Legends Summarized: The Saga of Grettir
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- čas přidán 20. 10. 2022
- It's halloween month!! Let's celebrate with an Icelandic saga full of ghoulies, ghosties and SO MANY LEGAL DISPUTES
Thanks to longtime patron Gudmundur H Ulfarsson for requesting this back in 2020!
For full immersion, torment yourself with the full text here: www.gutenberg.org/files/347/3...
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Fun fact, Grettir is a common name in Iceland, often used for pets today. Grettir is the Icelandic name of Garfield the Cat.
LMAO
The fact that Grafield is orange and Grettir is portrayed here as a man with orange hair
that’s incredible
So Grettir was just constantly furious because he didn't exist at the same time that lasagna did? Honestly, that checks out.
Thank you for this information
so... is it just me or does Grettir's curse sound a lot like PTSD? Like the guy was an adventuring badass until a particularly brutal fight that left him with nightmares, flashbacks and a violent temper which led him to kill someone he shouldn't have. Then spent the rest of his life jumping at shadows and suffering from terrible nightmares while constantly on the move because he couldn't ever get comfortable wherever he was. His younger brother tried to take care of him but in the end he was tracked down and killed by his enemies and their dark magic/stress related health problems.
Excellent observation, actually a theory behind the berserkers and their rage was they were a bunch of guys with PTSD, who essentially weaponized it.
Are you saying Grettir is... Rambo?
Oh crap, don't say it too loud or holywood will write a viking reboo-awcrap
Would also fit with him being unwilling to stay even in a place that was actually nice. He's either less comfortable waiting for the other shoe to drop than dealing with awful shit, he doesn't feel he deserves it, or he's just afraid that he'll inflict his own percieved badness on the people he cares about.
@@GaijinCartoonist Rambo never killed anyone except in the book, the cop in the movie died cuz he was an idiot
Holy shit, they basically thought that PTSD was a fucking *curse.*
Red you left out the absolutely best part of Grettir's legacy, which is that in Icelandic publications of Garfield (yes, the orange lasagna cat) he's named Grettir "because he is rufous, a little broad and unwilling to conform to society's norms."
Ohmigosh this is just perfect
Thank you Iceland 🇮🇸
_”Ég hata mánudaga.”_
Giv Lazaga
"The saga of Grettir is mostly about Grettir if you skip the chapters that aren't focused on Grettir."
Ah yes, this floor is made of floor.
“An object that doesn’t have water is dry” -wise words from me
All floormanship is of the highest quality.
ah yes this floor is made of floor except the parts that are not floor
If you ignore the parts that are made of wall
You can wet something in oil
I keep forgetting how amazing an artist Red is and how utterly terrifying her art can be
Thats a concerning thing to read during the ad break before a video -
I keep pausing every moment just to read it as well :D
Definitely. I’ve been binging the old videos and seeing how far she’s come is so cool to see
Anyone else get shadow of the Colossus vibes?
AGREED
So Glam's curse made Grettir more emotionally unstable, gave him a fear of the dark, and made him unable to spend nights alone? That totally sounds like PTSD to me.
That--but--wait--shit you right.
It really does.
He had a thousand-yard stare.
Omfg!!! Dude. Fucking nail on the head
That part made me sit up like 'hey, wait a minute-'
Glam does not mess around with curses, that was absolutely horrifying. From the constant staring supernatural eyes to Grettir feeling himself become more unstable to being doomed to be despised by all, that's just overkill!
Someone pointed out that Glam's Curse was literally just PTSD. The Story was literally describing a guy who saw a monstrous thing and ended up traumatized for life, and that's why his life spiraled down hill, because they had literally no medicine or practices for treating people like him.
@@SkyEcho751 Similarly, it invokes the concept of it being almost impossible to reintegrate into society after dealing with some great threat.
“How are you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm…” Most protagonists really are their own worst enemy. Even the more ‘decent’ heroes like Hercules and Percy Jackson spend most of their lives away from society.
@@SkyEcho751 It is not like our treatments now are that great either.
@@SkyEcho751 I absolutely read it that way too, it fits far too well
Over the garden Walls eyes.
Fun fact! Kar and Glam are examples of a recurring type of undead monster in Scandinavian folklore whose name will be familiar with anyone who's played Skyrim: _draugr._ They're basically monstrous ghosts or walking corpses that usually hang out where they died or were buried, but unlike regular fantasy zombies, they're much more individually fearsome, often wielding significant supernatural power and retaining human craftiness to boot.
By the sound and "look" of them, it would make sense if Tolkien were inspired by this mythical creatures for making the Barrow-Wights: undeads, with magical abilities, terrifying and roaming around barrows and burial sites, many a checks cross.
@@giacomoromano8842 Actually, "barrow-wight" was originally coined in an 1869 translation of this very saga, as a translation of "haugbui" ("barrow-dweller"), more-or-less an alternate term for draugr (or possibly a similar but distinct creature, it's hard to tell). "Wight" roughly means "person" or "being", so "barrow-wight" could be translated as "man of the barrow". It was from this that Tolkien derived his use of the term.
to be fair, (hot take, i think): anything can be more interesting than the concept of a zombie, their just walking corpses that are arguably a less intimidating threat then, say, a normal guy that wants you dead, but draugr's are cool, they're smarter, have supernatural abilities and i heard stories that some of them just rise from the dead not to kill anyone but to specifically ruin someone's day by causing chaos (however i do not have a source for this bc my memory is bad)
So this man wrestled a Deathlord bare handed? Dang
@@Spot_Faceless-Soldier the scary factor out of zombies is never the singolar zombie but the horde: where a specter is hard to touch and banish, a skeleton is armed and skilled, a ghoul is quick, ravenous and poisonous, a zombie horde is a slow snowball that all destroy and all incorporate in a horrific death of claws, teeth and bites as they grasp you and tear you apart.
But yeah, took individually, a zombie is boring.
Fun fact, bjorn (or bjørn) is the Scandinavians word for bear and is also a name.
He killed a bear to spite a guy named bear
Björnception
Bjorn:talk about unBEARable mockery, huh?
@@arawn1061 Google translates that as "Bear conception," which is horrifying
@@bagfootbandit8745 Unbearable even
@@bagfootbandit8745 The old (and generally unacceptable) joke about the Native American guy named "Two Dogs Fucking" comes to mind
I have never seen red so desperate for a book to end since Don Quixote. Truly an impressive accomplishment
Did you mean Don Quixote?
@@heyitsjustmejj ohhhhh that’s how you spell it. Thanks
@@dudewhatthewhat8983 No problem :)
Wait, how was it spelled earlier?
Specially since she didn't even finished Don Quixote.
And in case anyone wonders, the reason for the "kills bear to piss off guy named Bjorn" bit works is that Björn means bear.
Oh. I would have tied it to Beorn in the Hobbit, but that's probably the same connection anyhow.
@arjay1016 Beorn is the anglicized version of Bjorn.
"Dis u"
This man gives the phrase ‘murder hobo’ new meaning. He’s basically an Elder Scrolls protagonist.
stop in the name of the yarl.
Well, not the Dragonborn at least. That one can't stop being given houses... which they then barely use, so maybe "hobo" does apply afterall.
I love how every Icelandic saga I've read is like 40% legal arguments.
It's almost like legal pettiness has existed since legal systems.
Tons of old stories tend to take time to talk about legal arguments
@@laurenkirby97 the best ones are when they get away with it through some absurd means that would never work today, but was totally plausible at the time
@@Gloomdrake Orestes getting away with murder because her mom was a girl
@@Gloomdrake But that some bs reasons still make it, just different ones. There's a snack here in Germany called Wasabi Peanuts or something and it doesn't actually have any wasabi in it. The way they dealt with it was by stating that basically no one here actually knows what wasabi tastes like😅
I've also heard similar things about food poisoning by a fish burger from American McDonald's being discounted by proving their burger doesn't actually have fish in it
As someone with ADHD, Grettir getting bored and leaving makes perfect sense to me.
i was thinking throughout the whole story
Nobody experiences boredom like those of us with ADHD.
Also have ADHD and i agree but i also wanna live there 😭
I've always wondered what Viking era ADHD would look like, I guess I now know.
As someone with ADHD, if there were bounties on my head and an idyllic hot springs valley with a chill giant and his beautiful daughters was a perfectly viable sanctuary, I would simply not leave. RIP to Grettir the ADHD but I am built different.
I really loved how much absolute INSANITY there is just randomly tucked into old epics. Like its sp random and boring then just "Yeah then we went and killed his ancestor who had turned into a ghoul. Made alot of gold. Then went home and took care of the chickens"
I mean that's basically how I play Skyrim
@@pyrostoryteller Especially with the Hearth and Home dlc
you gotta take care of the chickens!
Open world game playthroughs, everyone.
The 'Get Out' and 'Get F*cked' in runes had me wheezing 😂
Glad that was translated. That should be a poster
I love that I’m not the only one who noticed! 😊
The runes at 6:35 say "get out." I like the idea that ghosts writing "get out" in blood on the walls is something that happens in every haunting across the world and throughout time
Somewhere haunted in Ancient Greece: The walls drip red with blood spelling the words "Βγες έξω"
Likewise somewhere in the Black Forest... anywhere really, that shit reeks of haunting every way you can throw a stone: "Geh raus" is plastered in blood
Squatting is the ultimate lingua Franca.
At 12:50 the runes read “get fuked”. A simple but effective spell
That’s some dedication to form from Red, and kudos to you to know enough about runes to be able to read her Easter egg
@@AskMia411 I know right? She always leaves something interesting in the background, giving her videos rewatchability, cause you'll always find something new in them. And thanks, learning the runic alphabets, especially Elder Futhark, is one of my hobbies.
"Be still my heart, is it time for another legal dispute?" is now my favourite out of context phrase from Red. Had me on the floor, unable to breathe.
I’m still partial to “HOUSEHOLD CHORES?! THE MAN HAS NO SKIN!!
the messed up part even if ya tried to put it into context again ya'd have like 20 myths. the ancient world loved its legal disputes more than battles.
I remember hearing about a saga where a guy has a bunch of zombies in his house and it causes problems, so in classic Norse fashion, he sues all of them.
I process subpoenas for a living. I am so using this!
@@jy3n2 I need details
This whole story sounds like a convenient way to lay out the law codes of medieval Iceland. Kinda like the "I'm Just a Bill" song by Schoolhouse Rock but with more murder
Now that's a gritty reboot I'd like to see!
Or like the narrative of the Torah for the commandments 😉
Something about the norse having a system for literally putting a price on a person's life is just soooooo dark and soooo medieval that I just love it.
I mean . . . I feel like that's just workman's comp.
Modern day economics make it so companies have an estimated value of human life and thusly what's considered "acceptable loss"
I mean it’s kind of a precursor to life insurance
To be fair, given the sort of "family honor" standards, the system was sort of less about putting an exact price on a life and more, uh, "Okay, X killed Y, what do we have to do so all of X's and Y's families don't kill each other as part of the aftermath?" The core principal behind it was less the value of a life, but the value of less incessant tribal warfare.
I mean... We still have that today. Like literally for slain soldiers today, for the same kind of criteria actually. Just like, grander scale.
“Oh no my thriving social life.”
You did it again red, you had me laughing on the floor.
same here !
Grettir: "I have slain you, beast!"
Glam: "Yeah, but you peaked, mate."
Curse was literally: L + Ratio + You're gonna fall off
Grittier: Wait I don’t feel all that different. So you saying-
Glam: it all goes down from here.
@@riven5677 I understood that reference.
@@maximsavage yaaaay
@@riven5677 Glam: And I am going to love watching every second of it, be seeing you...
Lets see:
Serious anger issues and a lack of patience? Check
Super strong? Check
Tendency to get himself exiled? Check
A habit of killing anyone that causes him trouble (with innocent people often getting caught in the crossfire)? Check
Plays a minor role in the "argonaut" (despite never actually getting on the ship)? Check
Life made a mortal hell by someone? Check
A love for fighting monsters? Check
Being his own worst enemy? Check
Killed not trough violence but by magical trickery? Check
You could say Grettir is basically the Norse equivalent of Heracles.
According to Roman Syncretism, that’s actually Thor.
A very good summary.
I grew up on a farm next to 'Bjarg', Grettir's family farm.
This summer me and a good friend of mine who used to work on Bjarg were helping some friends make a bon fire at a local monument to The Grettir Saga. How ever, upon realizing that we did not have enough firewood my friend suggested that we'd drive to Bjarg in order to get some, so we did. On our way back with the firewood it suddenly dawned on me that kinda like Grettir had to swim through cold water to get some fire, we had to go to his farm in order to get firewood to then burn next to his monument. We thougt it was quite an interesting turnaround.
That’s actually insane and I love it deeply
I want to imagine that as somehow finally breaking his curse after all this time.
The cool thing about living in Iceland is that you get to hang around the places of these folk heroes, there are so many sagas of Iceland and they range from all over the land featuring so many people and intertwining lives that if you read any of them and happens to be close by the mentioned places, it feels surreal walking the paths of the ancestors.
@@ultimatevtgb7551
I would now like to do both of those things!
Somehow this is both one of the better DnD campaigns I've ever heard and a logically consistent cultivation novel at the same time.
Including the one screwup new guy who manages to utterly blow the final session by not paying attention to the plot
OBJECTION! A logically consistent cultivation novel is a clear violation of narrative laws, and even suggesting the existence of such a thing will result in YET MORE LEGAL ACTION!
@@redwitch12 I meant to type MORE logically consistent, specifically the enemy swearing vengeance then actually coming back to take it.
@@CatholicDragoon Oh, well, that's different then. And yeah :D
"DnD campaign"
Dear god, can you imagine Glam's curse in DnD?
-No more level ups and nothing can increase dex, con or str
-Every heroic deed you do will make people hate you
-Can't rest
holy shit, I can HEAR the players crying about it
I remember reading this one. it taught me the many valuable lessons:
1) Don't pee on a guy's father's sacred dirt
2) Icelandic Family Sagas are full of small town rumors and drama, it's just that sometimes someone loses a head
3) Grave robbing is ok if you can punch a ghost while doing it.
I like to think Grettir made some quip to the effect of, "That's it, you've fucked up, now pay me a fine."
Grettir the Strong: murders without thought
Glamm :curses Grettir to have a horrendous downfal with his final breath
Grettir: **suprised pikachu face**
The... Irony? there being that he was cursed during one of the handful of monster killings that any perfectly reasonable hero would've been involved in, rather than one of his incidental temperment based killings.
@@thaddeusgenhelm8979 I'm guessing the draugr was only able to curse him so thoroughly because of what a massive jerk he was. Particularly since this is a post-Christianisation myth.
It's crazy how a hundreds of years old saga manages to fill me with dread. Like, this is a legit scary story. Especially since (as many other comments pointed out) Glam's Curse and it's aftermath sound a lot like PTSD to me. And as someone who is prone to panic attacks and insomnia, I can't stop myself for feeling bad for Grettir.
Anyone else notice how Grettir gets banished for murder and then his mom is like, it's dangerous to go alone, here take this murder weapon.
Well, they did believe in monsters.
Not we know where Legend of Zelda got the idea!
@@hbeachley Yeah. If you lived in a world where people were regularly killed by trolls and wights and junk, you'd never leave the house without a weapon. That's just common sense.
I mean when old gramps can rise from the dead out of pure spite and begins dancing on your roof to annoy you... It's a reasonable call
"There was an idea called the Iceland Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to to fight the battles that we never could."
"where do I join in?"
"not you Grettir, you're a jerk"
Also is that the same Thorfinn from Vinland Saga
Yeah I was thinking the same thing (accept I don't think he would be chill with somebody grave robbing his father )
As cool as that would be, it is not. There are just so many dudes named Thorfinn in the Islendingasogur
@@silent_hrafn7649 Yep. Turns out, Thor was a pretty popular god back in the day. Names with 'Thor' in them would be something like 'John' now.
Pretty sure Thorfinn was the ancient Icelandic version of being named something like John or James today.
OOH there's a Thorfinn in Vinland Saga? (Haven't gotten that far)
Hey Red
You should definitely check out 'The picture of Dorian Gray' for the next Halloween.
Not only is it surprisingly grim and controversial, it fits the theme of 'reputed protagonist eventually destroys his own career and himself' very well
I could definitely go for a retelling of that. I've only read it once, about 2 decades ago, and found parts of it to be incredibly boring. I'd be curious to hear the take again, this time with me not being bored out of my skull 🤔
What about it is controversial?
It's because a lot of people interpret Dorian's dark impulses as a metaphor for being gay (note, this is a gross simplification) and the movies have a ton of male-male gay subtext between Dorian and another guy.
Ive read the book, and "gay subtext" is kind of an understatement, especially because he had to cut out some stuff. Also it was literally used in his trial (yeah Oscar Wilde) so it was pretty not straight. The ehhhh parts of it are the misogyny and the antisemitism. Misogyny because Dorian becomes infatuated with an actress then does badly in a play because she loves him, he then dumps her, and she dies. He says some very rude stuff about how dumb women are, so that kinda sucks. The antisemitism because theres one Jewish guy who's 100% a blatant stereotype, so that was really not fun to read. Weird book (for other reasons), but not the most boring Victorian era book I've read
@@Ceruleansquid-lo3iv oh, thanks for the correction. I read a graphic novel version, but that was years ago when I made this comment, so I only had a vague memory of the story and stuff people had said about it. Again, I was grossly oversimplifying it in my above comment.
3:07 Watching far too much OSP is hearing this music and preparing yourself for a jumpscare of _A MYSTERIOUS COLOUR, UNLIKE ANY SEEN ON EARTH_
Fun fact: Grettir's bathing routine while on Drangey was to swim five miles each way for the geothermal pools on the nearby beach
That’s the kind of effort for lazy luxury we appreciate around here
Can we appreciate how Red NEVER misses with the credit song choice?
I think there was one missed opportunity or so around, but they're always good, so
@@emperorflick I assume you are referring to the choice not to use "I won't let the sun go down on me" in Amaterasu and the cave? Which, yes, but it really would've been dangerous(ly hilarious) to include.
@@clarienne7583 i was referring to not using Dark Horse for the Medea myth, but that too
And they all feckin slap.
Yes. I’m always impressed and delighted.
Thorfiin's dad sounds like a Draugr, a Norwegian revenant undead that guards their buried treasure and can only be defeated through unarmed combat. Not sure what kind of creature Glam is though.
draugrs as a whole are what glam and Thorfin's dad are, they be undead people who become malicious and have a supernatural strength to them.
Glam is actually the most famous example of a draugr! Also, they're part of Scandinavian folklore as a whole so not just a Norwegian thing :)
Draugr-nesness (?), draugr-icity (?) is a bit like classic vampirism or modern zombification; people who get killed by draugr usually rise as one.
7:18 Dude, this is an actual fear of mine, I hate looking into/being in dark places because I just think "what if I see a pair of bright eyes staring at me with malicious intent, and nothing I do can get rid of them?" It seems like a silly fear, but I still hesitate to stare too long into the darkness for fear it might stare back at me.
I love "Oopsies! That's a crime" Sounds like the title of a sitcom or something about a horrible thief.
"Stop, thief!"
"Who, me?"
"Who else? I just saw you steal my [valuable item]."
"Did I do that? Oopsies! That's a crime"
*Laugh track*
“Meesa no want no trouble! That’s the last thing Meesa wants!” - George Lucas’s favorite character. Thank the Force he never got a sitcom!
/cough cough/ Swiper no swiping!!
"OH YOU!"
This was literally just my DnD character.
A kenku(crow person) who didn't understand human concepts like laws and kept stealing, they thought their name was 'Stop Theif' because that's all they've ever been called.
After so many years watching Red’s art, I am still baffled by how good she is and how genuinely scary and unsettling her horror art is
The ending has some massive Cu'Chulainn vibes. Especially with their combined tempers being hot enough to boil a pot of water, I wonder how these two cursed bois would have gotten along.
Sounds like the base for the next Urban Fantasy Novel.
Just this time, instead it being about secret magic, they just punch a bunch of bad guys.
Fantasy Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.
Someone offers Cu a hot dog and Grettir takes an ax to their face.
I don't think they would
Oh, they'd get along. Like fire and gasoline.
Allow me to introduce you to something called Fate...
Out of all the Legends and myths you've summarized so far this one feels the most like a regular DnD campaign
It even has people sitting around and arguing about boring rules shit for ages! :D
(CoUgH) journeytothewest (cOuGh)
@@IanAnimatesBagels To be fair, Journey to the West plays out like your idealic infinite campaign whereas this feels a lot more flawed and realistic overall
@@munchrai6396 Journey to the West feel like monkey is trying to introduce his friends to Dnd, and the DM is desperately trying to balance big setpeices, stopping monkey from meta gaming, and keeping the noobs alive
@@IanAnimatesBagels I couldn't have said it better.🤣
Grettir does very much feel like the traditional murderhobo character
I can’t believe it’s already been a year since the last Halloween episode, what a great surprise
Is this the Halloween special though, it wasn't labeled as such in the title or video description
@@mylesjude233 Red still busted out the Halloween Drip, and this does get kinda spooky, so it’s an honorary Halloween Special to me.
The years start comin and they don’t stop comin
I thought it was only 355 days.
@@mylesjude233 you can tell by her costume
Yeah he made a huge mistake by leaving the giant's valley, and a lot of his problems were of his own making, but I kinda can't help but feel bad for him still. Maybe all the back and forth between laziness and impulsiveness was super relatable to me. And the ghost punching. Also, Red your covers are fantastic.
Damn, puts a whole new meaning on “Death By Glamour”
There is a _lot_ of litigation in the Icelandic sagas.
One thing to keep in mind about the old sagas is that they're not really meant as stories, exactly. They're the histories of regions and notable families, being translated from an oral tradition. So, the reason some sections can feel so dry is that they're pretty much just court records.
You got tricked into reading legal documents for fun.
I highly recommend it.
Love these things, jack-o’-lanterns used to be carved out of turnips and they were horrifying.
They were more meant to be carved into skulls while pumpkins are carved into heads
Lol
Here in Scotland a fare few people still do that and it's awful, especially because they smell really bad when they decompose.
They can be really cute though. In Switzerland where i grew up we would have turnip latern parades and put like starshapes and other fun shapes onto them beforehand and eat the insides of them while carving.
@Adult yeah, your making me hate these things even more. Thanks
"Good news, Dear!
It's a protagonist!"
It's things like this that make OSP so great!
New favorite part of the video: 8:40.
You know, judging by the previous parts of the story, grettyr leaving the beautiful place filled with people he likes might have been the most selfless thing he could do. Dude was literally told that he was going to turn into a more viscous person then he already was. I wouldn’t want to be around kind people either.
Can we all take a moment to appreciate how good Reds cover of wanted dead or alive was? You've really upped your guitar game Red!! Amazing!
Agreed. Not only her guitar skills, but her singing and editing skills as well.
I'm still waiting for a red's cover channels
I felt the same way reading the Saga of Egil. "Oh wow, this guy gets into so many battles! Legal.... battles....
Skyrim you lied to me!"
Videogames generally have about 1000% more combat than is realistically plausible.
@@Duiker36 Laughs in serial killer
@@macewindu1 So, you killed Nazeem too?
Hold right there criminal scum!
@@Duiker36 Do you know what a Samurai is?
Petition to have Red produce a few full length covers of some of these songs she does, they are all dope as hell and we need more.
7:35 I absolutely _adore_ "Pull back the curtain" images like this one or the one in the Dionysus video. I must've watched these few seconds half a dozen times.
Wait, he was banished for three years after committing a murder? Could you imagine if modern penalties for crimes were that lenient?
They are
Well they are if your rich
I mean, back in the day, banishment was often a synonym for "booted from civilization and left to die of wolves and/or exposure." So.
Don’t forget the tidbit about “your enemies and/or regular bounty hunters can kill you with zero consecuences”! Exile was a pretty steep punishment tbh
Banishment/exile is one of most serious punishments of the time.
You're not one to talk Bright.
You are SO above the law.
By being both above all conventional forms of Just Reprimand since you work for the most powerful organization in the world while also being straight up immortal.
I'm loving the Rune Cyphers. "Get Out" written on the wall in blood and "Get Fucked" on the witch's log. Glam's Eyes is a very interesting concept for me, as I almost always use the eyes to express powerful abilities or natures. Amazing work on the art, you get better every video.
Yeah, I'm just going to write down the nature of the curse for DnD:
-No way to increase your ability scores any higher than they are now (No ability score improvements, no Feats, No strength increasing magical items, nadah)
-Darkness gives you horrible visions (Frightened condition pertaining to dark areas, also cannot benefit from Rest in Darkness)
-And one more thing: The consiquences of your actions will always turn out sour (That one's just a given though... It's DnD, you have killed innocent people, kidnapped children, and commited numerous war crimes, and you still think yourselves the Moral epicentre of the world; if this was a Ravenloft campaign running off the earlier version of it, you'd have already become Darklords of your own horrible domains where you are punished forever)
Wait, the log said "Get Fucked"? Oh, my gosh, that's hilarious!
Also, I agree that the curse is pretty cool - in a bleak, depressing, terrifying way.
@@catbatrat1760 It's written in English, just with the Nordic alphabet. C, K, and Q are all one letter in this alphabet, so Get Fucked is spelled "ᚷᛖᛏ᛫ᚠᚢᚲᛖᛞ". This is exactly what's on the log.
@@dragonfied321 Why do you know Norse runes Are you some kind of pagan witch
@@macewindu1 Elder Futhark is the language of the cosmos, or so Odin would have you believe.
The good thing about the opening chapters is that one of Grettit's ancestors is a dude called Ivar Horse-Prick which is one of the best epithets in the Icelandic sagas for sure.
Red went absolutely crazy with the art for this video, I got chills seeing Glam’s curse😰
His half brother fighting 'so valiantly he gets complimented by everyone' combined with the image of him dual wielding swords in the rain and fighting off like a dozen dudes by himself made Metal Gear Rising music play in my head.
Which I'm pretty sure is the single highest compliment that can be given for a piece of art depicting a fight.
["Rules of Nature" intensifies]
"THERE WILL BE BLOOD!!"
(blood!)
"SHED!!"
(shed!)
@@mr.cobalt1668 "(The Man in the Mirror nods his head!)"
To be honest, grettir saga is probably the most logical take of the "one dude that keep punching people to death". Yeah turns out, being a warrior that fight as a lifestyle will inevitabely create a sour bitterness from the sorrow of the one he killed, and a boredom when you actually not fighting.
But you *do* get to be 3-time ghost hunting champion, so you know it balances out somewhat
10:31
This is one of the dumbest, most braindead decisions I've heard a man make for a while.
And I respect him for that.
"I accept food, naps and cool swords" is what I'm saying every time someone thanks me from now on
I just have to say, the depiction of the undead monsters is terrifying in all senses, really captured the otherworldly and half alive state of them
This is the greatest Murderhobo epic I've never heard of. Red's snark is in full swing, the art is glorious & terrifying, the jokes are just *chef's kiss* hilarious, AND YOUR COVER OF "Wanted Dead or Alive" is MESMERIZING!
5:53 Famed for his strength, bad temperament, bailed on by the equivalent Argonauts. Anyone else seeing a lot of Heracles parallels?
Wait, my request became THE Halloween video!
Great job Red, I hope it wasn't as hard as some of the other requests you've done.
How did you come up with this request? This was so great! (And great video Red! :D)
@@VxV631 It might have something to do with his name.... He sounds like he might know a thing or two about Icelandic sagas. XD
@@eshbena ehh, pretty much, wanted Red to do an Icelandic saga and chose the one with the most ghost wrestling
@@gumundurulfarsson2423 Absolutely excellent choice sir, 100% loved the ghost punching.
@@gumundurulfarsson2423 is there any chance your family bloodlines are related? 👀
I swear, the more north you go in this world, the more freaky and just straight up pants-sh*ttingly terrifying the monsters get.
Long nights mean lots of time to tell ghost stories i guess
Be aware that Iceland has a group of holiday monsters called the Yule Lads with their kitty the Yulekott, who will straight up devour you if you didn't get new clothes for Christmas.
It's because the further north you get, the harder people have to try to come up with something scarier than winter.
Eh its not so bad up here
Yes, but try some of the Slavic legends for variety. They do NOT F around.
I always love OSP's comedic timing but this might be an all time high. "Heard you wouldn't fight a log" "that log must've been more devious than I thought" and the tombstone "You Wanna fight??" have left me more slain than more of Grettir's enemies. I officially love this moronic "hero" that I had never heard of until now.
4:40 It all boils down to a legit use of “Björn again.”
Learning the origins of the word Glamour has fulfilled me
I’m only familiar with one character from one of the Icelandic sagas, and I love the similarities the story shares with this one. Hervor is one of the main characters of the Tyrfing Cycle, which follows a string of people who’ve all wielded the same cursed sword Tyrfing and had their lives ruined by it. It was buried in a barrow with its last wielder, Angantyr, and his 11 brothers.
Later, his daughter Hervor went and became a viking, going on badass adventures, you know, the general faffing about, until she heard of her dad having a sick-ass cursed sword. She went to the island her family was buried on and, you guessed it, located the barrow by the magical fire on the horizon. Using nothing but her acrobatics and her voice, she summoned and thwarted the 12 revenant spirits of her father and uncles, and claimed the sword Tyrfing for herself.
Then she took a boat to Jötunheim, as you do, and got all buddy-buddy with a court of giants, sadly having to kill a guy who swiped her sword and fell under Tyrfing’s curse. A giant prince thought that was hot and later married her, but only after many more years of Hervor first faffing about with her sword, then retiring the adventuring life and faffing about with dancing and embroidery. Not because her being a warrior was some phase and now she was expected to do more “womanly” things, but because she was extremely competitive and had already proved herself better than all the men at manly things, so now she wanted to kick all the women’s butts at their things too. Yeah, she did not have the sloth that Grettir seems to.
On top of being a warrior getting a cool sword after fighting an undead dad in a barrow that was on magical fire, Hervor’s story is also sandwiched between the multiple chapters of Tyrfing’s previous wielders and the stories about her descendants, much like Grettir being one chapter in the midst of way too much other stuff. They even both have a moment of finding a cool land of giants and getting along with a big giant dude’s kids, only to up and leave before things could get good. At least Hervor left for a good reason (stabbed a dude) and reconnected with aforementioned giant dude’s son later.
Notably, Hervor is the only one in this cycle whose life isn’t ruined by Tyrfing. She’s smart enough to find loopholes in its cursed power, exploiting it to her advantage, but also seems to have a resistance to malignant magic given all the weird things she fights. In any case, this is why I say Tyrfing had many wielders, but Hervor was its only master.
What sucks is Hervor is found absolutely nowhere in popular culture nowadays. The closest we get is a few Tyrfings in Japanese RPGs, and Tolkien basing Éowyn from Lord of the Rings on her. The books also had a scene of the hobbits claiming magical swords after fighting off a barrow wight, which is also inspired by Hervor (taking Tyrfing from her dad and uncles’ ghosts), but apparently beating up ghosts in barrows to get cool swords is more common an event in these sagas than I thought.
holy sh**? this is so cool-
Red, are you reading this? This sounds like an idea for a future video!
*Hervor starts doing embroidery besides some norse woman*
Norse woman: Excuse me, aren't you that lass that went and got a cursed sword and fight because she wasn't like the others?
Hervor: Indeed I am.
Norse woman: Then why are you doing embroidery here and being better at it than me?
Hervor: Got bored of always kicking men's asses on their stuff, so now I will do it to women. Aren't I the best?
I think Tyrfing is also mentioned in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice as one of the lore drops, but I'm kinda surprised this story isn't in the game. It's a really cool story!
I'm always down for a good cursed sword.
WAIT a minute... Is this literally just Tolkien's The Children of Hurin???!!
Tolkien was part of a group at Oxford where they would read the Sagas in their original language and regularly discuss them, I wouldn't doubt his work was in some ways inspired by the Sagas
A more direct inspiration for The Children of Hurin specifically would be the story of Kullervo in the Kalevala
It's actually very common for writers to reimagine (or just straight up steal the plot) of old nordic tales and Icelandic sagas
OMFG RED?! YOUR ART IS INCREDIBLE!
The emotion, the mounting horror as Grettir is trapped and looks around him to find he's surrounded, the subtle glow of Glams eyes that are really his own eyes staring back at him from the dark, omfg Red your art is truly breathtaking, i legit cannot think of anything else to say, just-
Holy fuck, your ability to storytell just through wordless art is amazing! Not just with the curse of Glam, but also with Grettirs eyes changing when he realizes that something is truly wrong with him, and when the mercenary found him dead. Breathtaking scenes that say so much without saying anything at all!
For reference
0:00 - Introduction
1:16 - The Start
2:29 - The First Ghost Fight
3:17 - Defending that One Guy’s House
4:25 - The Rest of the Exile
5:07 - The Return
5:48 - Glam
7:56 - Lots of Trouble
9:40 - The Great Couch Surf
10:44 - Yet Another Ghost Fight
11:22 - The Island and Grettir’s Legacy
14:20 - Outro
Putting in a request for Egil's Saga. The very first murder hobo DnD campaign.
Egil Skallagrimson? Älskar den!
Hoooooooo boy that could potentially be a long one, and I’m all for it
@@arawn1061 not to be confused with Skallagrim
A lot of Icelanders ( including myself ) can trace their lineage to Egill Skallagrimsson which I think is pretty neat.
Also I love Egil's Saga.
I love how, once again, the first 20% of the saga is explaining how Egil's family fucked up so bad that they had to move to Iceland, and then the first we see of Egil is his dad saying 'no you can't come party at granddad's, you're a mean drunk, stay home and do normal three-year-old things'
I'm just shocked that they had a law against cruel and unusual punishment, in that exile couldn't last longer than a set time, especially when it seems most everyones solution to any problem was murder
It's crazy to have watched your videos grow, the art in this video was absolutely amazing and the way you tell these stories is always so entertaining.
