Ármann Jakobsson. Masculinity and politics in Njáls saga

• Author: Jakobsson, Ármann
• Title: Masculinity and Politics in Njáls Saga
• Published in: Viator 28
• Place, Publisher: Brepols
• Year: 2007
• Pages: 191–215
• E-text:
• Reference: Jakobsson, Ármann: “Masculinity and Politics in Njáls Saga.” Viator 28

(2007): 191–215

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• Key words: gender, sexuality, male stereotypes, unmanliness

Annotation

Ármann Jakobsson examines the complex relationships between gender, sexuality and social politics in Njáls saga in regard to conceptions of (un)manliness. The frequent questioning of masculinity, especially the masculinity of Njáll, as well as the reinforcement of sexual Otherness on the part of many of the saga’s characters belies a far less rigid, if not contradictory and fragile, system of gender expression, in which the saga casts a critical gaze on the society of its own construction. Jakobsson analyzes Njáls saga’s usage of seemingly paradigmatic expressions of masculinity (possession of facial hair, gendered clothing, displays of emotion and homoerotic or homosocial love) to show how the saga, rather than reinforcing the importance of these paradigms of masculinity actually problematizes them. These social indicators of masculinity, in addition to the gendered constraints of heroism, in turn are “exaggerated to the point of meaninglessness by those who use the ideal as a weapon against their opponents” (p. 201). Jakobsson concludes that Njáls saga conflates queerness and ideal masculinity as a means of placing ironic scrutiny on the saga society’s treatment of (un)masculine expression and behavior, serving as a further testament to the saga’s complexity and enduring popularity as a self-conscious and well-wrought literary achievement.

Links

• Written by: Nicholas Hoffmann
• Icelandic/English translation: