Outlaws, trolls and beserkers: meet the hero-monsters of the Icelandic sagas

Rebecca Merkelbach (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic) discusses the monstrous heroes of Scandinavian mythology and literature. "I've come to kill your monster!" exclaims Beowulf in the 2007 film version of the epic poem. But how do his suspicious Danish hosts know that this monstrously huge stranger is actually a hero searching for glory? And, by the same token, how do modern audiences with no prior knowledge of the Marvelverse know that the Incredible Hulk is a "good guy"? At least readers of the Icelandic sagas had an advantage: they were used to their heroes being monsters - at least part of the time. Iceland's medieval literature is rich in many regards: in Eddas and sagas, it tells us about early Scandinavia and its expanding world-view, ranging from the mythology of the North, the legends and heroes of the migration age, the Viking voyages and the settlement of Iceland all the way through to the coming of Christianity and the formation of kingdoms in Scandinavia. It also tell us about monsters - for the literature of medieval Iceland is also rich in the paranormal. In mythology, gods and men fight against giants. In the sagas, humans battle the forces of disorder, the trolls and revenants - think a cross between a vampire and a zombie - that inhabit the wild mountains and highlands of Norway and Iceland.