The article concerns the ghost story of Eyrbyggja saga, the so-called ‘wonders of Fróðá’ (Fróðárundr), and examines the symbolic meanings of this episode as they were interpreted in medieval Iceland. The analysis presupposes that, although the restless dead could be understood as ‘real’ by medieval readers and as part of their social reality, the heterogenic nature of the audience and the learning of the writers of the sagas made possible various interpretations of the ghost-scene, both literal and symbolic. It is argued that the living dead in Eyrbyggja saga act as agents of order, whose restlessness is connected to past deeds of those still living that have caused social disequilibrium. In Fróðárundr these actions involve expressions of disapproved sexuality and birth of offspring with indeterminate social status. For the ghost-banisher the hauntings represent an opportunity to improve his own indeterminate status.
Mental (Dis)Order in Later Medieval Europe, ed. by Sari Katajala-Peltomaa & Susanna Niiranen. Leiden: Brill 2014, 219-242.
In this article I concentrate on the effects that ghosts have on the living people in sagas. I use examples in such Íslendingasögur as Flóamanna saga, Eyrbyggja saga, Eiríks saga rauða and Laxdæla saga. I have concentrated on two aspects of the influence of the dead on the living in these sagas, fear and physical illness, and discuss medieval Icelandic conceptions of mental disorder by examining the meanings given to fear and illness intertextually. Consequently, the article also contributes to the study of the medieval Icelandic conceptions of mind and emotion, and emphasises the problems inherent in using modern concepts in historical studies. I also give special emphasis to two diverse discourses extant in medieval Iceland: indigenous folk conceptions and foreign medical theories. I show that these views sometimes overlapped but were sometimes in conflict, which makes the definition of a single concept of ‘mental disorder’ held by medieval Icelanders difficult. In this article, I argue that for medieval Icelanders ‘mental’ was something rather physical, and, although the symptoms caused by the restless dead—fear, insanity, illness and death—would be categorized by us as mental or physical, in the sagas these were all considered bodily in nature. Moreover, I also suggest that medieval Icelanders did not make a clear distinction between emotions and physical illnesses, since emotions could be part of the illness or even its actual cause. I argue that both emotions and (physical) illness encompassed state of disequilibrium and were dependent of external agents and forces that had the power to influence the bodily balance and trigger the onset of ‘mental disorder’. Consequently, ‘mental disorder’ could be manifested also in physical illness.
Authorities in the Middle Ages. Influence, Legitimacy and Power in Medieval Society
The article concentrates on two scenes of actual or anticipated posthumous restlessness in Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar and Eyrbyggja saga. Both are countered with special and similar rituals, but have different consequences, as the corpse in Egils saga remains peaceful but some restlessness occurs in Eyrbyggja saga. The episodes are examined from the perspective of power and authority. The article includes a discussion of the way in which some of the deceased who were expected to have “strong minds” were ascribed authority over the living in sagas. In this role the ghosts could interfere in the lives of the living, and occasionally adopt a moral function in that they could rectify injustices, although they were sometimes malevolent in nature. Nevertheless, some individuals could contest their post-mortem power and use various means, such as rituals, to control it or modify it according to their own needs. It is suggested that such a capability was possessed by a certain kind of character, one whose mind was strong enough to bridle the powers of death, but which could in turn be counteracted by magic.
2017
If you like the book and wish to make the author happy, print copies are available: https://www.amazon.com/Troll-Inside-You-Paranormal-Activity/dp/1947447009/ https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-troll-inside-you-paranormal-activity-in-the-medieval-north/ Thanks to Punctum Books and to Rannís for making this book possible.
2013
This book is sold-out (2018). Click here for an electronic copy.
