Grønlie, Siân. 'No Longer Male and Female'

• Author: Grønlie, Siân
• Title: 'No Longer Male and Female': Redeeming Women in the Icelandic Conversion Narratives
• Published in: Medium Aevum 75.2
• Year: 2006
• Pages: 293-318
• E-text: ProQuest
• Reference: Grønlie, Siân. "'No Longer Male and Female': Redeeming Women in the Icelandic Conversion Narratives." Medium Aevum 75.2 (2006): 293-318.

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Annotation

The confrontation between Steinunn and Þangbrandr in Njála furnishes the starting example for this article which is focussing on the representation of women in Icelandic conversion narratives. Siân Grønlie disagrees with scholars who interpret the opposition of pagan women and Christian men as echoing history or as a purely literary construction due to clerical misogyny, and explores other examples taken from íslendingasögur, konungasögur, and translated saints’ lives. She shows that alternative depictions of women in conversion narratives can be found, portraying continuity rather than rupture between the old and new faith, and assimilation rather than adversity. She concludes that when these more positive examples aren’t overlooked, another, more nuanced, image of women’s attitude to Christian conversion appears.

Links

• Written by: Barbora Davídková
• Icelandic translation: