinsmen.— viga glums saga
Glúm slighted and underestimated as a youth (Head 1866).
The tokens of luck
For his deed, Vigfúss gave Glúm the family's most precious things: a fine cloak, a spear, and a sword — heirlooms that carried, the saga makes clear, the luck of the line. The grandfather warned him to keep them, for while he held them his fortune would hold too.[1]
Glúm carried them home to Iceland, and with them his fortune turned. The tokens are the saga's central device — luck made into objects you can hold or lose. Everything that follows hangs on them: while Glúm keeps the cloak, spear and sword, he rises; the day he gives them away, as he eventually does, he begins, unknowing, to fall. It is a starkly material idea of fate — destiny you can literally hand to another man.
The source text · 1
Now we have to tell of Glums voyage. As soon as he landed in Norway he went up to Vigfusss house; and when he came thither he saw a great crowd of people, and all sorts of amusements and games going on. He understood at once that everything there must be on a great scale, but he saw many men of mark, and did not know which was his kinsman Vigfuss. He made him out by observing a tall and distinguished-looking man, in a full blue cloak, on the high seat, playing with a gold-mounted spear. Then Glum went up to him and greeted him, and his greeting was received courteously. Vigfuss asked who he was; he replied that he was an Icelander from Eyjafirth. Vigfuss inquired after his son-in-law, and his daughter Astrida. Glum told him that the former was dead, but that the latter was still living. Then he asked what children of theirs were alive, and Glum gave an account of his brothers and his sister, and added that he who now stood before him was one of the sons, but when he had said that, the conversation went no further. Glum asked Vigfuss to assign him a seat, but he said he did not know how much of what had been told him was true, told him to take a seat on the outside of the lower bench, and took little notice of him. Glum spoke little, and was unsociable in his habits, and when men were drinking or amusing themselves in other ways, he used to lie with his cloak wrapt round his head, so that he seemed a sort of fool. At the commencement of winter there was a feast prepared, and a sacrifice to the gods, in which observance all were expected to take part, but Glum sat in his place and did not attend it. As evening passed on, and the guests had arrived, there was not so much merriment, on account of the meeting of friends and the welcoming one another, as might have been expected when so many had come together. On the day on which the people came, Glum had not stirred out to meet them, nor did he ask any one to sit by him ort to take his place.— viga glums saga
Glúm visits his grandfather Vigfúss in Norway, who gives him the luck-tokens (Head 1866).
Master of Eyjafjörðr
Back home, Glúm grew into exactly the man the dull boy had concealed: ruthless, deep-scheming, and deadly. From his seat at Þverá in the rich northern valley of Eyjafjörðr, he fought, out-manoeuvred and out-lawed his neighbours until he dominated the whole district — earning the byname Víga-Glúm, 'Slaying-Glúm,' for the killings that built his power.[1]
His method was rarely open force alone. Glúm is the saga world's great manipulator of law and circumstance, a man who wins by knowing more, waiting longer, and striking when no one expects it — closer in temper to Snorri goði than to the open heroes, but harder and less scrupulous. And behind his luck stood the god Frey, whose temple rose by the river at Þverá, and whose favour Glúm enjoyed as long as he kept faith with him.
The source text · 1
When Thorir died his son Thorarin set up his household to the north of Espihole and lived there. Glum had two children by his wife, of whom one was Márr, as has been said above, and the other was Vigfuss; both promising, but utterly unlike each other. Márr was quiet and silent, but Vigfuss was a dashing fellow, ready to do an unfair thing, strong and full of courage. There was a man living with Glum, who was called Hallvard, and was a freedman of his; he had brought Vigfuss up, and having got a good deal of property together by cheating in money matters , he had made over the reversion if it to his foster-child. Hallvard had a bad name, and went to live at a place called The Tarns, in the valley of the Eyjafirth: nor did his reputation impove on account of the spot where he dwelt, for he was sharp in dealing with the cattle in the common pastures up there. Vigfuss was a great traveller— viga glums saga
Glúm rises to dominate Eyjafjörðr; 'Slaying-Glúm' (Head 1866).
The equivocal oath
Glúm's downfall turned, as so often in these sagas, on a killing and the law that followed. Accused of a slaying he had in fact committed, Glúm cleared himself by an oath sworn at the temple — but he framed the words with deliberate, lawyer's cunning, swearing in a form that was literally, technically true while concealing the real meaning: he said he was 'not there' in a way that let the hearers think he denied the deed, when the words actually admitted it.[1]
The equivocal oath is one of the most famous moments in the sagas — a man saving himself by the precise letter of words that betray their spirit. It works, for a time. But it is sworn at Frey's own temple, and to cheat with a sacred oath is to cheat the god. Glúm has won his case and, without yet knowing it, spent the divine favour that all his fortune rested on. The cleverness that always saved him has, this once, cost him everything.