2014
The present study scrutinizes the outlawry and outlaws that appear in the Icelandic Family Sagas. It provides a thorough description about outlawry on the basis of extant law and saga texts as well as an analysis of referential connotations attached to it. The concept of outlawry was fundamental for the medieval Icelanders conceptions of their past. Indeed, understanding outlawry is essential for understanding many of the Family Sagas. Outlaws appear in saga texts in significant roles. The Icelandic Family Sagas comprise a group of prose narratives that were written down in the 13th and 14th century Iceland. They are based on events and personae that belong to the 10th century Iceland. These narratives introduce many outlaws, out of which some 75 are named. The Family Sagas are studied here as one corpus and special emphasis is given to those narrative features that repetitively appear in connection with outlawry and the outlaw characters. Therefore, the eventual objects of this study are the medieval Icelanders general conceptions of the historical outlawry as well as the variations of these conceptions throughout the period of saga writing. The medieval Icelanders general conceptions about the 10th 11th century, which are reflected in the Family Sagas, are here referred to as the Saga World. The Saga World is the historically based taleworld to which all of the Family Sagas refer. The medieval law texts, which were derived from centuries old legislative traditions, reveal that outlawry meant banishing from the society and being denied all help, and that the outlawed person lost the protection of the law. In practice, outlawry was a death sentence. However, outlaws occupy many differing roles in the saga narratives even in connection with recurrent narrative motifs. These roles reflect the social and spatial structures of the Saga World. The inspection of outlawry within these structures reveals that the definition of outlawry as it appears in the law texts is insufficient for understanding outlawry in the saga texts. The social and spatial structures also provide a basis for the connotations of outlawry. In this study, these connotations are inspected primarily from the referential connections between outlawry in the Family Sagas and corresponding phenomena in other concurrent literature. This is done by studying the implementations of the basic elements of outlawry in the Family Sagas marginalization, banishing, rejection and solitariness within other literary genres and the taleworlds to which they refer. It is argued that these taleworlds reflect the same ideas that were associated with outlawry in the Family Sagas albeit in different forms and that these different forms reciprocally contributed to the conceptions of outlawry. The variety of denotations and connotations of outlawry that is visible in the medieval Icelandic texts reflects the ambiguity of outlawry in the Family Sagas. This ambiguity may shed light to questions such as why an outlaw could be perceived as a hero in a literary genre that predominantly promoted law and order and why the same outlaw could be perceived as a villain on another occasion.
I this study I have explored the medieval Icelandic folk theory of emotions - what emotions were thought to be, from what they originated and how they operated - and additionally, whether medieval Icelanders had alternative emotion discourses in literature, in addition to the usual manner of representation (poetry, dialogue, description of somatic changes).
The legal and historical aspect of Icelandic outlawry in the Middle Ages has been widely studied and commented by scholars, either by following formal indications from the Grágás or through the use of literary examples spread in the sagas. The two main Icelandic outlaw sagas, Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar and Gísla saga Súrssonar have been so far mainly discussed in connection with other tales on outlaws from Europe (Robin Hood, Hereward), but surprisingly not often together. Through the analysis of the concepts of exile and liminality, this paper will attempt to relocate the two sagas in their specific Icelandic context and underline the specific nature of the Icelandic full outlawry as well as its consequences in the narrative. Icelandic medieval outlaws were excluded from the social space of the island, yet forbidden to leave it (óferjandi). The fact to be stuck on the island but out of the public scene leads to the creation of new original and individualized narrative spaces: the supernatural wilderness for Grettir, the tortured dreams for Gísli.
2017, Death in Medieval Europe: Death Scripted and Death Choreographed
In this chapter the posthumously restless dead, or ‘ghosts’ of Old Icelandic saga literature will be discussed. The ghosts in sagas were not ethereal phantoms dressed in white, but dead people appearing to the living in their physical, recognizable and undecayed bodies. These corporeal, physical revenants seem to have both malevolent and benevolent functions in sagas: they may give assistance and advice to people, but may also cause the living trouble and fear, as well as madness, disease, or death. In the light of earlier studies (e.g. Byock 1982, 133; Vésteinn Ólason 2003, 161; Nedkvitne 2004, 38–43; Martin 2005, 75–80) the dead generally became restless of their own free and often malevolent will. Thus, activity after death was usually not a punishment for the deceased, but an expression of their wish to continue to participate in the society of the living. Behind this was presumably a belief in some kind of life power and vitality remained in the human body after death – “a pagan relic” (Vésteinn Ólason 2003, 167) that may have survived in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Iceland (see also Caciola 1996; and on similar ideas in Finnic folklore Koski 2011, 94–97). This idea fits well with the ghosts of the so-called Sagas of Icelanders, Íslendingasögur, which were written mainly in the thirteenth century, that is, over 200 years after Icelanders had adopted Christianity, but not with all ghosts in the saga literature. In other, more mythical saga genres such as Eddic poetry, often thought to derive from the heathen period (ca. 900) but available only in later manuscripts (ca. 1270), and the somewhat later fornaldarsögur (also called Legendary sagas, written ca. 1270–1400), the dead can be awakened against their will by various mythical beings such as heathen gods and goddesses, or witches using their skills to serve their own interests. Moreover, in some later fourteenth-century Íslendingasögur it is implied that restless corpses were made active by ‘unclean spirits’, possibly because the spirits invaded the dead bodies, thus suggesting a link with the phenomenon of demonic possession known in medieval Christianity. The contrast between the activeness and agency of the deceased in the earlier Íslendingasögur and the more subordinate role of the dead in the mythical sources and later Íslendingasögur will be the main theme of this chapter. I will consider the possibility that medieval Icelandic beliefs changed so that the dead became “less active” from the late thirteenth century onwards – that the dead were originally considered active agents that had a will and power of their own but, as foreign (Christian) ideas became more internalized and intertwined with indigenous ones, another mode of thought began to displace the old one. The restless dead were increasingly interpreted as objects that had no power of their own, but were awakened by use of magic or made active by unclean spirits that invaded their lifeless bodies.
