{Come, Bring, Get} to grips
{Come, Bring, Get} to grips

Greetings,
I like this idiom and would like to know it more. I venture that patrons of this forum may have access to etymological reference works. Perhaps someone will look this up, thanks.
Here're my useful findings, to present, Etymonline's entry for tackle notes for that verb that
The meaning "lay hold of, come to grips with, attack" is attested from 1828, described by Webster that year as "a common popular use of the word in New England, though not elegant;" figurative sense of "try to deal with" (a task or problem) is from 1840. The verb in the sporting sense first recorded 1867, "to seize and stop.
The 1828 edition is Webster's first, so the phrase is not as modern as Google's ngram search would suggest. Google's trail begins in the second decade of the 20th with a broad enough variety of sources' interests and locations, in my an-amateur-as-of-this-morning opinion, to corroborate a wide and continuing usage going into that decade. That is, it's not in the records of the South Australian Parliament, an English aeronautical journal, a federal Bureau's ethnology report, a translation of the memoirs of Babur, and the quotes of a fraternity periodical because the idiom had been unheard (though unattested with Google) for the 90 years since Webster noted it.
Actually, adjusting the date range further back (which I just learned is a thing I can do), Google ngram has this idea at least from the 16th century, gaining the slightest notoriety again in 1765. But it can't say where it has this idea from before 1911. I tried to find what might have been published in English in 1524, such as one Robert Copland's "Epilogue to the Syege of Rodes," but no dice.
So, I think, its original sense refers to some historical combat. One easily speculates that the allusion was always to some form of wrestling to denote situations of literal or psychological combat. However, I would be interested to know more about the time and context of the phrase's origins to better my speculation. For instance, were its origins early modern, I might suppose that the grips were always metaphorical, while a medieval trail for the phrase would suggest it drew on literal mano a mano situations. Then again, the idiom could be a borrowing from another language for all I know so far.
EDIT: I did something wrong when posting; not sure, but maybe two of these topics will appear. Sorry.
Comments
The OED lists together
The quotations they use to illustrate this are
They equate at grips with at handgrips. They define
Handgrip is a very old fighting term in English. The earliest use found by the OED is in Beowulf.
The comment above is by me. dcrosbie551 does not exist
Wonderful! I conclude via Beowulf that the "original" metaphor, as far as the English language is concerned and presumably as far as any predecessor is concerned, is for literal mano a mano rather than being either a metaphorical or sporting combat.
Thanks, Mr. Crosbie.
Also, though I guess no one will ever mind, I just noticed that where above I said "fraternity," I know I did mean 'sorority.'
The Beowulf quote is
Literally, So that because of my hand-grip he had to lie down busy for life
In Seamus Heaney's translation
Quotations for handgrip after Beowulf seems to denote physical wresting until the nineteenth century uses seen in these quotes
Thanks very much for the Awesome click, Vir 27. Ironically, it goes to the non-existent dcrosbie551. Do you think you could transfer it to a post in my name?
You're welcome! Thanks for the pertinent info.