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.
Author(s): Rebecca Merkelbach
Series: Medieval Institute Publications. The Northern Medieval World: On the Margins of Europe
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 254
City: Berlin
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
