GLIMA - A BRIEF HISTORY by Þorsteinn Einarsson

Foreword:

Þorsteinn Einarsson was Iceland’s inspector for sports and traditional games between 1941 and 1981.

In this capacity, Einarsson had the resposibility to collect information from all over Iceland regarding the country's history of sport.

Over the course of his 40 year career, Einarsson documented the history of traditional folk wrestling in Iceland, and wrote a document about the different forms in "Glima the Icelandic wrestling".

Þorsteinn Einarsson

This document by Einarsson covers how Icelandic glima was developed from the types of wrestling brought to Iceland from Norway in The Viking Age, the differences from the forms of wrestling, their origin, and the connection between Viking wrestling and the Icelandic law books.

It also covers Viking wrestling’s use in warfare, combat, daily life, pleasure, play and competition.

The following is a copy of the document given to the Olympic Committee by the Olympic committee of Iceland. Here is the English translation and illustrations from the original document.

Tyr Neilsen

President of the Norwegian Laustak Federation

1. tHINGVELLIR

GLIMA

The Icelandic Wrestling

An ancient form of wrestling developed from the forms of combat brought to Iceland by its settlers in the Viking Age and practiced by their decendents for the last 11 centuries

A BRIEF HISTORY

Presented to the international Olympic committee by the Olympic committee of Iceland.

Author Thorsteinn Einarsonn

Glímusaband Íslands (Icelands Glima Association) Reykjavik 1984

Revised by the author in 1987

New English translation 1988

In 1874 the Icelandic people celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the settlement of their country. The main festival was held at Thingvellir (1) a plain on the shore of a lake surrounded by sheets of lava some 50 km northeast of Reykjavik, where the nation had convened each june to attend their legislative and judicial duties from 930 to 1798 A.D. One of the many and distinguished foreign guests at the 1874 celebraton was Christian IX, the King of Denmark.

On the first day of the festival, the king rose early and strolled out to the fields where the Icelanders had pitched their tents for the night. Most of them were out of their tents, playing games to warm themselves. One of the games that caught the king’s eye was a wrestling match. He showed such interest in this vigorous sport and the nimble contestants that two men recognized the best wrestlers of the time were brought before him to demonstrate the game at its best. The name of the noble game was glima, the Icelandic word for a national form of wrestling.

(1) The Althingi, Iceland’s Parliament, was founded in 930 AD. The place selected for its meetings was known as Thingvellir (lit. “The Assembly plains”), a site of stunning natural beauty. It is situated a short distance from Reykjavik, and here the Altingi held its meetings in the open air until 1798.

Various ancient forms of wrestling have been preserved by nations as diverse as Switzerland, Korea, Japan, india, Russia, Turkey, etc. Ancient wrestling styles are also found in various parts of the British Isles, e.g. Westmoreland/Cumberland, Scotland, Cornwall and Devon. The same is true of Bretagne in France, the Canary Islands, among the nomadic shepards of Mongolia, the Moaris in New Zealand, the Indians of the Amazon region etc.

The modern styles of wrestling such as the Greco-Roman styles and freestyle have little in common with these folkloric styles.

Nor has Judo, which was modernized as a form of competition wrestling in Japan in the last century, being derived from ancient national styles formerly used in war and self.defence.

The settlers of Icelander mostly came from Norway, but also the British Isles, most of the latter being of Celtic origin. These settlers brought with them a form of wrestling which they resorted to when they lost their weapon in battle. But there were other forms as well, which they indulged in for exercise and amusement.

Wrestling (fang)2 is a form of combat in which two opponents face each other unarmed and either naked or wearing special wrestling attire, and in some cases belts or trousers designed for gripping. Each wrester then strives to lay the other on his back, seizing the opponent by his clothing or part of his body, belt or trousers and/or by tripping him with the feet or legs by means of special wrestling tricks (or “chips”, as they are called in back-hold).

2 “Fang” means “catching” in the sense of obtaining control or possession of something. “Fang” is also the Icelandic word for the area of the body between a man’s arms. A man who is another’s “fang” is held between his arms.

Wrestling is considered to be among the oldest sports practiced by the erect human being.

In Iceland, wrestling (fang) developed to serve a threefold purpose:

(1)  In warfare:  

For attack and defence. When a warrior lost his weapon in combat he could resort to his wrestling skills. Either in attack or in defence of his life. He might thus attempt to bring an opponent into a position of disadvantage on the ground with a view of maiming or killing him, e.g. by planting his knee in the opponents belly and biting or cutting his throat.

(2)  In daily life: 

In order to restore warmth and circulation to the body after a long time on horseback in cold weather or during periods of inactivity when shorebound at fishing stations due to adverse weather conditions, or when resting during long shifts of tending and herding sheep in remote regions.

(3)  For pleasure, play and competition:   

Wherever people gathered, at schools, churches, fishing stations, at shepard’s gatherings in the autumn when sheep were braught down to the sheep pens from summer pasture in the highlands, at other seasonal festivities and at any festive occasion.  

Forms of competition:

(1)  Team competitions

(2)   Classification matches (contestants paired off according to ability or rank for two bouts and a tiebreaker if necessary).

The following forms of wrestling have been known in Iceland.

All belong to the category of fang although those which were intended for recreation, joy and competition were, according to a paragraph in the lawbook dating from 1281, defined as leikfang, or “game wrestling”, leikur being the Icelandic word for game and fang the word for wrestling.

A. In earnest (in deadly combat):

All available grips (holds) on the opponent were employed, including tricks with the feet and the legs, designed to bring the opponent under for the purpose of maiming or killing him.

In ancient legends there are accounts of epic wrestling matches fought by famous wrestling champions whose names are still household words in Iceland and they were ferocious when they fought blåmenn and berserkers. 3.

In these accounts the participants dressed in wrestling tunics which their opponents could grasp. Although they were cases when they seized another by the torso.   

In the field of combat there was a waist-high tapered slab, the wrestling or slaying slab, to which a wrestler endeavored to bring his opponent in order to break his back or to fell him so abruptly, front downward, that his rib cage would break.

B. In the play or to preserve or restore warmth:

Leikfang (wrestling for amusement).

1.    Loose-grips.

Wrestlers wore ordinary clothing. Hand-grips were on the front of the jacket and/or the sleeves, and on the collar about the neck-line. Tricks were applied with the feet (foot-tricks) and hands (hand-tricks).

All known tricks in glima (“correct wrestling”) could be used, but on applying tricks, with either or both hands, a competitor might resort to gripping his opponent’s clothes at other places other than the shoulder or collar in order to gain tha advantage, for instance at the bend of the knee.

The hand-grips not permitted in “correct wrestling” but used in loose grips were as follows:

-  Bolabragð (bull ankle-throw); Bolahnykkur (bull-lift throw); hálsbragð (neck-touch); draugasveifla (leg-whirl – lit,  “ghost leg-whirl)); draugabragð (floating throw lit, “ghost throw”); skrekkutak (side-drop); skussabragð (side-shirl): skeggubragð (somersault throw); Veltibragð (reaping throw); músabragð (foot-lift); tábragð (step-on toes); sveifla (swing); knébragð (knee-throw); grikkur (two-arm slip); magabragð (rear hip-throw); bakbragð (back-lift throw); hnykkurrin (the hand-jerk or pull); hnykkir (ten kinds of hand-snapping motions intended to unbalance the opponent and throw him).

These ten hand-grips had no names, but basically they consisted of using either hand to grip or strike the opponent’s left or right side all the way down to the bend or side of the knee followed by a pushing, jerking, snapping or swinging motion.  -The advantage this gained could then be followed up by a conventional glima-trick to complete the victory.

There are at least 27 of these wrestling tricks which were initiated by means of one or both hands. The victor was the contestant who remained on his feet when his opponent had fallen on the ground, or, if both contestants fell and touched the ground with their torsos, the first to rise to his feet.

Loose-grips were widely practiced in Iceland, and in some areas they were even more common than the traditional wrestling (glima).

In cold weather, especially when clothing was wet or damp due to rain or snow, loose-grips were well suited for play and the preservation of warmth. In piercing cold and wet conditions, employing glima-grips on the thick and stiff homespun trousers must have been difficult indeed.

It is clear from written scources, however, that there was a clear distinction between the “correct” glima on the one hand and the “liberal” loose-grips wrestling on the other, the difference being that in the latter, contestants “did not wrestle by means of correct grips.”

Thus, when “correct” wrestling matches (glima matches) were held, the rules of wrestling were recited beforehand and it was specified that hand-grips were not permitted.    

2.    The Icelandic Wrestling Glima

In the course of time, most nations have developed some form of traditional wrestling. Contrary to the form of hand-to-hand combat which pertained to warfare and were designed to main or kill an opponent, these traditional forms were intended for the entertainment, pleasure and play, i.e. they were of a sporting nature. The Icelandic form of wrestling belongs to this latter category.

By the 12th century, at the latest, this type of glima (“game of gladness”), a word entymogically related to the English word “glee” (Anglo Saxon “gleo”). Thus, the Icelantic wrestling was a sport of gladness and joy as opposed to the deadly combat of warfare.

The features of glima which distinguish it from other national wrestling forms include the following:

1)    Fixed grips on the opponent’s waistband and the outside of his trouser’s leg.

2)    The upright position of the contestants.

3)    The circular movement of the wrestlers between the application or attempted application of wrestlingtricks, the so called stigandi (glima-steps or treading)

4)    Distinctive tricks applied by means of the feet, legs and hips.

For centuries there were two types of holds. The one was a hold with the right hand on the waistband of the opponent at his left hip and under his left arm, and with the left hand on the right leg of his trousers at about the middle of the thigh and over his right arm. In the other type the holds were inverted.

In modern wrestling, the former is the rule. The position of the feet (the glima-stance) and the circular movement (treading) varied according to the holds. When the right hand was held at the waist band, the right foot was advanced and the wrestlers stepped to the right (stignandi).

The method of treading, so characteristic of Iceland wrestling, is thought to have developed with the sport in the form it took when practiced during winter in the halls of Icelandic farmhouses.

The contest would take place in front of the woman’s platform in the space ectending from the platform to the edge of the central fireplace (the so-called long-fire characteristic of Icelandic communal halls in old times) when the dinner tables had been cleared away and stored on top of the beams above.

Activity had to be confined to this restricted space, and the result was the slow circling of the participants, either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Since this kind of fixed circular movement is not to be found in the national wrestling styles of other peoples, the glima-step may be regarded as a characteristic unique to Icelandic wrestling.

In the Icelandic sagas there are numerous references to wrestling, but the term is often used to denote an entirely different form of wrestling where the contestants clasp hands behind each other’s back and exert pressure, sometimes violently and with intent to bend the opponent’s back and do him injury, or where the wrestlers took grips on each other’s clothes and applied tricks by means of the hands, feet and torso. But there are also descriptions of a sportsmanlike game in which contestants took firm hold on each others trousers, engaged in a series of three bouts and employed tricks using their legs, feet and hips. That was glima.

In the schools of the episcopal seats at Hólar and Skálholt, and later at the Hólavalla school in Reykjavik and the nearby Bessastaðir school (1805 -1846) Icelandic wrestling, or glima, reached its highest stage of development as an independent sport.

Here, as in the communal hills of earlier times, there was a limited indoor space. As a result, glima became the prevailing form of wrestling since loose-grips were better suited for outdoors practice where cold and wet weather conditions and heavy clothing rendered the “correct” grips more difficult and where there was more space. The form of competition was the glima-match which was judged in accordance with the wrestling rules recited to the competitors beforehand. In this way, glima was preserved in Icelandic society up to the present time.

The victor in a glima contest was the contestant who managed to fell his opponent in such a way that his torso touched the ground or in such a way that his opponent touched the ground two (-three) times with one or both knees or in such a way that his opponent fell once, either backwards or forwards, on both hands.

In 1905 Icelandic wrestlers began to use gripping straps consisting of a leather strap around the right thigh, and this strap soon developed into the full wrestling harness, the “glima” belt, now in use. From this point trouser grips were discontinued entirely in Icelandic competition wrestling.

In 1916 the Icelandic Sports Federation laid down rules of competition for Icelandic wrestling. According to these rules the match was commenced from a standstill and a combatant was said to be fallen if he touched the field or floor with any part of the body above the knees or elbow.

These provisions were amended in 1951 to conform with traditional wrestling laws.

An amateur association of Icelandic wrestlers named Grettir after one of the most famous wrestlers of ancient times, was established in 1906. The association had an engraved silver belt made, and in 1906 a competition named “the Icelandic Glima Championship” was established, awarding the title of “Iceland’s Glima Champion” to be the winner. This is the oldest prize still being contested in Iceland.  

3.    Wrestling forms in which the contestants take hold by clasping hands behind each other’s back.

A.    Back-spanning (hryggspenna)

1.    With intent to injure: Hands clasped behind the opponent’s back, each contestant maneuvering for the most advantageous position either by getting both arms under those of the other (under-grip) or around the, (over-grip), and thereupon trying to sway the opponent back while at the same time applying swings and wrestling tricks or causing pain by pressing his chin against the opponent’s shoulder and forcing his knuckles into his back.

2.    For entertainment: as a game or competition.

Hands gripped together round the opponent’s waist, the right arm underneath the opponent’s left on (under-grip), and the left arm over the opponent’s arm (over-grip). Wide stance. It is permissible to shift forwards and backwards, to either side and in a circle. Swings are forbidden as well as all wrestling tricks. Applying the chin to the opponent’s shoulder is prohibited, nor may the knuckles be pressed against his back in order to cause pain. The object is to sway the opponent back until he fails.  

B.    Shoulder grip – The Icelandic back-hold (Axlatök)

The wrestlers stood chest to chest, a little to the left of each other so that they looked over each other’s right shoulder. On taking hold, the grasped around the opponent’s torso near the height of the shoulders with the finger hooked together, and each placed his right arm under the opponent’s left arm (undergrip). The contestants took a stance with the right foot slightly in front and to the right. At the beginning of the contest the wrestlers moved to the right (clockwise) around each other. No other hand-grips were allowed, and no hand-tricks were permitted. Swinging was allowed, as were all Icelandic wrestling-tricks (glima tricks). It is not clear what constituted a victory, but it is assumed that the contestant who touched the ground with any part of his body apart from the sole of the foot was the loser.

At Thingvallir, the site where Iceland’s parliament convened annually for more than 800 years, there is an area known as the wrestling slope (Fangbrekka). The topography of the area indicates that the wrestling itself (the fang) took place in a centrally located level piece of ground while the spectators sat at the slope of the rising ground above.

A number of idiomatic phrases in the Icelandic language leave no doubt that fang occupied a prominent place in the daily life of Icelanders.

The phrase “að hafa undirtökin” (“have the undergrip”) is a common idiom for “having the advantage;” “að ljá fangstað á sër” (“allow a hold to be taken”) is a common phrase meaning “to place onseself at a disadvantage;” the word “viðfangsefni” (lit. “matter to wrestle with”) is a common word meaning “problem;” and as in English, the Icelandic language uses the phrase “fast/glíma við eitthvað” to mean “wrestle with a problem.” The difference being that the phrase is much more common in Icelandic than in English.

Many further instances could be given to illustrate how fang has influenced the Icelandic language. Already in the Icelandic sagas, which were written down on parchment in the 11th through the 13th centuries, mostly describing events taking place in the 9th to the 12th centuries, it can be seen that there was a distinctive style of wrestling for amusement, where the combatants took hold of each other by the waistbelt of the trousers with one hand and the other side of the trouser leg with the other.

It seems indisputable then, that Icelanders have practiced glima through nine centuries or more in a more or less unaltered form apart from the relatively recent introduction of the wrestling belt (1905 – 1909).

Basic rules of glima.

The two wrestlers (glimumenn) stand nearly erect, each a little to the left of the other with a slightly wide stance and the right foot slightly advanced. They look over each other’s right shoulder, but never down at the feet, the reason for this rule being that the wrestlers are to wrestle by tough and feel and not by slight.

Once the wrestlers have taken their holds and adopted the required stance they begin to step to their right.

Then, at a signal, they begin to apply the tricks. Each contestant seeks to throw the other by causing him to lose his balance. Each tries to hook a foot around the other’s foot or place his foot behind or in front of the other’s in order to trip him. A contestant may also try to heave his opponent into the air and by skillful use of the feet, legs, or hips, prevent him from landing on his feet, causing him instead to fall on the ground in such a manner that he touches it with some part of his torso.

There are eight main kinds of tricks (bragð)4 designed to fell (topple) the adversary, and each trick can be executed in a number of different ways (approx. 50).

The eight main tricks of glima are as follows:

1.    The outside stroke (leggjarbragð).

2.    a) the inside-click (innanfótar hælkrókur hægri á vinstri)

b) the cross-click (innafótar hælkrókur hægri á hægri)

c) the back-heel (hælkrókur báða).

3.    a) the twist over the knee (hnéhnykkur)

b) the outside hipe (hnéhnykkur á lofti)

4.    The hook (krækja).

5.    The cross buttock (sniðglíma)

6.    The inside-hipe (klofbragð).

7.    The cross-buttock aloft (lausamjöðm).

8.    The full or half buttock aloft (mjaðmarhnykkur).

In modern glima competition the wrestlers wear special wrestling attire (glimuföt), consisting of special shoes and a combination of pants and shirt with a protective cover around the groin.

Each wrestler wears three leather belts, one around each thigh and one around the waist, the thigh belts being fastened by straps to the waist belt. The two wrestlers enter the arena, which is a smooth, bare timber floor, and greet each other with the right hand, and with the left hand grasps the belt round the opponent’s thigh. Only then can the combat or glima begin.

4.

There is no exact equivalent in English for the word “bragð”. The Oxford Icelandic-English dictionary of Guðbrandur Vigfússon and Richard Cleasby says: “the fundamental notion is that of a sudden motion . . . in wrestling “bragð” or the prlural “brögð” is the technical phrase for wrestlers’ tricks or sleights,“ But in reality they are more than tricks or sleights; they are various ways in which the art and technique of glima are gracefully and skillfully carried out.

There are two current theories on the development of the sport glima and the origin of its name. One holds that when the people of Iceland adopted Christianity they abolished many heathen customs, including those connected with warfare. The form of wrestling which was practiced in a friendly spirit was allowed, however, and given the name “glíma,” i.e. “gladness.”

The other theory holds that glima was brought to the ancient seats of learning at Hólar (1107) and Skáholt (1056) by students who converged there from farms in all parts of the country. From all the different styles brought together by the students that style selected which was exclusively for amusement and which required the least space, and in order to please the members of the clergy the sport was given the name derived from gladness rather than violence or killing.

The students who congregated at these schools were mostly young men, and in spite of the strict discipline of the Church, they engaged in various kinds of sports and amusement. The popularity of glima in these schools can be attributed to three main reasons. The youths quite naturally wished to test their strength and skill. They sought means to amuse themselves. And, last but not least, wrestling was an ideal way to keep warm in houses that were poorly heated or mostly unheated.

