Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.10.2018, Blaðsíða 64

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A B S T R A C T
“He tore her gown, he tore her cloak”:
Few words on women and gendered violence in Icelandic medieval ballads
In the Icelandic traditional ballads from medieval and post-medieval times, wo-
men and their voices are very prominent, while stories of male heroes were rather
portrayed in rímur. The language is very unusual and shows signs of translation,
formulas are frequently used, and the mode of narration is objective and clear.
Love is a common subject, and so is violence, often gender-based and sexual. In
the article the background of these ballads is discussed shortly and their emergence
in Icelandic oral culture and later its literature, as they were recorded by educated
men, from nameless sources, most probably women. Seven ballads are then used
to show different aspects of violence within the genre. All are highly dramatic, and
their subject is harsh: hardship, rape, birth and loss of children, and sometimes the
victims take things into their own hands and avenge in a graphic way. How ballads
that tell such terrible tales, can have been sung and danced to at joyous gatherings, is
an interesting food for thought. It will be reasoned that these ballads have primarily
been sung by women, and they can even have been a consolation and a tool to deal
with gender-based violence in their own lives.
Keywords: Ballads, women, feminine viewpoint, love, hate, violence, rape, revenge
Ingibjörg Eyþórsdóttir
Doktorsnemi í íslenskum bókmenntun
Íslensku- og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands
Sæmundargötu 2
IS-101 Reykjavík, Ísland
ine11@hi.is
„REIF HANN HENNAR STAKKINN, REIF HANN HENNAR SERK“