P. 29. The genealogy of Gamli of Meals, as here recorded, seems to be peculiar to Grettir's saga. Yet its statements are inconsistent in the matter, for it gives this twofold genealogy of the man. See Ed. Kaupmannahöfn: 1853.
P. 22. Ranveig was the wife of Gamli, the son of Thorald, the son of the Vendlander.
P. 70. And (Thorir of the Pass) sold the land at Meals to Thorhalli, son of Gamli the Widelander. His son was Gamli, who had to wife Ranveig, the daughter of Asmund Greyhaired.
According to 'Landnáma,' this Gamli of Meals, Asmund's son-in-law, was son of Thord, and great-great-grandson of Thorhrolf or Thorolf Fasthaldi (Fastholding), who settled lands on the north coast of Icefirth-deep (Isafjartðardjúp), and farmed at Snowfells (Snaefjöll). We have given Thorhall in our translation in both places as the man's name. Perhaps Thoraldr is nothing but a corruption of Thorólfr fasthaldi; and Thorhalli again a corruption of the first. But Gamli the Vendlander or Widelander, we have no means of identifying.
P. 30. 'Now in those times there were wont to be large fire-halls at the homesteads.' The hall, holl, skáli, stofa, was the principal room in every home. Elda-skáli, or fire-hall, as the one alluded to at Biarg, was so called from its serving as a cooking-hall and a sitting-hall at once. The main features in the construction of a hall were the following: it was generally built from east to west, in an oblong form, having doors either at one or both ends through the south-side wall, where it met the gable end. These two entrances were called carles'-door and queens'-door (karldyrr, kvenndyrr), being respectively for the ingress and egress of men and women. Sometimes the men's-door was adorned with the beaks (brandar) of a hewn-up ship, as was the case with the hall of Thorir of Garth, standing as door-posts on either side. The door led to a front-hall (forkáli, fortofa, and-dyri, framhús), which, sometimes at least, seems to have been portioned off into an inner room (klefi), or bay, and the vestibule proper. In the bay were [272] kept victuals, such as dried fish, flour, and sometimes, no doubt, beer. Within, the hall fell into three main portions: the main hall, or the nave, and the aisles on either side thereof (skot): The plan of the hall was much like that of one of our regular-built churches without chancel, say like a Suffolk church of the fifteenth century, the nave being lighted by a clerestory, and the aisles running the whole way along the nave, and communicating behind the dais. These aisles were used for sleeping-places; so that along the whole length of the hall, and behind the dais, all was partitioned into bedsteads, open or locked,—open, that is to say, communicating with the nave by a doorless aperture,—locked, that is, shut out of view from the nave (lok-rekkja, lok-hvila).
On the wall between nave and aisles, which was covered with a panelling on its inside at least, were hung the shields and weapons of the chief and his retainers, or home-men. Sometimes it was painted with mythic subjects, and adorned with fantastic carvings; on great occasions it was covered with hangings. Along both side-walls ran a row of seats, called benches (bekkr), the north-most of which, or the one which faced the sun, was called the nobler bench (aeðri bekkr), the south-most one, the less noble bench, (úoeðri bekkr). In the middle of either bench was a seat, called the high seat (öndvegi); that of the nobler bench being occupied by the chief or head of the house, unless he had for his guest a man nobler than himself, in which case the latter took it; that of the less noble bench being allotted to the noblest among the guests. The nobler bench was on ordinary occasions the bench for the chief and the household. The less noble for the guests. In front of the chiefs high-seat were the high-seat-poles which in the early ages of Paganism in the North were objects of much veneration, and must always accompany the chief if he moved his abode, and point out his new homestead, if he fared for it over sea, by the spot where they drifted ashore, as, when land was sighted, they were thrown overboard. In front of the seat-rows just described were placed the tables whereon the meals were put forth. And when the number of people exceeded the capacity of the ordinary benches, a new row of benches was placed in front of the tables, so that there were two rows of benches down along either side of the hall with the tables between them. The last-named rows of benches were called forsoeti; and their occupiers, when seated at table, faced those of the upper and lower bench. In the centre of the hall, if of the fashion, as it probably was in early times, of a fire-hall, was a narrow oblong stone-pavement, probably as long as the rows of the benches, whereon fires were lit for heating of the room, for cooking of food in some cases, and for[273] the purpose of lighting up the hall. The smoke that rose from the burning fuel found its way out through the luffer or louvre, in the middle of the ridge of the roof (ljóri); the reyk-beri, reek-bearer, seems to have been a contrivance for creating draught to carry the smoke out through the ljóri. In that end of the hall which was opposite to the entrance was the cross-bench, dais (pallr), occupied by the women. Here was also a high seat (öndvegi á palli), which was generally taken by the mistress of the house. In our saga it seems that the hall of Sand-heaps made an exception to this general rule, as it apparently had the dais immediately within the doorway.
