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Norse-women-bib - 3/28/01

 

An annotated bibliography on Norse women by Mistress Gunnora Hallakarva.

 

NOTE: See also the files: Norse-msg, books-Norse-msg, V-Arts-and-A-art, Norse-crafts-bib, TEIO-Vikings-art, WS-bib, sprang-msg, mead-msg.

 

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NOTICE -

 

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

 

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

 

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

 

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

 

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

 

Thank you,

   Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                         Stefan at florilegium.org

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From: gunnora at my-deja.com

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Viking Women (was Re: Studying Women in History.)

Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 22:44:08 GMT

 

Catriona Katla <catrionkat at aol.com> wrote:

> There have been quite a few posts on this subject as of late so I

> thought  I would recommend three books to those interested in study

> women in_all_walks_of_life.

 

There are some excellent sources along these lines for Viking women in

particular.

 

The best in terms of looking at *all* the evidence is:

 

* Jacobsen, Grethe. The Position of Women in Scandinavia During the

Viking Period. (MA Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1978.)

[Presents a comprehensive look at Viking women as reflected in law and

literature, with separate discussions of conditions in Iceland, Norway,

Denmark and Sweden. An excellent source, and surprisingly, quite

readable.]

 

I also recommend the following as general starting points in learning

about Viking Age women:

 

* Jesch, Judith.  Women in the Viking Age.  Woodbridge: Boydell.

1991.  ISBN 0-85115-278-3.

[Jesch's book was the first English language book on women in the Viking

Age.  She gives an introduction to the scholarship up to 1991 dealing

with women of the period.  While the work is not in-depth, it is

extremely useful as a place to begin learning about this topic, and

furthermore, Jesch paves the way here for others to follow in her

footsteps.  Excellent book.]

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  Women in Old Norse Society.  Ithaca: Cornell Univ.

Press.  1995.  ISBN 0-8014-3165-4.  $39.95

[A fascinating wealth of detail of the lives of women in Viking Age

Iceland and Norway, including work, sexual behavior, marriage customs,

reproductive practices, familial relations, leisure activities,

religious practices, and legal matters relating to women.  An

outstanding book.]

 

There are also many more specialized sources on Viking women, including:

 

* Benidictow, Ole Jorgen.  "The Milky Way in History:  Breast Feeding,

Antagonism Between the Sexes, and Infant Mortality in Medieval Norway,"

Scandinavian Journal of History.  10 (1985): 19-53.

 

* Clover, Carol J.  "Maiden Warriors and Other Sons," Journal of

English and Germanic Philology (JEGP), 85 (1986):35-49.

[This is an excellent article examining the theme of the Viking warrior

woman.  Clover has determined by examination of the laws, particularly

the Baugatal section of Gragas, the sagas and Saxo Grammaticus's

depictions of women warriors, as well as ethnological comparisons, that

the woman warrior was a rare and specialized role.  The only case in

which a woman was allowed to take up arms was if (1) she was never

married, (2) she had no living male relatives in the degrees listed in

Baugatal who would have received weregild for the death of a family

member, and (3) a crime had been perpetrated against her family that

required vengeance by the social code of the day, often the murder of

her last male relative.  This role was temporary, but for its duration

conferred the social role on the warrior woman as "son". Excellent and

insightful essay.]

 

* Clover, Carol J.  "Regardless of Sex: Men, Women, and Power in Early

Northern Europe,"  In: Studying Medieval Women, ed. Nancy F. Partner.

Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America.  1993.  pp. 61-85.

 

* Clover, Carol J. "The Politics of Scarcity: Notes on the Sex Ratio in

Early Scandinavia." Scandinavian Studies 60 (1988): 147-188.

[An interesting and insightful article, hypothesizes that women were

extremely scarce in Viking Scandinavia (particularly Iceland) due to

several factors, including higher rate of mortality due to childbirth

and preferential exposure of female infants. If Clover is correct, her

explanation completely reconciles the apparent gap between women's

status as reflected in the laws versus women's status as shown in the

sagas.]

 

* Damsholt, Nanna.  "The Role of Icelandic Women in the Sagas and the

Production of Homespun Cloth,"  Scandinavian Hournal of History. 9

(1984): 75-90.

[An insightful discussion of the implications of the fact that the gross

national product of Viking Age Iceland was homespun, a cottage industry

managed entirely by women, and how this affected the status of these

women.]

 

* Fell, Christine. "Viking Women in Britain." Women in Anglo-Saxon

England. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1984. 129-147.

[Included as a chapter in Fell's excellent book on women in Anglo-Saxon

England. Provides a brief summary of the status and historical position

of women in the areas of England settled by the Vikings.]

 

* Frank, Roberta. "Marriage in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Iceland."

Viator 4 (1973): 473-484.

[Discusses the marriage laws of Gragas as well as the portrait of

marriage presented by the sagas. An excellent paper on women and

marriage in medieval Iceland.]

 

* Frank, Roberta. "Why Skalds Address Women,"  In: Poetry in the

Scandinavian Middle Ages.  Atti del 12 Congresso Internationale di Studi

sull'alto medioevo.  Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'alto

medioevo. 1990.  pp. 67-83.

 

* Jacobsen, Grethe. "The Position of Women in Scandinavia During the

Viking Period." (MA Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1978.)

[Presents a comprehensive look at Viking women as reflected in law and

literature, with separate discussions of conditions in Iceland, Norway,

Denmark and Sweden. An excellent source, and surprisingly, quite

readable.]

 

* Jacobsen, Grethe. "Sexual Irregularities in Medieval Scandinavia."

Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church. eds. Vern L. Bullough and

James Brundage. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. 1982. 72-85.

[A survey of the attitudes of medieval Scandinavians toward non-marital

sex, with good discussions of how those attitudes reflect the role of

women in Scandinavian society.]

 

* Jesch, Judith.  Women in the Viking Age.  Woodbridge: Boydell.

1991.  ISBN 0-85115-278-3.

[Jesch's book was the first English language book on women in the Viking

Age.  She gives an introduction to the scholarship up to 1991 dealing

with women of the period.  While the work is not in-depth, it is

extremely useful as a place to begin learning about this topic, and

furthermore, Jesch paves the way here for others to follow in her

footsteps.  Excellent book.]

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Before the Male Gaze: the Absence of the Female

Body in Old Norse," In: Sex in the Middle Ages.  ed. Joyce E.

Slisbury.  New York: Garland.  1991.  pp. 3-29.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M. "The Church and Sexuality in Medieval Iceland."

Journal of Medieval History 6 (1980): 377-392.

[Particularly focused on the concept of clerical marriages, also

provides insights into the status of women and non-marital sex.]

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Consent in Marriage: Old Norse Law, Life, and

Literature."  Scandinavian Studies 58 (1986): 142-176.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Gender and Drinking in the World of the Icelandic

Sagas,"  In: A Special Brew: Essays in Honor of kristof Glamann.

Odense: Odense Univ. Press.  1993.  pp. 155-181.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "The Illicit Love Visit:  An Archaeology of Old

Norse Sexuality,"  JHS  1 (1991): 357-392.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M. "The Medieval Icelandic Heroine: Fact or Fiction?"

Viator 17 (1986): 35-50.

[A revealing examination of the "Germanic-Nordic model of strong,

independent womanhood" via a comparison of the heroines of the sagas and

evidence drawn from Scandinavian law codes, with special attention to

women and marriage.]

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Men, Women, and Beasts:  Old Norse Sexuality."

In: Handbook in Sexuality.  ed. Vern Bullough.  New York: Garland

Press.  1995.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  Old Norse Images of Women.  Philadelphia.  Univ of

Philadelphia Press.  1996.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Old Norse Magic and Gender: Thattr Thorvalds ens

Vidforla,"  Scandinavian Studies 63 (1991): 305-317.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Old Norse Motherhood,"  In: Medieval Mothering.

ed. Bonnie Wheeler and John C. Parson.  Feminea Medevalia 3.  New York:

Garland. 1995.

 

Jochens, Jenny M.  "Old Norse Sources on Women,"  In: Medieval Women and

the Sources of Medieval History, ed. Joel T. Rosenthal.  Athens: Univ.

of Georgia Press.  1990.  pp. 155-188.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Vikings Westward to Vinland:  Problems of Women

and Sexuality."  In: Cold Counsel:  the Women of Old Norse Literature

and Myth.  ed. Karen Swenson and Saray May Anderson.  New York: Garland

Press.  1995.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  "Voluspa: Matrix of Norse Womanhood," Journal of

English and Germanic Philology 88 (1989): 344-362.

 

* Jochens, Jenny M.  Women in Old Norse Society.  Ithaca: Cornell Univ.

Press.  1995.  ISBN 0-8014-3165-4.  $39.95

[A fascinating wealth of detail of the lives of women in Viking Age

Iceland and Norway, including work, sexual behavior, marriage customs,

reproductive practices, familial relations, leisure activities,

religious practices, and legal matters relating to women.  An

outstanding book.]

 

* Karras, Ruth M.  "Concubinage and Slavery in the Viking Age,"

Scandinavian Studies 62 (1990): 141-162.

[An excellent discussion of the role of the concubine in Old Norse

Society.]

 

* Karras, Ruth M.  Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia. (Yale

Historical Publications, Miscellany, 135B) Yale Univ Pr. 1988. ISBN:

0300041217.

 

* Strand, Birgit. "Women in Gesta Danorum." Saxo Grammaticus: A Medieval

Author Between Norse and Latin Culture. ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen.

Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. 1981. 135-167.

[A comparison of parallel portrayals of women in Saxo's Gesta Danorum

and those in the works of Snorri Sturluson. Contains a good discussion

of the perception of women by Christian authors of widely differing

backgrounds: really points up the differences between medieval

Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.]

 

::GUNNORA::

 

<the end>



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