"In settlement times glíma fell under two categories: “leikfang” or play wrestling and wrestling “in earnest,” the purpose of which was to get a man on the ground and kill him. Yet even leikfang had potential for harm. As it says in
Jónsbók, a book of laws dating from 1325, 'whosoever participates in the contest of friendly wrestling does so on his own responsibility.' This warning may have had something to do with the involvement of 'the slaying slab. This was a waist-high tapered stone stuck into the ground that a wrestler would try to bring his opponent to in order to throw him onto it and break his back or, for varietes sake, on occasion slam him belly-down on it and crush his ribcage." The full version of this article on Icelandic folk wrestling may be viewed at the
Reykjavik Grapevine.
No comments:
Post a Comment