New Norse Studies, edited by Jeffrey Turco, gathers twelve original essays engaging aspects of Old Norse–Icelandic literature that continue to kindle the scholarly imagination in the twenty-first century. The assembled authors examine the arrière-scène of saga literature; the nexus of skaldic poetry and saga narrative; medieval and post-medieval gender roles; and other manifestations of language, time, and place as preserved in Old Norse–Icelandic texts. This volume will be welcomed not only by the specialist and by scholars in adjacent fields but also by the avid general reader, drawn in ever-increasing number to the Icelandic sagas and their world. Table of Contents Preface; Jeffrey Turco, volume editor: Introduction; Andy Orchard: Hereward and Grettir: Brothers from Another Mother?; Richard L. Harris: “Jafnan segir inn ríkri ráð”: Proverbial Allusion and the Implied Proverb in Fóstbrœðra saga; Torfi H. Tulinius: Seeking Death in Njáls saga; Guðrún Nordal: Skaldic Poetics and the Making of the Sagas of Icelanders; Russell Poole: Identity Poetics among the Icelandic Skalds; Jeffrey Turco: Loki, Sneglu-Halla þáttr, and the Case for a Skaldic Prosaics; Thomas D. Hill: Beer, Vomit, Blood and Poetry: Egils saga, Chapters 44-45; Shaun F. D. Hughes: The Old Norse Exempla as Arbiters of Gender Roles in Medieval Iceland; Paul Acker: Performing Gender in the Icelandic Ballads; Joseph Harris: The Rök Inscription, Line 20; Sarah Harlan-Haughey: A Landscape of Conflict: Three Stories of the Faroe Conversions; Kirsten Wolf: Non-Basic Color Terms in Old Norse-Icelandic
2013, Interpreting Endeavours, Assessing Agency in Late-Medieval Relations
Medieval Icelandic literature recounts stories of both pagans and Christians settling in Iceland. Most of these stories focus on a male protagonist. However one of these tales centres around a female settler, namely Auðr/Unnr djúp(a)úðga Ketilsdóttir. Her story is unique in two senses: firstly, she is one of the few female protagonists among the many male ones in these accounts; secondly, the question of Auðr’s religion is an interesting one and a puzzle at that as two religious traditions exist parallel to one another. According to the first, she converts to Christianity. In the other, she remains true to the pagan faith of her Norwegian ancestors. These alternative traditions form a good example of how cultural memory and representations of a ninth century female Viking and her religious identity are transmitted in literary form. This article will investigate how these religious identities were created focusing on religious and funerary practices. I will briefly mention what effect these changes have on the depiction of Auðr/Unnr djúp(a)úðga Ketilsdóttir and how she is remembered from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century.
2019, Suomen Kirkkohistoriallisen Seuran Vuosikirja
This article deals with repentance as emotion in medieval Icelandic culture circa 1200–1400. It studies representations of repentance in medieval saga literature, concentrating on repentance as practice (as defined by Monique Scheer), including attitudes towards and meanings given to repentance in religious and secular contexts. Iceland was Christianized in 999/1000, but conversion did not result in radically drastic changes of mentality or worldview. Confrontation of two worldviews, Christian and indigenous, occurred when Christian ideas of penitence were adopted. In Christian thought, repentance as emotion was associated with certain norms and emotional practice. Sometimes these “foreign” norms and expectations in terms of strong displays could collide with vernacular theories of emotion: some emotions considered good and appropriate in Christian thought might be viewed from the native perspective as bad, unwanted, or detrimental to health. The sources used in this study consist of vernacular sagas written in Iceland circa 1200–1400. I will concentrate on two cases, one in Dámusta saga and one in Laxdæla saga. I will examine the representation of repentance in the two sources intertextually in connection with other medieval Icelandic sagas in order to show how Dámusti’s and Guðrún’s repentance as emotional practice would have been viewed in light of vernacular conceptions of emotions. I will suggest that while there existed a model for repentance that emphasized the bodily nature of the experience and drastic emotional expression, this was not the only model. Another type, which represented the practice of repentance as a ritualistic performance, avoided excessive emotions and bodily displays of remorse. The first model was problematic because it ran counter to the indigenous conceptions of what emotions are and how they operate, and thereby contested the local norms of emotional expression.
2012
Last proofs. The book is almost sold out but a few last copies can still be purchased here: http://haskolautgafan.hi.is/node/880
2010, … of Old Norse Saga Literature (the …
The article examines cultural conceptions of the possible afterlives of suicides in medieval (ca. 1200–1400) Iceland: whether those who committed suicide were expected to return as restless dead. It is suggested that suicide corpses were not regarded as inherently dangerous in medieval Iceland. According to the law, those who committed suicide would not be buried in the churchyard, but repentance before the actual moment of death could still make burial in the cemetery possible. The second chance allotted to self-killers raises the question of whether the burial method implied danger and contagion, or merely social exclusion. It is argued that suicide per se was not expected to make the corpse restless. People who were considered weak and powerless in life would not return after death, since posthumous restlessness required that the person had a strong will and motivation to come back. Consequently, in the case of suicides, possible posthumous restlessness depended on the person's character in life. People with strong will and special magical skills were anticipated to return, whereas other suicides remained passive and peaceful.
2013, Dating the Sagas: Reviews and Revisions
On the oral backgrounds of some aspects of the relationship between Vatnsdoela saga and Grettis saga. Published in The Hero Recovered: Essays in Honor of George Clark, ed. James Weldon and Robin Waugh, MIP, 2011, pp. 150-170,
Was Icelandic outlawry exceptional? The legal and historical aspect of Icelandic outlawry has been widely studied and commented by scholars (Spoelstra, 1938), either by following indications from the Grágás or through the use of literary examples spread in the sagas (Frederic Amory, 1992). As main characters of a narrative, Grettir and Gísli were allusively compared through the theme of home and homelessness in medieval Iceland (Miller, 2004), or connected with other tales about outlaws from Europe gathered in the so-called «Matter of Greenwood» (Maurice Keen, 1987), or even supposed to belong to a large Anglo-Norse common tradition on outlaws (Joost De Lange, 1935). However, the two stories have been so far mainly discussed in connection with other tales on outlaws from Europe, but surprisingly not very often together. Grounded on historical, literary and anthropological views, this thesis will attempt to relocate the two sagas in their specific Icelandic context and underline the specific nature of the Icelandic full outlawry as well as its consequences in the narrative. While being banned from the community in continental Europe allowed a man to start a new life in another place, Icelandic outlaws were excluded from the social space of the island, yet kept inside (oferjanði). Why keep trouble-makers inside the enclosed space of the island instead of forcing them to leave the place definitely, as it was the case with sentences to lesser outlawry? The fact to be stuck on the island but out of the public scene leads to the creation of new original and individualized narrative spaces: the haunted wilderness for Grettir, the haunted dreams for Gísli. Through the analysis of the concepts of exile and liminality, this study defines the space the outlaw is forced to occupy (out and under) and teases out the picture of an “inner-exile”, both cause and consequence of outlawry. This inner exile is revealed through a contrastive narrative process, a common structure in the two sagas. From this analysis, the theory of the scapegoat (René Girard, 1982) is discussed and will help to understand the ambiguity held towards outlaws: hunted down and feared, they are nevertheless admired by and useful for the society.
2012, Gripla 23 (2012): 201-233.
