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In case of an imbalance, monetary compensation is paid. At times, these
negotiations give rise to the impression that wounds, injuries, and cases
of homicide are traded as if they were detached and inanimate objects that
can be exchanged to re-establish the social balance. The parties involved
are remarkably accurate and thorough when it comes to the comparison
of losses, despite so little narrative attention being given to details of in-
juries.
Saga society’s accuracy in these specific moments of peace negotiations
strongly contrasts with the ostensible indifference generally shown to dis/abil-
ity by saga narratives and saga society. It is only in these negotiations that saga
society reveals its concern for individual able-bodiedness and shows that cases
of wounds and impairments are taken seriously and do not simply fall under the
idea of ‘collateral damage’. Indeed, injuries and impairments could cause severe
disruptions to a (small) community because of the potential sources of social stig-
ma and hence the sagas choose to deal with losses and impairments on a juridical
level. Negotiations for compensation, whilst focused on pecuniary aspects, are
part of a wider process that attempts to restore social balance and satisfy a sense
of justice. In this way, the sagas do not break their silence about dis/ability com-
pletely but point to the importance of able-bodiedness for the maintenance of
social structures and the reputations of individuals and their families.
I suggest that the body can therefore be thought of as a form of capital in the
Íslendingasögur in line with Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capitals.58 Bourdieu sug-
gests a model of four types of capital that expands considerably on the conven-
punishment is also executed with the help of physical mutilations depending on the severity
of a legal trespass; see, for example, Egils saga, 9–12. Given the importance of being able-
bodied, being physically punished would represent a severe encroachment on the capital of
an individual in jeopardising their potential to accrue and to demonstrate physical abilities,
social reputation, and economic standing. What is more, the scars or missing limbs would
stand as lasting outward reminders of past events, both for the individual and for wider
society. On the use of physical punishment in medieval English and Old Norse legal and
literary sources, see Sean Lawing, “Perspectives on Disfigurement in Medieval Iceland: A
Cultural Study Based on Old Norse Laws and Icelandic Sagas” (Doctoral thesis, Háskóli
íslands, 2016).
58 On the general applicability of Bourdieu’s theory of capitals onto Old Norse literature,
see Kevin J. Wanner, snorri sturluson and the Edda: the Conversion of Cultural Capital in
Medieval scandinavia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008); and Torfi H. Tulinius,
“Pierre Bourdieu and Snorri Sturluson: Chieftains, Sociology and the Development of
Literature in Medieval Iceland?” snorres Edda i europeisk og islandsk kultur, ed. by Jon
Gunnar Jørgensen (Reykholt: Snorrastofa, 2009), 47–70.
THE SILENCED TRAUMA IN THE Í sLEnDInGAsÖGUR