Glima, The Viking Martial Art
Background - The Vikings as Warriors
There are two important things that made the Viking
achievement possible. The first thing was that the Vikings
were a maritime people and were able to build
ships that was the best in the world at that particular
period of time. The other important ting was that the
Vikings mastered a martial art that was on a high evolutional
level, because it allowed them to successfully
fight against anyone that dared to meet them with
weapons in hand.
A lot of historical and archaeological research has
been made about the Viking ships, but almost none has
been done concerning the Viking fighting arts. This
presentation is a little teaser of what can be done in this
fascinating subject that is equally important for our
understanding of the Viking age as the maritime angle
is.
The Viking Martial Arts
The Vikings fought both at land and at sea. Their martial art was mostly a close combat fighting system, where axe, sword and spear was the most preferred weapons, but they also used distance weapons as bow and arrow and stone throwing.
Daily Close Combat Tranning
To be able to be engaged in hand to hand combat, a
warrior has to be trained and prepared in the most
efficient way if he wanted to have the slightest possibility
to survive a fight in earnest when life was at stake.
If we look at the historical sources, we can get
some useful information about how often the
Vikings did train hand to hand combat by
studying the Valhalla myth. In Vafþrúðnismál (40)
from the Elder Edda we are given an interesting
reference that states that the einherjar or the dead
warriors in Valhalla trained hand to hand combat
with weapons every day. And the Younger Edda
(Gylfagining, 40, 50) explains that they do this
daily training to be well prepared for the Ragnarökr
or the final battle of the worlds when gods and
the einherjar will die side by side.
The Warriors of Odin
The Norse warrior religion was closely connected
to their martial arts. The Viking poetry and the
Elder and the Younger Edda have lots of references
to the after life in Valhalla, which seams to reflect
the kind of life that the warriors lived when they
were connected to a mighty king or a chieftain.
The most skilful and fearful of the Norse
warriors were the berserkr, and they were also
regarded as the warriors of Odin. Heimskringla
(Ynglingasaga, 6) states that the Odin had the
power to make his enemies blind, deaf or terrified
in battle and that their weapons did not bite more
than soft branches of tree. The warriors of Odin
fought without armour or chain mail, and it was
said that they had the power of the mighty bear
and the deadly wolf. When the berserkr were
engaged in battle they possessed a fighting spirit
that made them insensible of pain and did not feel
when any harm was inflicted on them. This
phenomena was called beserksgangr or berserk-fury.
The berserkr has been wrongly portrayed in
later centuries as mad warriors that was crazy
people and possessed almost no fighting skills. But
if we read the oldest Norse poetry from late 9th
Century (Haraldskvæði, 8, 20, 21) we find out
that the berserkr was the most admirable and
honoured warriors of the Vikings themselves.
Why You Need to be Able to Fight
If we look at the Norse Viking age society, we
notice that they lived in a world where all the
free men were supposed to know how to fight. In
the old Laws of the North you could always solve
a dispute by challenging the other to an einvigi,
holmgangr or a duel. This meant that anyone could
lawfully take away all your possessing and your
life if you did not have the power or skills to
defend it with weapons in hand.
The other thing that constantly threatened your
life was the custom of Blood-revenge, that made
all the male relatives in a family an accepted
target to kill for other families who had a Vendetta
with them. Therefore every male family member
had to foster fighting skills at an early age and be
able to keep this skills intact through all their life.
Glima – The Training System of The Vikings
The Norse community had a very special way of
fostering fighting skills and a useful fighting
attitude. This training system was called Glíma or
a quick movement that seams like a flash or
fangbrögð or wrestling with energetic techniques
face to face. With Glíma you could enhance the
physical fitness and pass on the fighting skills
needed from the old to the new generation – and
this was done in a playful way that had a lot of
useful and pedagogical values.
Fangbrögð or Glíma (or Glímur in pluralis) was
the old Norse names for the unarmed combat
training that later in history become a term for
traditional wrestling. Glíma could be practiced in
three different styles – buxnatök, hryggspenna and
lausa tök. In buxnatök and hryggspenna they
wrestled with fixed grips that was taken before
the fight begun, but in the lausa tök you had to
wrestle for the grip.
BUXNATÖK
Buxnatök or the Trouser-grip was the technical
and most advanced form of Glíma, because in this
style the wrestlers had to fight with an upright
body-position. It was forbidden to stand against
the opponents movements with pure strength, and
therefore you had to do all defensive manoeuvres
in an evasive way.
In Glíma you learned that it is good if the
opponents attacks you, because every defence was
a beginning of an attack. The Buxnatök style of
Glíma was recognised for its very advanced legwork
that was used to get the opponent out of balance.
HRYGGSPENNA
Hryggspenna or Back-hold was a more strengthconsuming
form of Glíma, because in this style
you were allowed stand in a stiff and immovable
position with your back bent forward and you
could also use all your strength to hinder the
opponent from wrestle you down to the ground.
This meant that the hryggspenna was used as a
method to enhance that kind of fighting spirit,physical endurance and stamina that was useful
to have on the battle-field when the fighting went
on for a very long time.
But if you wanted the fight to end as quickly
as possible in hryggspenna, you still had to
straighten your back and raise the body-position
as in buxnatök when you went for the attack.
With modern terms we could say that the
hryggspenna was a form of active fight-meditation
that was trained under very harsh and strenuous
circumstances.
LAUSA TÖK
Lausa tök or Free-gripping was a kind of selfdefence
wrestling that was very close to the way
you wrestle when you could use every means
possible to stay alive in a fight an at the same
time tries to concur your opponent so that he
was no longer a threat to you.
It was the lausa tök style of Glíma that you used
in any kind of fight-situation when your life was
at stake.
What Glima Taught The Viking Warriors
The most useful thing that the Glíma-practice gave
you was a good balance. And to have a good
balance and be able to quickly regain a lost
balance are of course the essence of all fighting
styles in the world.
The upright body-position that was put
emphasis on in all the three styles of Glíma and
particular in the buxnatök style made it very easy
for the wrestler to change from unarmed combatexercises
to weapon-training, because you already
had the straight back that you needed in weapon
fighting.
The straight upright back and upper body was
the backbone of all defensive manoeuvres or
positions in all the three styles of Glíma, if the
aim was to quickly and successfully be able to
counter every possible attack from an aggressor.
The relaxed body-movement that was not
strength-consuming and the intuitive fighting
attitude that all the three styles of Glíma fostered
was useful things to master on the battle field.
Where Glima Has Survived
The buxnatök style of Glíma was practiced in the
Scandinavian mainland of Norway, Sweden and
Finland at least up until the first half of the 20th
Century. After that time it has only survived in
unbroken traditions on Iceland – where it actually
is the official National Sport of the Nation. Since
the late 20th Century it is again practiced in
Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The hryggspenna style of Glíma was practiced
in Scandinavia up until the end of the 19th
Century in Denmark and Iceland, and up until
the first half of the 20th Century in Norway,
Sweden and Finland. Nowadays hryggspenna is still
practiced in unbroken Viking-tradition in the
North of England and in Scotland were it is called
Cumberland-Westmoreland wrestling or Backhold
wrestling. Since the late 20th Century it is
again practiced on Iceland and in Sweden, Norway
and Denmark.
The lausa tök style of Glíma was still practiced
by the soldiers in the armies of Scandinavia in
the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century,
but since then it has emerged with modern hand
to hand combat training.
Techniques from all the three styles of Glíma
can also be found in the modern Olympic
wrestling styles (Greco-Roman wrestling and Free
style wrestling). It is mostly the hryggspenna grip
that becomes the most obvious survivor in the
Greco-Roman wrestling – that more correctly
should be called French-Finnish wrestling because
it was developed in these two countries in the
second part of the 19th Century and had nothing
to do with the historical wrestling styles of ancient
Greece or the Roman Empire.
Lausa tök Glíma and its self-defence
applications are being recreated since the late
20th Century by older Glíma-masters on Iceland
and younger practitioners in Scandinavia and
Europe. The leading person in this theoretical and
practical project is Lars Magnar Enoksen.
The Change in Late Viking Society
It is difficult for a martial art to survive in a old
form longer than 150–200 years, because warfare
always changes when new weapon develops and
therefore ancient combat styles become obsolete.
But a sport has better possibilities to keep and
preserve old rules for a much longer period of time.
If we look at the Viking society, it seams that
there was a lot of changes going on in Scandinavia
in the 11th Century. In the subject of fighting we
see that the traditional Viking raids changes to
army operations under this Century. A new
religion and stronger national kingdoms finally
took power and political and military control over
the Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Norway
and Sweden.
In the beginning of the 11th Century the represents
of Christianity was able to banned the duel form
einvigi and holmgangr as lawfully accepted means
to solve a dispute, and at the same time the
berserkr and the beserksgangr was made illegal. Later
on in the same Century the new religion also
worked hard to change the custom of Bloodrevenge,
that even the strong þing or lawassemblies
in Scandinavia had tried to work out
methods to solve disputes in a more civilized way.
But it took some time to make this old custom
extinct in Scandinavia. Iceland was the last
stronghold of the Blood-revenge, where this
deadly tradition culminated in the middle of the
13th Century (Sturlunga saga) and died quickly
out after that.
The changes from a warrior religion to
Christianity, and the fact that the old duel forms,
the Blood-revenge of the family Vendettas
became fewer and that the famous bear-warriors
was no longer around – was important things that
changed the old Viking style of hand to hand
combat forever.
The Leiðangr
Even if the Scandinavian warfare changed in the
11th Century, the male population of Scandinavia
was still expected by its kings to be fit for fighting
and military activities. The leiðangr or leidungr or
the peoples maritime army (founded in Norway
ca. 940 AD), was still used in the 13th Century
and made it necessary for the population to know
the basics of hand to hand combat and weapon
fighting.
We actually still can find some references to
the Viking style of fighting in the Norwegian
Konungs Skuggsja or the Kings Mirror from the
middle of 13th Century and the Hirdskrá or the
Warrior code from the end of the same Century.
Glima in Later Times
In Glíma the old Viking training systems of hand
to hand combat could survive when it was made
an iþrottir or a sport in the modern meaning of
the word. The old concept of drengskapr or fair
play taught the Glíma-wrestlers to uphold the
warrior code of how to behave in a honourable
way when training hand to hand combat. The
concept of nið or foul play was both taught to
make the injures fewer and to learn what kind of
techniques you used in a self-defence situation.
The fact that Glíma was guarded with very
strict rules already in the early 12th Century on
Iceland (Grágás; Vigsloði chapter) and in late 13th
Century in both Norway and on Iceland (Jónsbok;
Manhelgi chapter) tells the medieval Law-books
of the North. In modern Glíma, or the way as
Glíma is practiced since the late 19th Century and
the early 20th Century, we still find the old rules
of nið and drengskapr, which stills is regarded as
the essential concept of Glíma-practice.
Do not think that Glíma has survived in a
unbroken tradition since the Viking age only
because it is a great fighting system. The reason
why Glíma has survived has more to do with that
it was often used as a quick and efficient way to
heat up your body when it was cold and that it
also enabled you to have a strong and an agile
body up until a fairly old age.
Just remember that the Viking warriors in the
late 10th Century were supposed to be vigr or in
fighting shape at least up until you were 60 years
old as it is said in Heimskringla in Olafs saga
Tryggvasonar before the battle of Svoldr.