Young Love in Sagaland: Narrative Games and Gender Images in the Icelandic Tale of Floris and Blancheflour

Abstract

The Icelandic Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr is investigated as an import into the late medieval culture of Iceland. Despite its status as import, the narrative can be viewed as a useful clue to the ideas and beliefs current among the medieval Icelandic audience. It serves as an instance of the importance of taking translated literature into fuller account when medieval Icelandic mentalities are explored. Among the topics discussed in this article are playfulness and irony in the narrative and its discourse on emotions, gender, love and carnality. From this discussion, the romantic saga of Flóres and Blankiflúr emerges as a sophisticated narrative which in medieval Iceland would have functioned as a subversive or even rebellious text, particularly in its treatment of gender demarcations and adolescent love.