Guðmundur Bergþórsson as Creator and Creation: A Folk Narrative Study of a 17th Century Disabled Poet

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the legend-making process in the case of the disabled poet Guðmundur Bergþórsson within the Icelandic vernacular narrative culture of the past three centuries. To this end, Guðmundur Bergþórsson's life following his illness at the age of four will be examined through texts written both by the poet himself and his contemporaries, to enable a better understanding of the initial framework laid for later generations of storytellers. Consideration will be given to understandings of disability in pre-industrial Icelandic society and how they feature in narratives about Guðmundur's life. A selection of texts collected by folklorists in the 19th and 20th centuries will then be subjected to critical analysis, as established motifs, such as maternal culpability, dark magic, and supernatural cures make an appearance in relation to Guðmundur's disability. Guðmundur's own artistic agency in narratives about his disability, or lack thereof, will be subjected to particular scrutiny as a living poet makes the transition to a memory and eventually folkloric figure in vernacular oral narrative.