O'Donoghue, Heather. Women in Njáls saga

• Author: O' Donoghue, Heather
• Title: "Women in Njàls Saga”
• Published in: Introductory Essays on Egils Saga and Njàls Saga
• Editors: Hines, John; Slay, Desmond
• Place, Publisher: Oxford University, The Viking Society for Northern Research in London
• Year: 1992
• Pages: 83-92
• E-text: http://vsnrwebpublications.org.uk/Introductory%20essays%20on%20egils%20saga%20and%20njals%2

0saga.pdf

• Reference: O' Donoghue, Heather, "Women in Njàls Saga", Introductory Essays on Egils Saga and Njàls Saga, in: Hines, John, Slay, Desmond (Eds.) Introductory Essays on Egils Saga and Njàls Saga, Oxford University, The Viking Society for Northern Research in London, 1992; pp.83-92

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• Key words: gender roles, distinctions, gender representations

Annotation

The author assumes that the female characters in Njals Saga challenge our preconceived notions of gender distinctions. O' Donoghue analyzes the social relations between feminine and masculine, by looking closely at the exercise of the power in society. Five powerful women of the saga are here discussed: Unnr, Queen Gunnhildr, Hallgerðr, Bergþora and Hildigunnr, and also how men are frequently mocked as effeminate, serving to redraw gender distinctions. O’Donoghue presents the sagas as a struggle between two genders and two social images. On one side the men can the law, whereas women goad to revenge. In this saga the difference between the sexes is built up in a way that goes against customary prejudices upon the two genders. Women indeed embodies a violent and old heroic ways of regulating society. On the contrary men side with the New, with a society in which the law and agreements prevail. This division mirrors the transitional time for the Icelandic society when people hesitate between the frenzied Paganism – embodied for example by Steinunn who proclaims Þórr to be stronger than Jesus – and the Christianity which appears as a synonymous of peace and civilization – embodied by the Christian missionary Þangbrandr.

Links

• Written by: Sophia Rifad
• Icelandic/English translation: