ABSTRACT
Some women skalds are labeled with gender-specific descrip- tors in saga narratives, as is attested by the appearance of þórhildr"skáldkona" in Njáls saga, or of Jórunn"skáldmær" in Haralds saga hárfagra / Óláfs saga helga. But others (a random selection, it seems) are privileged to bear the more universal descriptor, the one male skalds are known by—the unadorned (grammatically neuter) title of"skáld" itself, displayed by one"Vilborg skáld" in Snorri's Háttatal as well as by Skáld-Torfa of Midfjördr, mother of the Bersi Skáld-Torfuson who plays a role in Óláfs saga helga. Although the gender free nature of the word"skáld" may be no more than a fortuitous accident of grammar and although we must guard against hasty assumptions when dealing with a linguistic and cultural environment that routinely applies masculine descriptors ("skörungr mikill," for instance) 1 to female characters in narratives, I do hope to show below that there is a genuine, extragrammatical aura of gender ambiguity surrounding at least some of the skáldkonur of tradition. My argument will maintain that the narratives showcase skáldkonur as pioneers of that"permeable membrane" between the genders postulated by Carol J. Clover in"Regardless of Sex: Men, Women and Power in Early Northern Europe" (1993). 2
