8 h 6 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What use is extraordinary strength when you have no safe place to belong?
In Sabine Baring-Gould’s Grettir the Outlaw, a powerful young man grows up in Iceland, where work, loyalty, and good standing help keep a household safe. Grettir has courage and remarkable strength. But he is stubborn, quick to take offence, and unwilling to make himself agreeable. The qualities that make him formidable also make life among neighbours difficult.
Beyond home, fights and dangerous encounters put Grettir’s strength to the test. Glam, a terrifying dead man who troubles the living, brings supernatural fear into his struggle. Outlawry raises another danger: life without the protections others take for granted. Among scattered farms and across difficult journeys, shelter and friendship become as urgent as any feat of courage.
What you’ll discover
- A difficult hero Meet a young man whose courage commands attention, even when his stubbornness pushes others away.
- Fear beyond physical strength Face Glam, a terrifying opponent who gives shape to fears that strength alone cannot master.
- The cost of outlawry Discover how urgently ordinary shelter matters when the law no longer offers protection.
- An unforgiving Iceland Cross a landscape where distance and isolation make each place of refuge matter.
- More than heroic feats Explore the clash between remarkable strength and the everyday need for friendship and belonging.
Who will love it
Readers who love Viking adventure, ghost stories, feuds and lone heroes, and anyone curious about how Icelanders told tales around the winter fire. It also suits travelers who enjoy a guide pointing out the landscape.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sullen boy at the farm of Biarg
- One killing sends a boy into exile
- The Red Rovers and the dead man's sword
- A bear, a braggart and a bitter homecoming
- The ghost of the Vale of Shadows
- A king's judgment and a brother's murder
- Hunted across the empty land
- A den, a river fight and a clever trick
- What the story is really about
- How the saga is told and what is true
Who’s who
- GrettirA strong, red-haired, quick-tempered Icelander who answers every insult with force and, once outlawed, wants only to live free of his enemies and his fear of the dark.
- AtliGrettir's gentle older brother, who runs the farm at Biarg and tries to keep the peace with every neighbor.
- IllugiGrettir's young brother, honest and brave, who chooses to follow him into exile and promises never to run away.
- AsdisGrettir's mother, who gives him his grandfather's sword, protects her family and foresees the sorrow ahead.
- Thorir of GarthA powerful chieftain who outlaws Grettir for the burning of his sons and spends years paying others to kill him.
- Thorbiorn OxmainA strong farmer in Ramsfirth who takes up the feud against Grettir's family after the death of his cousin Slowcoach.
- HallmundA huge, strong man of the ice mountains who befriends Grettir after beating him in a test of strength and helps him in need.
- Thorstein DromundGrettir's thin-armed half-brother in Norway, who promises to avenge him if he ever dies away from his bed.
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 6 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Grettir le hors-la-loi
by S. Baring-Gould · 1889
A sullen boy with a quick temper grows into an outlaw hunted across Iceland, and only his brother stays by him.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Grettir the Outlaw is a retelling of the Icelandic Saga of Grettir the Strong, made by the English clergyman and traveler S. Baring-Gould.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sullen boy at the farm of Biarg
The book opens with the author himself arriving at Biarg at midnight in summer, when the sky glows amethyst and swans fly overhead. The farm is now a poor huddle of turf and wood, but the hills and the river are the ones Grettir knew. Baring-Gould uses the scene to explain how Iceland was settled by Norwegian nobles who fled the rule of King Harald Fairhair, and how their families passed down tales of their great men through the dark winters.
Grettir is the son of Asmund the Grey-Head and Asdis. His brother Atli is kind and peaceable, and his little brother Illugi is gentle too. Grettir is different. He has red hair and a freckled face. He is broad and strong, and he sits by the fire brooding and saying little. He does every task badly, and his father regrets asking him to do anything.
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What is Grettir the Outlaw about?
It follows Grettir the Strong, an Icelander born around 997, from his sullen boyhood through exile, feuds, a haunting and years as a hunted outlaw. It is a retelling by S. Baring-Gould of the Icelandic Saga of Grettir the Strong.
Is Grettir the Outlaw a true story?
The author treats the main facts as history, backed by other Icelandic sagas and the Landnama Book. He marks the fight in the barrow, the troll-wife and the waterfall giant as embroidery added in later storytelling.
Who wrote Grettir the Outlaw and why?
S. Baring-Gould wrote it after telling the saga to schoolboys years earlier. A former pupil asked him to put it into a story for boys. He added what he saw on his trip to Iceland in 1861.
The author
Sabine Baring-Gould
1834–1924 · English novelist and folklorist
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) was an English clergyman, novelist, antiquarian and collector of folk songs. He was born in Exeter and later lived at Lewtrenchard in Devon, where he died. His writings included The Book of Were-Wolves, published in 1865, and the novel Grettir the Outlaw, published in 1890.
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