been from Bjarg in Miðfjörður. At Bjarg, Grettir Ásmundarson always had refuge with his mother Ásdís. Many place names in the neighbourhood of Bjarg and indeed throughout the county bear the name of the outlaw e.g. Grettishaf, Grettistak and Grettishöfði at Arnarvatn. Grettisfærsla The late fifteenth century manuscript Eggertsbók contains the sole survivng text of Grettisfærsla, a poem concerning a character called Grettir which is mentioned in chapter 52 of Grettis saga. The poem is notable for its thematic focus on sex and the "indiscriminate sexuality" of its protagonist, expressed in direct, non-euphemistic language. Rímur Grettis saga inspired a number of Icelandic rímur: 15th century: Grettis rímur (8 rímur, anonymous, attested in Kollsbók) 1656: Grettis rímur (14 rímur, Jón Guðmundsson í Rauðseyjum) 1658: Grettis rímur (20 rímur, Kolbeinn Grímsson) 17th century: Grettis rímur (lost,Jón Guðmundsson í Hellu) 1828: Grettis rímur (44 rímur, Magnús Jónsson í Magnússkógum) 1889: Ríma um síðasta fund Grettis Ásmundssonar og móður hans, Ásdísar á Bjargi (1 ríma, Oddur Jónsson) 1930: Gláms rímur (6 rímur and epilogue, Sigfús Sigfússon ) Post-1900 culture Garfield is named Grettir in Iceland: because he is rufous, a little broad and unwilling to conform to society's norms. A memorial was erected to his mother Ásdís at Bjarg in 1974. The memorial displays a relief from Grettis Saga made by Icelandic artist Halldór Pétursson. Grettir is celebrated in the long poem Eclogue from Iceland in the 1938 collection The Earth Compels by Irish poet Louis MacNeice, who had developed a love of Norse mythology while at school at Marlborough College. In it, the ghost of Grettir speaks with two men, Craven and Ryan, who have been 'hounded' from a decadent and war-threatened Europe 'whose voice calls in the sirens of destroyers'. He urges them to recover their underlying human values, and to assert, as he has, 'the sanctity of the individual will'. He tells them to return home as an act of duty, which he calls - remembering his own defiant choice to be an outlaw - 'Your hazard, your act of defiance and hymn of hate, hatred of hatred, assertion of human values' and (in the poem's final words') 'your only chance'. The Australian composer Percy Grainger described the Grettis Saga as the "strongest single artistic influence" in his life. The saga was adapted in 2017 as the basis for a novel set in Sheffield by Tony Williams. Translations Explanatory notes References