This article illustrates that Icelandic women played a more important role in the production and distribution of manuscripts than previously assumed. They formed links between influential families through marital ties and inherited, owned, and bequeathed manuscripts. By analyzing the manuscript context of manuscripts from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries and codicological evidence such as marginal notes, scribal remarks, and signs of ownership, it is shown that the manuscripts in question are mainly connected to female descendants of some of the most powerful families in Iceland. Furthermore, the geographical distribution of these manuscripts indicates the existence of centers of manuscript production in the north, west, and south of Iceland and illustrates that different centers bloomed during different time periods.
2018, Shapeshifters in Medieval North Atlantic Literature, ed. by Santiago Barreiro and Luciana Cordo Russo (AUP)
The berserkir of Old Norse literature have been argued to be able to transform into wolves or bears when berserksgangr, or battle rage, is upon them. However, while an animalistic association cannot be denied, not all genres of saga literature depict berserkir as true shapechangers. This, however, does not mean that they are not ontologically ambiguous — that they are not monstrous. Reading the berserkir of the Íslendingasögur through the lens of monster theory offfers a new perspective on this much-studied character type that reveals that, rather than being physically hybrid, they are socially disruptive: especially in their relationships with women, berserkir in the Íslendingasögur reveal their monstrosity. Ultimately, this reading contributes both to our understanding of berserkir, and to our knowledge of their place in the medieval Icelandic imagination.
2018, Scandia: Journal of medieval Norse studies
The dreams described and discussed in the medieval Icelandic sagas always seem to bear some profound connection to the events of waking life. Scholars have often considered how this aspect of the medieval narratives may reflect either native, pre-Christian beliefs common to the medieval Nordic world or foreign literary traditions imported to the area during the later Middle Ages. Interestingly, several such examinations focus on certain passages in the sagas wherein disputes arise over the perceived significance – or insignificance – of a given dream. However, a close exploration of several such passages – within their respective narrative contexts – seems to reveal more complex attitudes towards the perceived significance of dreams to waking life in the sagas than scholars have sometimes allowed for. Moreover, the discourse of dreams employed by medieval saga writers and used to communicate to their medieval audience may ultimately resist attempts to draw a definitive boundary between that which derives from native traditions, on the one hand, and foreign traditions, on the other. http://www.periodicos.ufpb.br/index.php/scandia/article/view/41280
What are the psychological forces that imbue certain spaces with emotional power? Michel Foucault described one such space as “heterotopia.” Heterotopias are places of extreme colour and diversity, where the magical coming-together of usually contradictory forces exerted profound influence on people’s emotions. This article presents spaces in Old Norse literature where it is not difference and strangeness that have dramatic impact, but rather sameness and familiarity. The term “homotopia” is proposed to describe such spaces. Scenes depicting two particular farmsteads from the sagas, Helgafell and Hlíðarendi, are considered as homotopias. Moreover, with reference to Karl Marx’s theory of labour alienation, it is argued that homotopias have the potential to serve as political propaganda, convincing workers that their workplaces are not sites of exploitation, but are instead objects of aesthetic enjoyment. With this political purpose in mind, literary artifacts from the Old Norse-speaking world are integrated into an intellectual genealogy arriving at the present day. In closing it is therefore suggested that some of the homotopias of the Íslendingasögur provide parallels with the homotopian industrial estates and strip malls of late capitalism.
2018, University of York
This dissertation explores post-classical sagas’ use of fantastic material. Following the celebrated classical Íslendingasögur are the fourteenth and fifteenth-century post-classical sagas. Historically, scholarship viewed this loosely defined genre negatively, condemning their fantastical episodes. Despite recent positive scholarship towards fantastical fornaldarsögur, the post-classical sagas remain maligned. By examining their supernatural episodes through Victor Turner and Arnold Van Gennep, this dissertation posits post-classical sagas use initiatory elements and liminal locations to construct meaning. Three locations are considered: doors, caves, and mounds. The first chapter explores doorways’ narrative purpose through two scenes in Svarfdæla Saga (1350-1400). These pivotal episodes use initiatory patterns, demarcated by doorways and poetry, to facilitate plot and character development. The second chapter examines caves in Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss (1350-1380), Kjalnesinga saga (1310-1320), and Gull-Þóris saga (1300-1350). While caves may facilitate heroic transitions into adulthood, they also have monstrous narrative consequences. My final chapter posits burial mounds in Grettis Saga Ásmundarson (1310-1320), Bárðar Saga, and Hárðar Saga create liminal experiences leading to the hero’s death. By studying liminality in post-classical sagas, this dissertation argues the post-classical sagas may be a coherent genre, structured through initiatory patterns and portrayals of liminal, fantastic encounters as transformative, corrupting, and deadly.
