Glima
Icelandic wrestling on leather grips, and the national sport. Fought upright and in constant rotation; the throw is won by timing, not force.
Quick Facts
IcelandCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Glima
About Glima
Glima is Icelandic wrestling and the national sport, practised on the island without interruption to this day. References to wrestling appear in the Icelandic sagas, which is where the common association with Vikings comes from; **what is documented, however, is the form codified in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries**, not a direct line from the Middle Ages. The basic and best-known form is brokartok, the trouser-grip wrestling. Wrestlers wear leather straps around the waist and thighs, take a firm hold of them and may not let go; throughout the bout they must also stay upright, and the body must not bend into the usual wrestling crouch. The pair circle each other continuously, so the bout looks more like a dance than a shoving match — and that is precisely where its technique comes from, the throw being won by timing a step rather than by force. The winner is the one after whose action the opponent touches the ground with any part of the body between elbow and knee. Besides brokartok there is hryggspenna, a bodylock contest, and lausatok, a looser form with a wider range of holds. Competition is overseen by Glimusamband Islands, and since 1906 the Grettisbeltid, Grettir's Belt, has been awarded — the oldest Icelandic sporting trophy still in use.
Styles & Branches
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.