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factions, one that took place not just within the legal system, but perhaps
also in the court of public opinion.
Humanness and monstrosity
the distinction between human and monstrous behaviour is arguably one
of the main preoccupations of the sagas in AM 152 fol. Kirsten Hastrup
argues that for late medieval audiences, Grettir is a tragic hero and ‘one of
us’, who keeps evil forces such as trolls at bay for the benefit of the com-
munity, at a time when Icelanders were perhaps feeling powerless in the
face of calamities such as the major and minor plagues that wreaked devas-
tation for the Icelandic people in the fifteenth century, as well as foreign,
i.e. Danish and English, political and economic influence.88 However, the
idea that trolls are wicked creatures that need to be kept out of human soci-
ety by a strong hero – who becomes dehumanised in the process – is only
part of the depiction of monstrosity in these sagas. Many scholars have
dwelt on Grettis saga in this context but the fornaldarsögur in particular
have recently become a focus of discussion about the multivalent meaning
of monstrous beings, which have come to be seen both as ‘othered’ foils
for humans, yet also as useful figures for saga authors and audiences to
engage with tabooed human behaviour and vulnerabilities.89 By taking
trolls and non-human figures in the manuscript’s other sagas into account,
we can arrive at a more nuanced image of the monstrous, the human vul-
nerabilities that monstrous creatures reveal, and the troll-like aspects of
humans.
Monstrous figures, in this collection of sagas, foreground male behav-
iour, especially sexual violence and its dangers, on one hand, and class rela-
tions on the other, themes that often intersect. the monstrous creatures of
the riddarasögur – including giants, berserks, blámenn and animal-human
hybrids – are terrifying opponents, and their descriptions focus on their
large size, dark skin, abnormal, hideous bodies that often carry animal
88 Hastrup, ‘tracing tradition,’ 281–313.
89 see e.g. katja schulz, Riesen. Von Wissenshütern und Wildnisbewohnern in Edda und Saga,
Skandinavistische Arbeiten, vol. 20 (Heidelberg: universitätsverlag Winter, 2004); Ár-
mann Jakobsson, ‘Identifying the ogre: the Legendary Saga giants,’ in ney, et al., eds.,
Fornaldarsagaerne. Myter og virkelighed, 181–200; Jóhanna Katrín friðriksdóttir, Women
in Old Norse Literature, ch. 3; Arngrímur Vídalín, ‘“Er þat illt, at þú vilt elska tröll þat.” Hið
sögulega samhengi jöðrunar í Hrafnistumannasögum,’ Gripla 24 (2013): 173–210.