2019, PhD thesis, University of Iceland
Doctoral Thesis from the University of Iceland, 2019, under the supervision of Ármann Jakobsson and the committee members Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir and Pernille Hermann. Ljósvetninga saga takes place in Northern Iceland during the tenth and eleventh centuries and focuses on the political maneuverings of the chieftain Guðmundr inn ríki Eyjólfsson and his son Eyjólfr. Most of the academic debate surrounding Ljósvetninga saga has focused on the issue of its origins. This saga, most likely written in the thir-teenth century, is atypical in that it has two seperate redactions that offer highly divergent information and narratives in several seg-ments, dividing the saga between the A-redaction, based on the late fourteenth–early fifteenth-century manuscript AM 561 4to, and the C-redaction, based on the mid-fifteenth-century manuscript AM 162 c fol. and its approximately fifty post-medieval paper copies. The divergent redactions are the source of much speculation about the text’s origins, split between an interpretation of oral composition, commonly referred to as Freeprose, and one of written composi-tion, commonly referred to as Bookprose. These two understand-ings of the saga are also tied to two different editions of the saga, which have been alternately used to elevate one redaction over the other. Theodore Andersson’s attempt to shift the debate toward a compromise between Freeprose and Bookprose has only been par-tially successful, due, among other reasons, to his continued eleva-tion of one redaction (the C-redaction). This thesis approaches both redactions as independent, internally-coherent texts rather than stressing their literary relationship. The thesis deals with its primary question: How did the reception of Ljósvetninga saga in-fluence its construction? It shows that Ljósvetninga saga has been constantly rewritten over time by its oral performers, its literary authors, its scribes, its publishers, and its scholars. In the introduction, the thesis establishes its material philology approach, presents its assumptions about medieval authorship and intentionality, and argues for the use of the paper manuscript AM 485 4to as the base manuscript for its treatment of C-redaction. The scholarly debate about the saga is presented with special atten-tion paid to matters of origins and dating, examining Ljósvetninga saga’s relationship with Brennu-Njáls saga, and what is gained from a literary connection between the two. A literary interpretation of both redactions as texts that have their own intrinsic value is pro-vided, showing how each of these texts creates meaning using in-ternal connections, including the C-redaction’s þættir. Ljósvetninga saga is used as a tool to discuss the role of cultural memory in composition and interpretation, with a stress on the scholar Barði Guðmundsson, AM 162 c fol.’s fifteenth-century scribe Ólafur Lofts-son, and AM 561 4to’s hypothetical fourteenth-century context. The thesis offers a synchronic and a diachronic reading: the first treats memory as a template for events and people contemporaneous with the author, whereas the second acknowledges both past and present as significant for interpretation. The thesis also examines Ljósvetninga saga in its generic context, questioning and expanding the definition of the Íslendingasögur (Sagas of Early Icelanders) category, and rejecting the usefulness of the term ‘post-classical’ Íslendingasögur altogether. Using Rick Altman’s concept of generic crossroads, the thesis analyses both redactions’ manuscripts’ ap-proach to the issue of power. This thesis reveals how scholarly preconceptions guided the reception of a specific saga, Ljósvetninga saga, and contributes to a wider understanding of how saga, Old Norse, medieval, and general literature are each constantly changing and unstable, both in their preservation, and in the ways they are presented to the general public and scholarly community.
2010, Creating the medieval saga: Versions, variability, and editorial interpretations of Old Norse saga literature, ed. Judy Quinn & Emily Lethbridge
2017, Roda da Fortuna
The saga writers of medieval Iceland rhetorically engage with contemporary social issues in their narratives, including issues faced by women and, in particular, the treatment of women in regard to their marriages. Many of these medieval social issues are still relevant today, including gender politics, matters of consent, and spousal abuse. This study limits its analysis of these themes to narratives in two genres of medieval Icelandic literature: the heroic cycle (heroic eddic poetry and the legendary Völsunga saga) and the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur). In all of the narratives much is at stake for the leading female characters; the primary difference is that depending on genre, the actions females make to subvert the dominant patriarchy vary greatly, from drastic on the one hand to subtle yet effective on the other.
