[294] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 180 etc.
[295] Bradley, in Encyc. Brit.
[296] Bradley, in Encyc. Brit. III, 760-1.
[297] Blackburn, 218.
[298] See Finnur Jónsson, Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning, B. ii. 473-4.
[299] MS A, followed by Magnússon, makes Glam bláeygðr, "blue-eyed": Boer reads gráeygðr, considering grey a more uncanny colour.
[300] MS A has fonm or fenm, it is difficult to tell which. Magnússon reads fenum, "morasses."
[301] Immediately inside the door of the Icelandic dwelling was the anddyri or vestibule. For want of a better word, I translate anddyri by "porch": but it is a porch inside the building. Opening out of this 'porch' were a number of rooms. Chief among which were the skáli or "hall," and the stufa or "sitting room," the latter reached by a passage (gǫng). These were separated from the "porch" by panelling. In the struggle with Glam, Grettir is lying in the hall (skáli), but the panelling has all been broken away from the great cross-beam to which it was fixed. Grettir consequently sees Glam enter the outer door; Glam turns to the skáli, and glares down it, leaning over the cross-beam; then enters the hall, and the struggle begins. See Guðmundssen (V.), Privatbolegen på Island i Sagatiden, 1889.
[302] The partition beams (set-stokkar) stood between the middle of the skáli or hall and the planked daïs which ran down each side. The strength of the combatants is such that the stokkar give way. Grettir gets no footing to withstand Glam till they reach the outer-door. Here there is a stone set in the ground, which apparently gives a better footing for a push than for a pull. So Grettir changes his tactics, gets a purchase on the stone, and at the same time pushes against Glam's breast, and so dashes Glam's head and shoulders against the lintel of the outer-door.
[303] So MS 551 a. Magnússon reads dvaldist þar "he stayed there."