Medieval Iceland Research Articles

Weapon of Assault: Combat, Protective Magic, and the Fatal Throat Bite in Icelandic Sagas

Abstract Icelandic sagas contain a literary motif little known in other pre-modern literary traditions: the throat bite. There are 10 scenes in the sagas in which one character bites, almost bites, or contemplates biting the throat of another character. The throat bite was used by saga authors strategically and purposefully, whether to resolve conflict, similar to a more conventional murder; to signify paranormal characteristics – or lack of paranormal characteristics; or to denote interpersonal power dynamics within a saga narrative. Due to the prevalence of the throat bite in extra-narrative contexts, including its use as hunting technique among non-human animals and the documented use of human teeth as a weapon among human populations, the saga writers of medieval Iceland accurately recognized that human teeth can serve as a weapon of assault and they craftily integrated the throat bite into the composition of select sagas.

Are there fitness benefits to violence? The case of medieval Iceland

Males that behave violently to achieve social and reproductive objectives are a widespread phenomenon among mammals, as well as humans. Because this kind of behaviour can be socially very disruptive, its continued survival in human populations, in particular, remains a puzzle. We use historical data on the pedigrees of medieval Icelandic Vikings to test the hypothesis that males who killed had higher fitness than other males. Whereas most studies that examine the evolutionary benefits of behaviour focus on the numbers of offspring sired, in this paper we measure fitness more directly in terms of the number of grandchildren produced both directly and indirectly via collateral relatives, as well as determining the costs of pursuing alternative strategies in terms of experienced mortality rates. We show that, on average, killers gain a very significant fitness advantage despite the often high costs they pay and, more importantly, that they had a dramatic effect on the fitness of their male kin. We suggest that such behaviour represents a phenotypic, rather than genetic, response to opportunities provided by local circumstances.

Book review] Elizabeth Walgenbach, Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland

Review of: Elizabeth Walgenbach, Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland (The Northern World 92), Brill: Leiden & Boston 2021

Textiles, Dress and Politics: A Diachronic Perspective Through the Case Studies of Ancient Rome and Medieval Iceland

People dress for more than just aesthetic reasons. Over the centuries, dress became a sign of human civilization, allowing us to identify the origin, gender, and status of the wearer. Textiles and clothing influence our body, posture, movements, and the way we are perceived by society. Textiles are also a tool used by people to further their agenda, that is why they found their place in the political life of many ancient and modern societies. According to Michel Foucault, power can be understood as a set of activities influencing the life of the other: It provokes, forbids, or permits, but it can also facilitate or hinder the actions of its subjects. We understand policy as a game that subjects play to gain and sustain their power. Dress is a material visualization of rules, laws, social order, and identity. It determines and protects the power status of the wearer. Thus, dress is a political statement. The idea that textiles and politics intertwine has long been an accepted fact. However, the idea that ‘political’ textiles and dress might have specific similar traits across time and place, became a pressing question during the conference on Clothing Identities organised by Working Group 2 of the EuroWeb Cost Action (“Clothing Identities Conference”, 6–8 May 2022, online, organized by Magdalena Wozniak, Cecilie Brøns, and Paula Nabais). In this chapter, we aim to examine the question of the relationship between clothing and political life, and whether there are any common traits that make certain textiles or forms of dress a power marker. For this purpose, two different states have been chosen as case studies: Rome in the time of the Republic and Early Empire, and Medieval Iceland. The first was vast and expansive, the second rather small and isolated. Despite the time difference, they both represent a preindustrial level of development. In both cultures, textiles and dress were significant symbols of status and wealth, as certified by well-known historical treatises and law codes.

Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland, by Elizabeth Walgenbach

<i>Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland</i>, by Elizabeth Walgenbach

:Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland: Literary and Artistic Activities of the Monastery at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century

:<i>Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland: Literary and Artistic Activities of the Monastery at Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century</i>

Dominican Resonances in Medieval Iceland: The Legacy of Bishop Jón Halldórsson of Skálholt, ed. Gunnar Harðarson and Karl G. Johansson

Dominican Resonances in Medieval Iceland: The Legacy of Bishop Jón Halldórsson of Skálholt, ed. Gunnar Harðarson and Karl G. Johansson

How Icelandic Is French Law? A Few Remarks about the Discovery and Usage of Icelandic Antiquities in French Legal Historiography during the Nineteenth Century

How Icelandic Is French Law? A Few Remarks about the Discovery and Usage of Icelandic Antiquities in French Legal Historiography during the Nineteenth Century

The Benedictine Culture of Medieval Iceland

The monastic tradition of St Benedict of Nursia inspired and influenced Iceland’s medieval monasteries. Four communities, two each of men and women, which were identified in contemporary records as ‘under the rule of Saint Benedict’, endured for four hundred years, until the Protestant suppressions of the mid-sixteenth century. The monasteries of men emerged as Iceland’s most important centres of literary production; each of the churches was the focus of public worship and popular cults, and at times in their history, they may also have maintained the largest monastic populations seen in the island. With no visible trace of their physical environment, material evidence only now being revealed in excavations and very few documentary records describing their form of Benedictinism, their observant customs and broader Benedictine culture remain elusive. Drawing on the inventories (máldagar) of their property made at intervals between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, together with the representation of their regular life in contemporary biskupa sögur, this paper reveals a monastic practice that did diverge from that of Benedictines elsewhere in northern Europe but that nonetheless expressed a powerful attachment to some of the principal ideals of the Benedictine Rule: abbacy, conventual fraternity and the interplay of contemplative and active occupation. Above all, these communities appear to have propagated a cult interest in the figure of Benedict himself, placing him at the centre of their worship life long after Benedictines elsewhere in Europe had allowed him to be eclipsed by national and regional cults of more recent creation.