The society depicted in the Íslendinga sögur ('sagas of Icelanders' or 'family sagas') is one which is made up of links, of social bonds, between individuals and groups. Slaves are tied by a bond of ownership to farmers. Workers are also tied to farmers by year-long terms of service. Farmers in turn declare themselves in þing with a goði. Groups are also linked by kinship bonds, or bonds created by marriage. Although these bonds can occasionally be changed or adjusted, people do not vacillate between social groups. What then of saga characters who have no social bonds – no support structure but also no loyalties or responsibilities? In this article I will look at some examples of vagrants in these sagas; and, in particular, at how such characters seek to use their position on the fringes of saga society and their lack of social bonds to their advantage. Vagrants - gǫngumenn, einhleypingar, stafkarlar - are portrayed in an almost exclusively negative light in the sagas. They are depicted as being scurrilous, mercenary, treacherous and manipulative and rarely have social or kinship links of significance. For the saga narrator, however, they proved vital agents to move along saga plots, escalate feuds and transfer information across the social and geographical landscape of Iceland that was impassable for other saga characters.
2009, Scripta islandica
This article argues that both This World and the Other World are presented as real places in the fornaldarsögur and examines how landscape is used to facilitate the narrative construction of different worlds and to indicate how, when and why borders between worlds are created, maintained or closed. By analysing the landscape in the adventures to the Other World in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns I show that matrices of worlds operate. Other Worlds can be set inside Other Worlds, and characters must always traverse the borders of these worlds marked by the physical landscape. I then examine the converging worlds of Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana and conclude that once a character of This World has been sufficiently marked as Other the distinction between This World and the Other World collapses and there are no longer any typical landscape border motifs, such as mist, forest, darkness, cliffs and streams. The world-view of the fornaldarsögur is built up by a fusion of This World and the Other World, worlds which are separated but equally real and whose borders must be negotiated.
2019, The Journal of William Morris Studies
This paper examines the links between the Grettis saga-Beowulf discussion and the romances of William Morris, arguing that the Victorian writer's later works seem to engage with the debate and suggesting Eiríkur Magnusson as a likely source of inspiration.
2014, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia
This study investigates the unique features of Icelandic geographical terrain and its impact upon cognitive reality of medieval Iceland. The focus is on saga depictions of Viking-Age individuals on Iceland’s western coast passing into their local mountains when they die. This, I contend, does not constitute death in the conventional sense of ceasing to be but instead a transformation into ambiguous ‘other’ entities which continue to inhabit the landscape in an altered state. This study brings textual analysis in dialogue with archaeological data concerning placements of mounds and burial sites in the same region and time frame. The aim is to illuminate the role of Icelandic landscape as a stage shaping medieval Icelandic beliefs and attitudes vis-avis their dead. Instead of a dichotomous opposition between this-world and other-world, I argue that the medieval Icelandic landscape was perceived as both at the same time.
Eyrbyggja saga is thought to have been written at the monastery that was located at Helgafell on the south side of Breiðafjörður during the 13th century. Many have considered the saga to have had relatively little Christian influence due to its vivid descriptions of what is purported to be heathen objects and customs within the saga. Recent research has turned this view on its head, leading scholars to ponder where heathen influence ends and Christian begins. It is the purpose of this thesis to explore the idea that a Christian cleric modelled the saga based on the oral sources that he had at his disposal, weaving these sources together to suit his own aims. Rather than searching for the pagan and the Christian elements explicitly, the text will be inspected for one particular aspect of Latin education, well known to have been taught all over Europe at the time the saga is purported to have been written. This aspect is a part of the trivium of Latin learning, known as dialectic. The implications of this type of education is first inspected, then a text available and extremely popular during the time is consulted for an understanding of the content of this education, Boethius’ De topicis differentiis. Finally this understanding is applied to a portion of the text of Eyrbyggja saga with the express goal of looking at the text from a similar lens as that of the Christian cleric that may have written it.
2017, Intégrité
Guest Editor for a special Issue of Missouri Baptist University's academic journal _Intégrité_.
1998, Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Viking culture has been seen as violent, rough and uncultured. However, research and archaeological finds and research have revealed a sophisticated society with ample time to pursue entertainment activities during leisure time. This paper explores some of the sports and diversions pursued by adults during the Viking period.
