The Gripping History of Glima
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Description: Offers information on the history of this long standing art created by the Vikings. Includes information on the modern form, including key points and basic tricks. Article in The Journal of Western Martial Art by Pete Kautz.
Glima translates literally as "The Game of Joy", and is an art roughly 1100 years old. It was brought to Iceland by Viking settlers, and has been practiced as a folk art ever since. It is mentioned in writing in the "Jonsbok" law-book in 1325, "Whosoever participates in a contest of friendly wrestling or hide-tugging does so on his own responsibility". In other words, "It's your own damn fault if you get hurt!" The term used in the book to refer to wrestling is "Leikfang". This is an older name for wrestling. The root word "Fang" meaning "Catching" in the sense of gaining control of a person or object. The term can also be used to refer to holding someone in their arms, the space between the arms, or wrestling in general, though in the old sagas when they talked of Leikfang it sounds more like back-hold wrestling than what we see in Glima today with the low grip. Some of the Leikfang contests described end with spines being broken from a man being bent backwards.
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