Abstract
This essay focuses on an understudied Old Icelandic saga, Kjalnesinga Saga (c.1310–1320), to examine medieval Icelanders’ discursive construction of race following the collapse of the independent Icelandic commonwealth. Employing postcolonial and critical-race theories from K. Anthony Appiah, Homi Bhabha, Achille Mbembe, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, this essay posits post-Commonwealth Iceland conceived of race as a spectrum of comprehensibility. The saga affords narrative agency to the assimilated and culturally comprehensible Irish hero, Bui, and casts him as a surrogate for Iceland’s colonial struggle. No such agency is granted to the blamaðr (black-man), a monster sent against Bui by the Norwegian King, Haraldr Fair-Haired (c.850–932). The blamaðr is subaltern: inaccessible outside Iceland’s subordinating narrative, bestializing rhetoric, or Bui’s interpretation. Kjalnesinga Saga’s racial discourse challenges modern conceptualizations of Scandinavia’s homogeneity and offers medieval Iceland as another space to explore constructions of race.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
