Ok lá þar at óvilja hennar: A Reconsideration of Sexual Violence in the Old Norse World. (January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bell, Jacob
• Is Part Of: Journal of family history. Volume 48:Number 1(2023)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 29
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Subjects: Skaldic poetry -- medieval slavery -- sexual violence -- vikings -- queer history -- icelandic sagas -- Old Norse studies -- Viking-Age Scandinavia; Kinship -- Periodicals; Families -- Periodicals; 306.85
• DOI: 10.1177/03631990211053220
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0363-1990

Abstract

Despite the popularized image of the raping and pillaging Viking warrior, the culture of sexual violence in Old Norse society has remained surprisingly understudied. This article uses skaldic verses, a literary genre produced in Iceland and Norway, mainly from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries, to suggest a reconsideration of sexual violence in the Old Norse world. It suggests that skaldic verses can help scholars discern a spatial and cultural geography of sexual violence against free men, women, and slaves, which suggests it was widespread and multidimensional and had ties to a pan-north Atlantic slave trade in the Viking Age.