Yep this proves two things
1. This is a long story with many sequels
2. Red art is both beautiful and horrifying
As someone with adhd I can relate to grettir finding basically heaven and then getting bored and leaving
Honestly that's my worry about heaven. Also why I will never be able to have a relaxing life. I'm pretty sure he had ADHD like 99% sure. That would definitely explain a lot of the story.
@@deiansalazar140 yeah for real for real. I'm definitely more fixated on how terrifying hell is but u know. Neither sound super appealing in certain depictions
i mean thats basically what the final season of the good place was about
Fun fact! The translation of this story by William Morris is the first appearance of Wight being used to describe an undead!
Out of all of the stories that you’ve told, this one feels the most like a Skyrim play through.
I think it's the draugr that do it. Although, the OG draugr make the Skyrim ones look like kittens in comparison.
The illustrations of these things just keep getting better. I’m legitimately in awe with the drawings of the curse.
(Edit: oh wow red got way better at the guitar this video is just full of treats)
I honestly love how so much of Viking stories is really just legal battles.
Heroism, adventure, and- "Oi, pay your damn blood prices already! >:("
This sounds like the deconstructed murderhobo narrative every TTRPG table needs!
Also, can we all agree that Red's guitar has gotten really good? And she doubled the vocal track!
2:03
"Get outta town"
"Oh, no, my thriving social life"
XD
Earlier this year I did research on Njal's Saga which basically read like Law and Order: Weregild. I honestly think part of having the sagas around was to try and make the legal code memorable and digestible. Grettir's Saga might as well be an extended look at the statute of limitations.
According to stores in the US, it’s already snowy season instead of spooky season
Retail seasons are like 2 months ahead of actual seasons
Imagine stocking Halloween costumes in August and Christmas lights as early as June
Listen, this is like 80% of the reason I became an anticapitalist, we *reeeaaaalllly* need to fix society so people stop thinking it's in anyway acceptable to be annoying about Christmas months before December.
@@Ezekiel_Allium Honestly I would be ok If the worst part of capatilisim was the early xmass items
I just heard a Christmas commercial on the radio. Super surreal.
I remember a while back at school my class had the pleasure to have this saga enacted by a sweet old lady with dolls and a curtain sewn with scenes hanging on a long clothes rack. I only understood around 50-60% of the story since she told it in icelandic and I was still learning it but really enjoyed that story ❤
I love how Red can simplify the story so much that it's not boring but keeps enough of it so you get the story and it's educational. You do great work Red!
Edit: thanks for the likes guys.
I love how he gets exiled for murder and is just like "Welp, my previous exile for murder is up so I guess I can just serve this one by going home" Also props to him for being savvy enough to avoid the suspicious firewood.
The witch should have sent him a wooden horse as a house-warming present. Nothing suspicious about that 😇.
The finger picking on "Wanted Dead or Alive" was GODLY, Red. Well done!!
But... but I DO want another edition of Torvald Asgear Ace Attourney :(
Who hopes that OSP gets a chance to play Monster Prom?
I want to see Red relate to Liam, Blue, relate to Calculester, Indigo relate to Zoe, and Cyan relate to Vera
Date to dream!
Who’s indigo and cyanine?
@@jharris2321 I think they mean Cyan. Indigo usually does the editing for the podcasts. Cyan... I think that's Blue's wife? Don't quote me on that.
@@Dark_Tale yup
@@Dark_Tale yes, the wife who’s beauty he compares to the roads of Rome. Never change Blue, never change.
Okay, straight up, the ghost imagery in this one was AMAZINGING! Especially the ones at 6:27 , 6:46 , and 7:25
These were horrifying and I LOVE it
Yo the segment of the Curse being placed was *amazing*. I simply couldn't look away.
I think this is one of my favorite misc myths. Powerful protagonist who keeps making things worse by punching first and never asking a thing, ghost wrestling, barrows, ghouls, trolls, murder giants, attractive giantesses, confusing names, cameos, dying in bed of cursed wasting wounds… It’s got a little bit of everything!
Grettir and Alcibiades; the crossover we all didn't know we wanted until this video.
The OSP Halloween episode. My favourite time of the year
Hear hear!
Second favourite: the Journey to the West episode
9:35. Ooopsies, that's a crime! I so need to make that my background
I would like to thank Red for making this video because it gave me the topic for one of my best graded college essays.
And it gave me much needed context for which parts were even interesting for what i wanted.
I've been a fan for over five years and seeing red's animation skills consistently improve is rewarding in a way.
Red's Halloween costume always warms my heart because the Lovecraft video was my introduction to this channel. I came across it while being a bum after having done my SAT's and needing to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. A fond memory indeed! PS the monster designs in this video are absolutely top notch, Red.
Mine was their college one. Its funny because I didn't like that video but saw their mythology ones and was like ooh I changed my mind. I love them now.
@@daisyphinney1038 Their mythology videos were quite helpful when studying for my mythology class haha. Goods times!
I can only hope that one day someone will make a movie about Grettir.