P. 77 (cpr. 110). It is worth observing here, that Thorvald, son of Asgeir Madpate the younger, dwells at As in Waterdale, about 1013, when Thorgils Makson was slain. When Grettir played, as a youth, on Midfirth-water (or cca. 1010), he dwelt at Asgeirsriver. We mention this because there has been some confusion about the matter. On the slight authority of the Þáttr af Isleifi biskupi', Biskupa Sögur I. 54, it has been maintained that he dwelt at Asgeirsriver even as late as cca. 1035, when his daughter Dalla was wooed by Isleif the Bishop. G. Vigfússon, Safn til Sögu Islands, I. 337. On the other hand, the statement of Hungrvaka that he farmed at As (i.e., at the Ridge), at the time aforesaid, has given rise to the conjecture that thereby must be meant Valdar-As, a farm in Willowdale, near Asgeirsriver, the manor of the Madpate family. G. Vigfússon, in Biskupa Sögur, I. 61, note 2. It seems there is no need of setting aside the clear statement of our saga, that the As was As in Waterdale (see Index), and not Valdarás in Willowdale at all, or that Thorvald had, by 1013, moved up to the neighbouring country-side of Waterdale, and settled among the kin of his great-grandmother.
P. 114, 1. 1. 'The men of Meals,' is a close translation of the original, which, however, is incorrect; for the men of Meals were Grettir's kin-in-law, and natural allies. The saga means the men of Meal, Kormak and his followers, and the original should be either, þeir Mel-menn, or Mels-menn, or þeir Kormakr frá Mel.
P. 129, 1. 10, 11. We have purposely altered the text from: en þú öruggr í einangri, i.e., 'but thou stout in danger,' into: en þó, i.e., 'but stout in danger none-the-less.' The former reading seems barely to give any sense, the last a natural and the required one.
P. 169. Hallmund. Our saga is one among the historic sagas of Iceland which deals with traditions of ancient belief in the spirits of the unknown regions of the land that are interested in the well-being of the mere men who dwell near them. Hallmund and the giant Thorir are the representatives of these powers in our saga. Of these Hallmund[274] is the more interesting of the two, both for his human sympathies, his tragic end, and the poetry ascribed to him. At one time or other he has had a great name in the Icelandic folk-lore among the spirits of the land, the so-called land wights (land-voetir), and there is still existing a poem of ancient type, the refrain of which is closely similar to that of Grettir's song on Hallmund, but which is stated to be by some cave-wight that lived in a deep and gloomy cavern somewhere in Deepfirth, on the north side of Broadfirth. In the so-called Bergbúaþáttr or cave-dweller's tale (Edited by G. Vigfússon in Nordiske Old-skrifter, xxvii., pp. 123-128, and 140-143, Copenhagen, 1860), this song is said to have been heard by two men, who, on their way to church, had lost their road, and were overtaken by the darkness of night, and, in order to escape straying too far out of their way, sought shelter under the lee of a sheer rock which chanced to be on their way. They soon found a mouth of a cave where they knew not that any cave was to be looked for, whereupon one of the wayfarers set up a cross-mark in the door of the cave, and then with his fellow-traveller sat down on two stones at the mouth of the cave, as they did not dare to risk themselves too far in the gloomy abode away from the cross. When the first third part of the night was spent they heard something come along from within the cave doorwards out to them.[[20]] They signed themselves with the sign of the cross, and prayed God's mercy to be on them, for they thought the doings within the deep of the cavern now grew big enough. On looking into the darkness they saw a sight like unto two full-moons, or huge targets, with some monstrous figure (unreadable in the MS.) between them. They thought this was nothing but two eyes, and that nowise narrow of face might he be who bore such torches. Next they heard a chanting of a monstrous kind and in a big voice. A lay there was sung of twelve staves, with the final refrain of each twice repeated.