ABSTRACT
Medieval sagas have astonishingly varied and complex representations of gender, foregrounding a multitude of issues which will be broadly discussed under four headings. The headings are: appropriate and stigmatized masculine and feminine behaviour, male bonds, competition, and conflicts, love, marriage, and sexual relationships and questions about the performative and biological determination of gender. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a surge of interest in gender matters, and scholars used a number of comparative approaches in order to argue for or against the literary texts’ historicity regarding representations of male and female roles. Scholars have worked to define the sagas’ presentation of masculinity, focusing on the ideal warrior, his position in society, his relationships with other men and women, and what actions were perceived as attacks on his status and honour. Many female characters employ magic in the sagas, and occasionally, women appear as prophetesses, characters ranging from deranged hags to soothsayers revered by their community.
