Sexual violence against women in the íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur

Thesis

This thesis is a comprehensive study of sexual violence in the Íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur. It identifies and analyses the manifold and polymorphous ways in which sexual violence manifests, navigating its narratological purpose and contextualising it within medieval beliefs and anxieties about female bodies.

The use of euphemistic or polysemous language renders sexual violence in Old Norse literature ambiguous, and it is therefore often easily overlooked. The first chapter addresses how, in the Íslendingasögur, sexual violence is often latent but not absent. The second chapter examines the role of sexual violence in androcentric feuds, recentring women as victims of sexual violence who can be affected by trauma, shaming, and societal alienation. The third chapter follows Yngvildr fagrkinn in Svarfdoela saga, whose narrative encompasses marital rape, enslavement, and suicide, revealing the prevalence of these themes throughout the corpus. The fourth chapter is a reassessment of Bósa saga, regarded as the most prurient Old Norse saga. It suggests that the text’s triptych of sexual conquests is beset by coercive overtones. The fifth chapter explores how women in the fornaldarsögur react and respond to their rapists. It argues that rape can be presented, without apparent contradiction, as simultaneously egregious and forgivable. The sixth chapter looks at the de facto and de jure punishments rapists receive, exploring the ethical quandaries within the fornaldarsögur regarding how rape should be prevented or punished. The seventh and final chapter considers the relationship between magic, love, and sex, assessing how enchantment vitiates consent and manipulates its objects into experiencing short-term lust or long-term love.

Both the Íslendingasögur and the fornaldarsögur contain considerable, and often conflicting, perspectives on female sexual autonomy and unrestrained male violence. Ultimately, this thesis shows that sexual violence is a far more complex, nuanced, and persistent theme throughout both genres than has previously been acknowledged.

Authors: O'Duffy, G

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-2z74do5m0
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Old Norse; íslendingasögur; sexual violence; fornaldarsögur
• Subjects: Old Norse literature; Feminist literary criticism