Lausatök

Viking Wrestling

Glíma as a sport covers several types of Scandinavian folk wrestling: Lausatök, Hryggspenna, and Brokartök. Glima was the most widespread sport in the Viking Age, and was practiced by men and women of all ages. Wherever Vikings gathered, Glima was a big part of the entertainment. Glima was so important for Viking society that their most popular god, Thor, was also the Viking the god of wrestling.

It is possible that the origins of Glíma are Norwegian. Glíma is first mentioned in Viking poetry by the Norwegian court poet Bragi Boddason (790-850) and Kveldúlfr Bjálfason (820-878), also of Norwegian Heritage. The poetry is about the Norse god Thor and his journey to Utgards-Loki, where Elli defeats Thor in a wrestling match.

Glíma is also mentioned in Prose Edda the Icelandic collection of texts from 1220, and in the book Gylfaginning.

Glíma as a sport has also gone by the name of Scandinavian Wrestling and Viking Wrestling (Vikingbryting).

Níð

Old Norse: nīð; Old English: nīþ, nīð, was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honor and the status of a villein. A person affected with the stigma is a nīðing (Old Norse: níðingr, Old English: nīðing, nīðgæst)

Excessive use of techniques aimed at deliberately injuring an opponent is frowned upon in sport Lausatök glíma. It is enough to use glima techniques that send an opponent to the floor, to inflict 'pain' on the floor, to 'slap' and opponent as opposed to 'punch' and kicks aimed at shocking an opponent rather than breaking bones. Such actions are considered níð; unsportsmanlike and opposing the nature of Glíma as a sport for honorable sportsmen and women. The concept “níð” does not exist in other ethnic grip sports.

Lausatök Sport

In a friendly Lausatök (Løse-tak) (Free-grip) match, the winner is considered the one who is standing tall while the other is lying on the ground. This means that if both the opponents fall to the ground together the match will continue on the ground by the use of techniques to keep the other down while getting up.

Lausatök Self-defense

Lausatök glima as a self-defense system contains throws, grappling, blows, kicks, chokes, locks, pain techniques and weapon techniques, and is comparable with the best complete martial arts systems from around the world. Lausatök glima as self-defense was the foundation for the Viking warrior, and these techniques are still practiced in Scandinavia, Europe, North America and South America.

Lausatök Combat Glima

Lausatök (Løse-tak) (Free-grip) is the form of glima used for combat. In such training, the harmful and hurtful techniques, or ways of executing the techniques, that are not accepted in other forms of glima, are explored in as free and creative a way as possible while not injuring the training partner.

Lausatök glima for combat and self-defence was the basis for the Vikings fighting expertise and includes techniques against weapons. In order to have a structured form of unarmed combatives against striking weapons, the Vikings had to know how to use a variety of weapons, such as sword, axe, spear, seax, long seax, and knife. The foundation for the use of these weapons is found in Lausatök combat glima. There are several training places in Scandinavia that teach this, the foremost of which is the Academy of Viking Martial Arts in Buskerud county, Norway.

Lausatök glima was the combat martial art used by the Scandinavian military.

History of Viking Martial Arts

The Vikings were famous as great warriors, on land and at sea. Viking warriors had the skills to survive against the various forms of warfare they encountered in their travels around the world. The reason for the Vikings fighting prowess is found in the way they trained both with, and without weapons. Glima training for Scandinavian children began at 6 or 7 years of age. The combat system of Glima developed the strength, reflexes, endurance and courage, Viking warriors needed to survive in battle. Glima as a sport was fun, and Glima wrestling competitions were extremely popular.

As with people of every age and nationality, Vikings loved sports. Wrestling was the most widespread sport in the Viking Age, and there were several variants. Viking wrestling was divided into glima wrestling, Råbryting (Raw wrestling) and water wrestling. The unrestricted form of Råbryting was crude and wild and differed from glima wrestling because these contests were decided by opponents being pinned down. Water wrestling was a wrestling match in the water, and was the most popular form of swimming competition. The idea was to keep the opponents head under water until he gave up, and such matches could last for hours.

The skilled variants of Glíma wrestling (Brokartök, Hryggspenna, and Lausatök) had complex rules and competitors brought each other down with lightening quick moves and tricks as much with the feet as with the hands. Glima wrestling was divided into several classes based on strength and skill, between two opponents or team competitions between different districts.

The original Norwegian settlers in Iceland took Viking wrestling and the Glima combat systems with them, according to the Jónsbók law book from 1325. In the Icelandic medieval book of laws known as Grágás (Gray Goose Laws), which refers to a collection of earlier Norwegian laws, there were rules for wrestling. The Icelandic populace has taken very good care of their Norwegian heritage, and Glima there is almost unchanged since Viking times.

References to Glima in the Grágás Icelandic Act of 1117, and references to the Viking fighting style in the Norwegian Leiðangr (Leidang), the people's maritime military force, from 940 to the 13th century, in the Norwegian Konungs skuggsjá, King's Mirror, published in 1250 and Hirdskrá, (Hirdskraa, Hirdeboken), the Norwegian warrior codex from the late 13th century.

It is a fact that Viking Wrestling has always been practiced for combat action in realistic situations in Scandinavia, as mentioned in the Swedish Illustrerad Idrottsbok, published in three parts in 1886-1888 by Viktor Balck, who was a founding member of the International Olympic Committee in 1894.

Through historical documents, we can see the Viking fighting techniques were still in use at the 16-, 17- and 1800s, and academic papers on Scandinavian wrestling appears that Viking wrestling was still being practiced regularly in the 19th century. Also at that time, the Swedish and Norwegian military were using a combat system based on traditional Scandinavian wrestling and Glíma self-defense/combat techniques in bajonettkamp.

In 1916 the self-defense version of the Glíma became illegal in Iceland, but thanks to the common people who continued to train Glíma, and such people as Icelandic Glíma champion Þorsteinn Einarsson, and Þorsteinn Kristjánsson who was superintendent for sport in Iceland. Even though the Viking martial arts were kept alive in Iceland, when modern sports broke through internationally in the early 1900s, Greco-Roman wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu, and Mixed Martial Arts began replacing Scandinavian wrestling.

Thanks to modern Viking martial artists and Viking reenactors, the unbroken tradition of the Norse martial art and Glíma is not only alive, it is gaining in popularity all over the world.

Organizations

The Norwegian Glima Association (Norges Glima Forbund) is the official organisation for Glima in Norway and is responsible for the Norwegian Glima Championship. The current president of the NGA is Tyr Neilsen.

The most prominent Viking Wrestling prize in Norway is Norges Glima Mesterskap, the Løse-tak (Loose-Grip) Norwegian Glima Championship.

Roger Olav Stalheim, Norwegian Glima Champion 2009 and 2010.

Andreas 'Einherjer' Sørensen, Norwegian Glima Champion 2011, 2012 and 2013, is undefeated in competition.

John Harald Foss Fjeldbu, Norwegian Glima Champion 2014.

Mads Rolfsen, Norwegian Glima Champion 2015.

Bjørn Arild Braathen, Junior Norwegian Glima Champion 2013, 2014, 2015.