This article is a study of AM 152 fol., an early-sixteenth-century vellum manuscript. One of its scribes was Þorsteinn Þorleifsson, the brother of the rich and powerful Björn Þorleifsson in Reykhólar in Northwest Iceland. I argue that Björn was the manuscrip’s patron and may have been involved in the selection of texts. The sagas in the codex are a varied collection of family sagas, legendary sagas and romances; despite the sagas’ disparate settings, they have many themes in common. By analysing these sagas, we can recover certain historical attitudes regarding moral values and social behaviour, and they speak to the patron’s (and perhaps his associates’) self-image and ideology or mentality. The sagas of AM 152 fol. are often narratives about young upper-class men and their development into responsible adults who behave according to certain norms and moral values. A heavy emphasis is placed on fraternal bonds and remaining loyal and supportive to one’s brother despite his possible deficiencies. The heroes’ (and their brothers’) antagonists are usually immoral, ill-tempered and deceitful men who are characterised by a lack of moderation, prudence, and justice. I argue that such narratives would have been appealing to Björn and his brother Þorsteinn, who were involved in a long-standing inheritance dispute with their cousin Björn Guðnason, who may have embodied the same kinds of qualities as the sagas’ villains. Second, another frequent theme in the sagas is monstrosity and especially its connections to violence against women. Monstrous figures are marginalised and othered, but when examined more closely, the saga heroes often have monstrous physical features and engage in the same behaviour as these characters. Their violence against women is usually displayed in a comic light or otherwise suppressed and dismissed but there is a great deal of overlap in the natures of humans and monsters, suggesting certain vulnerabilities when it comes to social conduct. The latter could be contextualised with fears regarding the presence of foreign merchants and fishermen in Iceland in the late medieval period, but they could just as well be a vehicle to discuss such behaviour in the audience’s own community.
Caves and ritual in medieval Europe, AD 500-1500. Edited by K.A. Bergsvik and M. Dowd. Oxbow books, Oxford & Philadelphia, p. 32-62
Archaeological data from 32 surveyed and excavated caves and rockshelters in western Norway show that dwelling was uncommon at these sites; they were more often used for placed (ritual) deposits, burials, and as workshops for metal smiths and stone masons. An extensive study of medieval Icelandic saga texts, Eddic poetry and other written sources reveals that caves were often scenes of negative activities and incidents for humans. They are also portrayed as homes for giants and other supernatural beings and powers in Norse mythology. It is argued here that people in western Norway associated caves with these beings during the Late Iron Age and that these perceptions continued well into the Christian Middle Ages. This resulted in a general avoidance of caves and rockshelters for dwelling purposes. On the other hand, they were important sites for worship and rituals.
2008, eds. K. Dekker, A.A. MacDonald and H. Niebaum, 'Northern Voices: Essays on Old Germanic and Related Topics, Offered to Professor Tette Hofstra
2012
The purpose of my paper is to analyse the influence of medieval European literature on the composition of the Icelandic Sagas. The literary production in medieval Iceland becomes especially important when an antimonarchical, anti-courtly faction of intellectuals appears on the mostly monarchical European stage. The search for a cultural identity has a fundamental effect on the world of literary creation. The fundamental question of the invention of tradition in Iceland in the Middle Ages works as a trigger for the observation of the problematic involved in its literary production. Pre-Christian myths, Latin literature, old poetry and beliefs crystallized in the so called by Meulengracht Sørensen “paradox, of a copious and highly developed literature in a remote country” . The explanation given by now to this paradox from a literary and sociological approach is to consider that an exceptional society, formed in exceptional circumstances, as is the case in medieval Iceland, produced an exceptional literature. Beyond the isolating terms implied in this conception, this “exceptional” character will be our actual matter of work. Considering it not as a solitary development rooted in ancient times, but as a “response” to its contemporary European scenery. A courtly literature would have had no reception in a small farming population, organized far from a kingly structure. It is this exceptional sociological and political situation, in contrast to the birth of European kingdoms, a great companion for the creation of a literature in terms of invention of tradition. Challenging the theory of a self-constructed isolated literature, we will reveal within the texts of the sagas how the different voices from the Viking Age are set to dialogue with its contemporary European text-context referent. Bibliography: Meulengrachr Sørensen, Preben, “Social institutions and belief systems of medieval Iceland (c. (70-1400) and their relations to the literary production”, p. 10, in Clunies Ross, M. Old Icelandic Literature and Society, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
