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position remains outside of the closed aristocratic social group, engage, and
the hero is justified in killing them. there is a double standard, however,
since this does not apply when it comes to the heroes and their ancestors.
the redactor of Sigurðar saga þǫgla seems to realise that this cannot be
reconciled, and while the text does not reject violence towards women as
morally wrong, at least not if they arrogantly dare to reject their suitors, it
is only when Sigurðr has temporarily taken on a monstrous exterior that
he is permitted to behave in such a way.104
themes of monstrosity, gender and class intersect, too, in the represen-
tation of giantesses. Fála and Flegða, those dispensers of magical objects
(mentioned previously), are no ordinary trolls, although their names, bod-
ies – dark and broad faces – and clothes – leather tunics short at the back
– are straight out of the fornaldarsögur.105 these Alpine cave-dwellers are
set apart from their fornaldarsögur cousins is their high level of civilisation
and life of luxury: their cave has two rooms for guests, one for samdrykkjur
‘drinking parties’ with other trolls, and the other, far more luxuriously
decorated, is intended for human visitors.106 these giantesses boast table-
ware, exotic food, gold-woven tapestries, King Arthur’s chess set and other
precious and magical objects, all worthy of emperors. the giantess sisters,
perhaps surprisingly, display aristocratic female behaviour – an acquired
set of skills more frequently, although not exclusively, associated with
human women – when they serve the prince at the table.107 the sisters
104 there are some divergences between the shorter and longer redactions of this saga but, as
far as I can tell, the account of sedentiana’s rapes are very similar.
105 Sigurðar saga, 149; see Jóhanna Katrín friðriksdóttir, Women in Old Norse Literature,
62–65.
106 Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar also features a civilised giant, grímnir, who invites the hero and
his companions to dine at a beautifully laid table with clean napkins and bowls for washing
their hands, and he is contrasted with his savage brother, who eats raw meat, a type of
character that also appears in Göngu-Hrólfs saga (as Grímr ægir); for discussion about the
negative cultural connotations of a diet of raw flesh, see Carolyne Larrington, ‘A Viking
in Shining Armour? Vikings and Chivalry in the fornaldarsögur,’ Viking and Medieval
Scandinavia 4 (2008): 276–277.
107 Sigurðar saga, 154. Carolyne Larrington analyses another courtly giantess, Egils saga ein-
henda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana’s, Arinnefja, who educates younger women in etiquette
and decorous behaviour. thus, the monstrous Arinnefja exhibits the queenly attributes
that, along with hag-like aspects, characterise the Sovereignty figure; see ‘Kerling/drottn-
ing: thinking about Medieval Queenship with Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjab-
ana,’ Saga-Book 39 (forthcoming 2015).
IDEoLogY AnD IDEntItY In LAtE MEDIEVAL WESt ICELAnD