The source text · 1
In the course of the winter Thorvard met Thorarin, and asked him, Did Glum take the oath properly? We found nothing to take hold of, said Thorarin. It is a wonderful thing, replied Thorvard, that wise people should make such mistakes. I have known men who have declared themselves to have slain others, but I have never known a case of a man swearing explicitly that he was guilty, as Glum did. How could he say more than he did when he declared that he was there at the doing of the deed, that he took part in the death, and that he reddened point and edge, when Thorvald the crooked fell at Hrisateig?--though I admit that he did not pronounce the words as they are commonly pronounced. That scandal will never be done away with. Thorarin replied, I did not observe this, but I am tired of having to do with Glum. Well, said Thorvard, if you are tired because your health is not equal to it, let Einar take the matter up. He is a prudent man, with a great kindred, and many will follow him. His brother Gudmund will not be neutral, and he himself is most anxious for one thing-to get to Thverà. Then they met Einar and consulted with him, and Thorarin said, If you will take the lead in the suit many men will back you in it, and we will bring it about that you shall have Glums land, at a price not exceeding that which he paid to Thorkel the tall. Einar observed, Glum has now parted with those two things, his cloak and his spear, which his mothers father, Vigfuss, gave him, and bad him keep, if he wished to hold his position, telling him that he would fall away in dignity from the time that he let them out of his hands. Now will I take up the suit and follow it out.— viga glums saga
Glúm's oath questioned — its equivocal, literally-true form revealed (Head 1866).
Frey turns away
The reckoning came as a dream. On the eve of the suit that would decide his fate, Glúm dreamed he saw a great crowd gathering at the river-temple of Þverá, and Frey seated among them — and his own dead kinsmen pleading with the god to let Glúm keep his land. But Frey answered them shortly and angrily, calling to mind Glúm's failure of faith, and would not relent. Glúm woke knowing the truth: he was on worse terms with the god now, and his luck had run out.[1]
It is one of the quietest and eeriest scenes in the sagas — not a battle but a dream of a god declining to help, the supernatural withdrawal of the favour that had carried a man his whole life. Stripped of Frey, and by now of the luck-tokens too, Glúm had nothing left but his own diminishing cunning against rivals who finally outnumbered and out-lasted him.
The source text · 1
Einar now set the suit on foot afresh for the Althing, and both sides collected their people together, but before Glum left home he dreamt that many persons came to Thverà to visit the god Frey, and he thought he saw a great crowd on the sand-banks by the river, with Frey sitting on a chair. He dreamt that he asked who they were who had come thither, and they said, We are thy departed kindred, and we are now begging Frey that thou mayst not be driven out of Thverà, but it is no use, for he answers shortly and angrily, and calls to mind now the gift of the ox by Thorkel the tall. At that point Glum woke up, and ever afterwards he professed that he was on worse terms with Frey.— viga glums saga
Glúm's dream: Frey refuses his dead kin's plea (Head 1866).
Driven from Þverá
The suit went against him. Einarr, his patient rival, pressed the case to its end, and Glúm was forced to forfeit Þverá — the seat his whole life had been built around — and to leave the district as a kind of local outlaw.[1]
He clung to it to the last. On the final day he sat in the high seat of his hung-and-decorated hall and would not move, refusing to slink out like a tenant, until an old woman came and formally evicted him with fire, ejecting him and all his from the land. Then Glúm rode away — and, looking back over his shoulder at the home he had won by spear and lost by sacrilege, spoke a verse of bitter pride: that he had taken these lands by might, and now the brand had been struck from his hand.[2] He lived out his years elsewhere, moving from farm to farm, growing old and blind — the great chieftain of Eyjafjörðr ending small, his luck and his god and his lands all spent.
The source text · 2
Men rode to the Thing, and the suit was brought to a close in such a way that Glum admitted the killing of Thorvald; but his kinsmen and friends exerted themselves to secure the acceptance of a settlement rather than the imposition of outlawry or banishment. So they compounded the matter at the Thing, on the condition that Glum was to forfeit the land at Thverà, half absolutely as an atonement to Ketell, the son of Thorvald the crooked, and to convey the other half at a valuation; but he was allowed to live there till the spring, and was then to be outlawed in the district, and not to live nearer than in Hörgardal. So they left the Thing. Einar afterwards bought the land, as had been promised to him. In the spring his men came thither to work on the farm, and Einar told them that they should give an account to him of every word which Glum spoke. One day he came and talked with them on this wise, It is easy to see that Einar has got good workmen about him; the work is well done on the land, and it is now of consequence that great and little matters should both be attended to. You would do well to put up posts here by the water side for drying clothes; it is convenient for the women washing the larger articles; the wells at home are indifferent.— viga glums saga
Einarr's suit forfeits Glúm the land at Þverá (Head 1866).
Then Glum rose up and told her she might chatter away like a miserable old woman as she was; but as he rode away he looked over his shoulder towards the homestead and sung a stanza--— viga glums saga
Glúm evicted, rides away with a verse of bitter pride; ends aged and blind.
4 connection questions mark the end of this journey — and earn its keepable artifact.
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