Borttagelse og semantik

Abstract

In this article, I examine the way acts of things being seized are presented in three fifteenth century Danish chronicles. I hypothesize that seizures are deployed in a linguistic capacity to quickly convey information of narrative importance. This strategy aims at situating the involved actors in the narrative world and thus presents certain understandings of how we are to assess the morality of the acts and persons in question. The chronicles utilize different words for seizures (though some overlaps occur) which shows how the different words for seizures are deeply rooted in specific cultural understandings and archetypes. Hence, the article seeks to demonstrate that in late medieval chronicles, acts of seizures are fully integrated into the larger narratives told. The consequences are significant as a thief, then, rarely is just a thief, and even the most innocently described episode can cover for morally questionable acts. Both reservations are important for the people portrayed in the sources and our continued investigation of past society, literary and historical.