Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.10.2013, Page 47

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Guðríði Símonardóttur frá Vestmannaeyjum sem rænt var tókst að borga hluta
af lausnargjaldi sínu af sparipeningum sínum þegar hún var keypt til baka níu árum
síðar. Hún var kennd við hinn framandi heim sem rændi henni og kölluð Tyrkja-
Gudda. Munnmæli og þjóðsögur um hana minna á „forboðna ávexti“ eða „framandi
og lokkandi hinn“ (e. exotic other), henni er lýst sem fagurri en hættulegri og því er
haldið fram í greininni að það hafi orðið hlutskipti hennar að verða eins konar blæti
til þess að menn gætu náð valdi yfir óttanum við útlendinga með því að breyta henni
í óvininn, og ná valdi yfir henni – ef ekki efnislega, þá í sögum og fantasíum. Með
slíku blæti var hægt að segja sér og öðrum að Íslendingum væri best borgið með
algjörri einangrun eyjunnar í bráð og lengd.
Lykilorð: Tyrkjaránið, hvít þrælasala, eftirlendufræði, bókmenntir, femínismi
A B S T R A C T
The Turk raid and Guðríður Símonardóttir as a fetish
Barbarian pirates abducted over 350 icelanders in the Turk raid (1627) and sold
them as slaves in Algeria. This event was a part of a substantial white slave trade
which the ottoman empire tolerated but was not part of their economic affairs. in
iceland, the Turk raid unfolded as a historical trauma with waves of social conse-
quences. The experience of the abducted icelanders is to some extent described in
the unique book The Travels of reverend Ólafur Egilsson (1636) from the Westman
islands. Three letters from icelanders who had been sold as slaves in Algeria testify
to their displacement, ambivalence and mimicry in the interaction between the
captives and their masters.
Guðríður Símonardóttir, abducted from the Westman islands, managed to put
her savings into her ransom, which was paid by icelandic authorities nine years later.
Back in iceland she was nicknamed as Turk-Gudda and thus linked her to the exotic
culture that abducted her. Legends and folklore spun around her echo images of
„forbidden fruit“ or the exotic and seductive other (the exotic other). She functions
as a fetish in order for people to get a grip on their fear of foreigners by turning
her into the enemy and mastering him thus – if not materially, then in histories and
fantasies. With a fetish like that they could tell themselves and others that the ice-
landers were best off as isolated as possible for all eternity.
Keywords: The Turk raid, white slavery, postcolonialism, literature, feminism
Dagný KRistjánsDóttiR