Grettir gained his fame early in life as an up-and-coming star of the sports world in several areas; including weightlifting, javelin, shot-put and handball. Many were eager to discover which sport he would end up concentrating on the most, because then he would surely become one of the best in the world. He was already on several different junior national teams. The handsome red-haired lad also came across as fun and likeable in interviews; eloquent, distinctive and glowing.

But it would all come to nothing, and people soon got to know the other side of him. Ultimately his fall from grace was due to his lack of discipline and his aggression. He slammed doors whenever people disagreed with him - drove all his trainers away because he went off the rails when he felt someone was giving him orders - besides becoming a drinker and ending up in fights and other scandals during his binges.

When it was obvious his sports career was over, he had a surprise come-back as a television star; his character, eloquence and energy making him one of the most popular presenters in the country – but he would not keep his demons under control for long. He ended up losing his job and sunk deeper and deeper. Friends and relatives tried to help him, but he had already got into drugs and crime and ended up behind bars. People started to say: “luck and talent are two different things”. But he would soon be back in the public eye once again because, while in prison, he wrote a collection of brilliant poetry and ended up turning the poems into songs and releasing them as a best-selling album.

In the early days his lyrics were raw, bleak and negative and well suited to the sound of the music and his harsh voice; but in recent times he has redeemed himself, become a committed AA member and sings mostly about higher things, love and friendship, and would probably fit in well as a Salvation Army singer.

Einar Kárason
Author

Grettir Ásmundarson was from Bjarg, on the shores of Miðfjörður. He was an eloquent and intellectual man who had a propensity for messing things up in the most spectacular ways. Grettir is like a walking psychiatry textbook, in which psychosis, behavioural problems and genius all collide. His young self is easy to diagnose with conduct disorder. He physically bullied others, injured his father, was horrible to animals, lied when he believed he had something to gain and destroyed his parents’ property. As a grown up, you could say he falls well within the definition of ‘antisocial character’ disorder.

Grettir was quite intelligent, as many psychopaths are, with a certain charisma which is characterised by his eloquence and witty retorts. He was also a loner who had little interest in the company of others. There is much that points to a split personality. He had no close friends mentioned in the Saga and gave others little but emotional coldness and platitudes. His interest in women and sex was rather limited, as is often observed in men with his personality disorders.

Grettir in the modern age
Grettir would have started getting in trouble right away as a child, ignoring the prevailing social norms and landing squarely on the wrong side of his teachers, his peers, the police, child protection agencies and family members. After many attempts to address the young man’s mental health issues, with stays in the adolescent psychiatric ward, he would eventually end up as a delinquent, getting into violent crime and spending parts of his life locked up behind bars.

He might have been able to use his natural intellect and eloquence to get himself off the hook for a while, but slowly the tide would turn against him, as people stop being able to forgive him. Grettir would have been the same misfit in modern society as he was in his own time. He would probably be declared disabled before reaching thirty and live off his benefits in seclusion in small, uncomfortable rooms and flats.

Óttar Guðmundsson
Psychiatrist