When schools were formally established at the episcopal seats at Hólar (1552) and Skáholt (1553), these became veritable breeding grounds for practisers of glíma. There is ample evidence to show that students at these schools became skilled masters of glíma during their school terms and that they were respected and even revered as such in addition to what was due them on account of their wisdom and learning.

We have already mentioned that due to the lack of space, the style of wrestling characterized by treading and fixed grips gained precedence, and the popularity of wrestling in schools contributed to the spread of this style. A point worth mentioning also is that two different styles developed in the schools, the difference being that in one school the left hand was used to grip the waistband, while in the other school the opposite was the case, and this difference has been perpetuated to the present century despite the fact that the two schools ceased to exist about two centuries ago.

A later school was founded at Bessastaðir, the present presidential residence near Reykjavik, and there is no question that the students there played an important part in the popularization of glima in Iceland. One can almost say that glima was one of the compulsory subjects of study at the school, and many students there became well known masters of the sport.

They were even better known as such than they were for their mastery of these arts which formed part of their formal education. When they subsequently took up duties as officials of State or Church their mastery pf glíma was passed on to many youngsters who were only too eager to learn, and these youths then became renowned as skillful glíma-champions.

The following four illustrations taken from accounts of daily life in Iceland about two generations ago will suffice to demonstrate the role played by glíma in the Icelandic national consciousness for a millennium or more.  

1.    Two shepherd-boys from neighbouring farmsteads are watching over their flocks, one on each side of a little vale. They cross the river to visit each other. They exchange news and stories, erect shepherds’ huts and play at farming using sheeps’ bones for livestock. Then they go on to practice their wrestling and even stage a match on a level grass plot on the bank of the river.

For a good portion of the day they match their skills, or they may practice some special “bragð” (glima trick) or dexterous move in throwing the opponent which they have seen their elders practice after church or at some other public gathering. Many an Icelander who has tended sheep in his youth will have vivid recollections from his shepherd-days when he wrestled other shepherds of the vicinity. This the tending of sheep became a school in which one of the subjects was the glíma.

2.    From January until May each year, many young men were engaged in fishing, rowing out to sea in their open boats. The fishermen would establish camps on the seashore at places where the distance out to the good fishing grounds was not too great. Such camps were known as “ver”. The crews of each boat would live together in huts or booths known as “búðir.”5

Thus, the crew of each boat formed a separate unit or organization. When bad weather rendered it impossible to row out to sea, it became necessary to devise some form of entertainment to keep warm and busy. The main sport, of course, was glíma. Sometimes the wrestling would be free (lausaglíma), individuals cometing with anyone willing to accept their challenge. But at other times the crew of one boat would issue a challenge to the crew of another. This latter form of competition was called “bændaglíma” (team-wrestling)6    

3.    On various occasions a number of people from two or more parishes would gather together for entertainment. At such gatherings there would be singing, dancing, story-telling and wrestling. The best wrestler of each parish would select wrestlers for his team from his parish. This team-wrestling provided excellent entertainment which was enjoyed by men and women alike, young or old. Often these great wrestling contests would be discussed on later occasions as historic events.

4. In former days when Sunday’s religious services were practically the only regular social gatherings, it was a common sight to see young men in groups on a mound or hillock near the church matching their skill and strength in a game of glíma, often both before and after hearing the gospel from the clergymen. Thus it was that gíma flourished among the Icelandic people from age to age and passed from generation to generation down to the present time. The glíma is as much a part of Iceland’s heritage as the language, literature and history.

Glíma is now being introduced in other countries where exhibitions matches are staged to promote this sport. It is manly and it embraces all the good qualities of true sport. It exercises all the muscles of the body, develops courage and endurance, demands quick thinking and stimulates alertness, speed and quickness.

The Icelandic Glíma Association is a member of the International Federation of Celtic Wrestling, participating in mutual cooperation with those who practice national wrestling in Bretagne (France), The Lake District and Cornwall (England) and Scotland for the preservation of their cultural heritage.