The Biblical Metaphor of “Governing as Shepherding” and Catholic Biopolitics in Medieval Icelandic Contexts

This paper studies the Old Icelandic use of the Biblical conceptual metaphor of “governing as shepherding”, based on projecting patterns of the practices of shepherding on the notion of governing. It examines the transfer of this conceptual metaphor to Old Icelandic literature through the reception of Christian literature, the frequency and chronology of occurrences of the linguistic realizations of this conceptual metaphor in different textual genres and periods of Old Icelandic literature, and the possible lineages of texts’ transmission that might have enabled the cultural transfer of this conceptual metaphor from Latin to Old Icelandic. On the theoretical basis of Michel Foucault’s governmentality theory, the emergence of the discourse of pastoral power over human life in Old Icelandic literature is correlated with the development of specific biopolitical practices of governance regarding the protection of human life applied by the Catholic Church in medieval Iceland.

Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland. By Elizabeth Walgenbach. The Northern World 92. Leiden: Brill, 2021. xii+178 pp. €90 cloth.

Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland. By Elizabeth Walgenbach. The Northern World 92. Leiden: Brill, 2021. xii+178 pp. €90 cloth.

The Burden of History: Kirkjubæjarklaustur and the Biography of Landscape

The importance of landscape has long been recognized within monastic studies, both as an economic and spiritual resource. This paper focuses on the surrounding landscape of a single monastic site, that is Kirkjubæjarklaustur on Síða (south Iceland), one of the two female monasteries established in Medieval Iceland. Through written sources, legends, and placenames, the aim of this paper is to reconstruct the biography of the landscape from before the founding of the monastery to after the Reformation. In particular, the paper considers how the perceived sacredness of the site of Kirkjubæjarklaustur may have been shaped by stories of Christian settlers prior to the monastic foundation and how the monastic memory informed the way in which the landscape was experienced after the Reformation and beyond.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Ólöf the Rich and a Cloth from Svalbarð, Iceland

About fifteen illustrated cloths have been preserved from medieval times in Iceland. One of them is an antependium from Svalbarð church on Svalbarðsströnd. The embroidered iconography on it is believed to depict the story of John the Apostle, who was the patron saint of the Svalbarð church. Upon closer inspection, the cloth appears to have been cut from a larger cloth, most likely a wall-hanging, in order to be used as an antependium. Moreover, the story that is embroidered on it seems to be related to secular people, because none of those appearing on it have halos around their heads, but halos are generally used in iconography to differentiate sanctified people from seculars. In this article, this discovery is discussed, and a theory that the embroidery shows the story of the most prominent woman of medieval Iceland, Ólöf the Rich, is proposed.

Kumlbúa þáttr, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

<i>Kumlbúa þáttr</i>, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

:Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsDario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf, eds., Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland. (Studies in Old Norse Literature.) Woodbridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2021. Pp. xvi, 383; black-and-white figures. $115. ISBN: 978-1-8438-4611-6. Table of contents available online at https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843846116/saints-and-their-legacies-in-medieval-iceland/.Siân GrønlieSiân GrønlieSt Anne’s College, Oxford Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 98, Number 2April 2023 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/724375 Views: 18Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

:Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland

:<i>Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland</i>

Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland: Literary and Artistic Activities of the Monastery of Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century. By Stefan Drechsler. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. 275 pp. €120.

Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland: Literary and Artistic Activities of the Monastery of Helgafell in the Fourteenth Century. By Stefan Drechsler. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. 275 pp. €120.

The Cult of Kollumkilli in Medieval Scandinavia

References to the veneration of Colum Cille in medieval Iceland and Norway use both versions of his name adapted to Old Norse conventions: Kolumba and Kollumkilli. Medieval primstaven refer to the saint distinctly as Kolbjørn med laksen ‘Kolbjørn with the salmon’. In the medieval Icelandic texts Landnámabók and Kjalnesinga saga, a presumed version of St Patrick presents Orlyg, a Norse settler wishing to migrate to Iceland, with several gifts intended to allow the successful foundation of a church dedicated to Colum Cille upon arrival. A church dedicated to the saint was also present in Bergen between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, indicating the presence of a cult in the area. Considering this evidence, this article discusses the way in which a cult dedicated to Colum Cille in medieval Scandinavia might be understood through medieval Norse sources, and especially the way in which they emphasise his eminence as an Irish saint.