Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland (Northern Medieval World: On the Margins of Europe) (The Northern Medieval World)

Dragons, giants, and the monsters of learned discourse are rarely encountered in the Sagas of Icelanders, and therefore, the general teratological focus on physical monstrosity yields only limited results when applied to them. This, however, does not equal an absence of monstrosity – it only means that monstrosity is conceived of differently. This book shifts the view of monstrosity from the physical to the social, accounting for the unique social circumstances presented in the __Íslendingasögur__ and demonstrating how closely interwoven the social and the monstrous are in this genre. Employing literary and cultural theory as well as anthropological and historical approaches, it reads the monsters of the __Íslendingasögur__ in their literary and socio-cultural context, demonstrating that they are not distractions from feud and conflict, but that they are in fact an intrinsic part of the genre’s re-imagining of the past for the needs of the present. Acknowledgements V 1. Monsters in Context 1 Introduction 1 Sagas and Society: Writing a Past for the Needs of the Present 4 Making a Monster: Terminology, Theory, Methods 6 'Hvat er trǫll': The Problem of Terminology 6 Monster Theory Contextualized 10 Towards a Theory of Social Monstrosity 13 Corpus Monstrorum 21 2. Revenants Reconsidered 31 Hybridity and Transgression 31 Observing (Inter-)Action 34 Individual Revenants 34 Groups of Revenants 39 Effects of Revenancy and the Features of Social Monstrosity 42 Destroying the Undead 44 3. Between Hero and Monster – Outlaws 51 "Engi maðr skapar sik sjálfr": Monsters and Their Families 52 Vertical Relations 53 Horizontal Relations 63 "It scares me to close my eyes": The Monstrous Outlaw 71 Hybridity and Transgression 72 Contagion 74 Economic Impact 76 What about Gísli? 79 'Fóstbroeðra saga': Brothers in Outlawry 82 Cursed and Broken: The Outlaw’s Death 86 4. Nature and Nurture – 'Berserkir' 101 Going Berserk 102 Hybridity and Transgression 103 Contagion 106 Economic Impact 109 Rape Culture 110 Fire and Iron: Killing 'Berserkir' 116 5. Walkers Between Worlds – Practitioners of Magic 125 Black Magic 127 Hybridity and Transgression 128 Contagion 131 Economic Impact 132 Enchanting the Land 135 Sticks and Stones: Executing Magic-Users 140 6. The Social Perception of Monstrosity 149 Levels of Perspective: Intra- and Extratextual Perception 149 Public Opinion: Expressing and Performing Perception 152 Changing Opinion and Its Effect on the Social Monster 155 The Voice of the People 156 Individual Voices 160 Influencing Opinion: Curing and Killing the Monster 163 Synthesis: The Fluid Continuum of Social Monstrosity 167 7. Reading Monstrosity 175 Familiar Monsters, Monstrous Families: Kinship Tensions in the Outlaw Sagas 176 Who Would Marry a Berserk?: Women, Marriage, and Monstrous Offspring 183 Never Let Go: Revenants, Inheritance, and a Haunting Past 189 Magic, Power, and Agency: Humans and the Natural World 196 Conclusion: Writing a Monstrous Past 209 Abbreviations 215 Bibliography 217 Index 237

Dragons, giants, and the monsters of learned discourse are rarely encountered in the Sagas of Icelanders, and therefore, the general teratological focus on physical monstrosity yields only limited results when applied to them. This, however, does not equal an absence of monstrosity – it only means that monstrosity is conceived of differently. This book shifts the view of monstrosity from the physical to the social, accounting for the unique social circumstances presented in the Íslendingasögur and demonstrating how closely interwoven the social and the monstrous are in this genre. Employing literary and cultural theory as well as anthropological and historical approaches, it reads the monsters of the Íslendingasögur in their literary and socio-cultural context, demonstrating that they are not distractions from feud and conflict, but that they are in fact an intrinsic part of the genre's re-imagining of the past for the needs of the present.

Thisbook explores the literary construction and cultural use of social monstrosityin the Sagas of Icelanders.