| dc.description.abstract | This doctoral thesis explores how villainy and violence are presented in the sagas of
Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), and the different ways these depictions are affected by the
gender of the character performing these actions. To do this, the thesis is separated into
three chapters that look at different kinds of violent actions that are widely condemned
and vilified in the sagas, and how characters that perform these actions are presented
differently based on their gender, their relations, and the context. The sagas were
written during a period of great social changes in Iceland, with the civil war period Age
of the Sturlungs (Sturlungaöld) and the later subjugation under the Norwegian king in
1264. The Íslendingasögur have here been used as a 9 th -11 th century past constructed by
the 13th -15th century Icelandic society and its anonymous authors. The views presented
in the Íslendingasögur are compared with those found in contemporary laws, sources,
and events.
In the first chapter, the literary motif of whetting a man into doing violent
actions is analysed. Whetting is here considered a way to utilise the importance of
honour within Old Norse society by pressuring the whettee into doing the violent action
or else lose honour. This is frequently used to explain a blood feud. It is here shown that
both men and women whet, as well as servile people. For men it is generally more
shameful to whet, while for women it can be considered a cruel act, but not necessarily.
Chapter two examines magical violence and the supernatural. Here the views of
magical violence and witchcraft found in the Íslendingasögur and in more
contemporary Norse sources are compared. It is here found that female witches, in
general, are less condemned than male ones, as men performing acts of magic are seen
as cowardly or effeminate. However, both male and female witches can, through their
actions, be considered monstrous and thus viable targets of brutal killings. In the third
chapter, different acts of physical violence are studied, and the violence shown in the
Íslendingasögur are compared to the view of violence in the 13th century laws and the
contemporary sagas (samtiðarsögur.) Here the most negative forms physical violence
are actions done with a sense of uncontrollable excess and cruelty, as well as cowardly,
hidden attacks. What also matters here is the victim of the physical violence, with the
harm done to defenceless women, children and old men usually being considered
unviable.
In the thesis it is concluded that the villain’s gender plays a large part in how
their actions are received. It is also shown that socially transgressive expressions of
gender and sometimes by extension sexuality are recurring features of villainous
characters. It is also shown that within the sagas, acts of violence done by women are
frequently presented more neutrally or positively compared to those done by men, as
men’s actions are judged more by their masculinity and honour. However, this does not
mean that the villainy is presented negatively in predictable ways throughout the
Íslendingasögur. This is partly due to the diversity found within the Íslendingasögur
corpus and the different anonymous saga authors, as well as these sagas being written
within a time period in which great societal changes were introduced. | en |
