The Concept Of Fate In Grettir's Saga And Beowulf

The concept of Fate differs significantly in Grettir’s Saga and Beowulf. In Grettir’s Saga the eponymous hero wanders around from misfortune to misfortune, with no apparent Fate apart from vague predictions about the nature of his death. Grettir is plagued by bad luck as well. This is very different than the concept of Fate in Beowulf, where Beowulf has an established fate, and good luck or divine intervention works on his and his fate’s behalf. Fate in both narratives is predetermined, yet the concept of Fate in Beowulf is more deterministic than that of Grettir’s Saga since Fate for Grettir seems more a diffuse collection of unlucky events that repeat through his life. Both Grettir and Beowulf are endowed with a rather prodigious strength.

Luck in the saga seems a predetermined quality, either good or bad with the individual having no say in their own luck. Whereas Grettir’s Norwegian half-brother Thorstein the Galleon is “thought to be a man of great luck,” Grettir is continually referred to as “a man of such great ill luck” (Grettir’s Saga 234, 112). Due in part to his bad luck, Grettir lives alone as an outlaw for nearly his entire life. Awful occurrences follow him in his outlaw-hood: Grettir inadvertently burns down a hall “along with the people inside”, Grettir makes many enemies, he is cursed, as well as many other unfortunate events (p. 110). King Olaf, “the sole ruler of all Norway” even tells Grettir once Grettir’s ordeal is called off due to Grettir striking the young boy who insults him in church, “It is not possible to struggle against your ill luck” (p. 108, 112). And by and large this sentiment regarding the uselessness of struggling against one’s luck holds true throughout the narrative. Even though Grettir is the strongest man in Iceland, and his uncle Jokul Bardarson proclaims that “no one is your equal”, Jokul also tells Grettir the old saying “that luck and ability are not the same” (p. 98). By this Jokul means that even with Grettir’s vast strength and skill his luck is so poor that facing Glam, the revenant who used to be a farmhand, would be a poor idea. This prediction is proven right, with Glam

Fate in Beowulf is easily described—the hero is destined to battle and overcome horrible monsters and divine intervention and influence is how that destiny becomes a reality. However, Fate in Grettir’s Saga is more convoluted. Grettir has no apparent purpose unlike Beowulf, and much of the story reflects this. The majority of the narrative is concerned with telling us about Grettir’s complicated and typically haphazard wanderings during his long outlaw-hood, unlike Beowulf where the purpose is ever-present. Fate for Grettir takes a different form. Luck is equivalent with the concept of Fate in Grettir’s Saga, and Grettir cannot ever depart from his fate and awful