Introduction

The Introduction gives brief overviews of the book’s four main chapters and draws attention to the overarching arguments that are developed within them. Accessible introductions to Old Norse–Icelandic literature (with a particular focus on the sagas of Icelanders) and to the key critical terms ‘gender’ and ‘masculinity’ are provided so that the book can be used by a range of specialist and general audiences with varied disciplinary backgrounds. The Introduction also considers both the ethical and methodological issues involved in studying masculinities in the sagas of Icelanders; it is suggested that the study of men and masculinities in this body of texts is an important and necessary feminist enterprise.

Homosocial Masculinities

This chapter uses the concept of homosociality to discuss attitudes to, and representations of, relationships between men. Examining masculinities and masculine characters from each of the forty sagas of Icelanders, this chapter constitutes the first comprehensive study of masculinities in this genre. It investigates the interpersonal dynamics of masculinity in the sagas, thereby demonstrating how masculinity inflects homosocial relationships (and thus virtually all aspects of saga texts). By focusing on the actions of male characters, this chapter touches upon, elucidates, and articulates many facets of saga society, and the representation of men within it, which are generally taken for granted and consequently not usually formulated in saga scholarship. The conclusions drawn about the operation of homosociality in saga society are concurrently used to think through some of the implications that Old Norse material might hold for Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s model of homosociality.

The Limits of Socially Acceptable Masculinity

This chapter comprises a detailed reading of one saga: while many characters discussed up until this point in the book fail to live up to the masculine ideal, this chapter concludes this study by examining the representation of a character that embodies an extreme form of masculinity. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory and the concept of hypermasculinity to analyse the protagonist of the outlaw saga Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, this final chapter demonstrates the extent to which masculinity can problematize a character’s relation to self, family, society, and even the very notion of masculinity itself. Hypermasculinity—it is shown—can be just as problematic as deficient masculinity.

Intersectional Masculinities

Drawing on the work of legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, this chapter interrogates the intersectional nature of character formation to produce a multidimensional view of the construction and operation of masculinity in the sagas of Icelanders. This chapter investigates interactions between masculinity and a range of other identity categories through which social power is fractured and hierarchized. By examining the interplay between notions of masculinity and ideas of youth, old age, race, impairment/disability, sexuality, religion, and socio-economic status it is demonstrated that these other identity categories can function as stressors that serve to problematize a given character’s claim to a masculine status.

Modelling Saga Masculinities

This chapter briefly considers past scholarship on gender and masculinity in Old Norse literature, before producing a critique of the currently dominant model of gender in medieval Icelandic literature (Carol Clover’s one-sex, one-gender model). A number of examples from a range of sagas are used to demonstrate the limitations of this present model. The chapter then proposes a new way of conceptualizing masculinities in Old Norse literature, based on theories of hegemonic masculinity. By drawing on evidence from a range of sagas, hegemonic masculinity is shown to be a more suitable framework for the study of saga masculinities than the one-sex, one-gender model. The chapter concludes by elucidating the features of the specific modality of hegemonic masculinity that operates in the sagas

Conclusion

The conclusion brings together the book’s major findings, summarizes its arguments, and underscores the significance of its contributions to the field. It highlights the ambiguous representation of masculinity in the sagas, drawing attention to the frequently critical stance that saga authors take towards notions of masculinity. This, it is argued, has important implications for our understanding of the sagas of Icelanders as a genre. Finally, the conclusion suggests avenues for further research into Old Norse masculinities: hypotheses are given for what we might expect in terms of other genres’ treatment of masculinity, as are some potential directions for further research into masculinities in the sagas of Icelanders.