Violence, Naturally
Abstract In medieval Iceland, to be human was to be violent, but the converse was equally true: to be violent was to be human. The preceding chapters explore hostilities within communities and between them; this chapter, an excursion into eco-history, carries the examination of Norse violence beyond...
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Oxford University PressOxford
2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198866046.003.0006 https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/46891636/oso-9780198866046-chapter-6.pdf |
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croxfordunivpr:10.1093/oso/9780198866046.003.0006 2023-05-15T15:05:47+02:00 Violence, Naturally Falk, Oren 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198866046.003.0006 https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/46891636/oso-9780198866046-chapter-6.pdf unknown Oxford University PressOxford Violence and Risk in Medieval Iceland page 221-C5.F4 ISBN 0198866046 9780198866046 9780191898280 book-chapter 2021 croxfordunivpr https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198866046.003.0006 2022-12-29T15:35:27Z Abstract In medieval Iceland, to be human was to be violent, but the converse was equally true: to be violent was to be human. The preceding chapters explore hostilities within communities and between them; this chapter, an excursion into eco-history, carries the examination of Norse violence beyond species boundaries. The sagas, realistic accounts of a society clinging by its fingernails to a volcanic outcrop at the edge of the Arctic, are remarkably reluctant to address the perils posed by the natural environment. To explain this anomaly, this chapter contrasts the sagas’ silence about Nature both with their own fixation on human violence and with the attitudes towards natural phenomena in adjacent genres, mainly hagiography and annals. Representation supplemented practice; humanizing violence in the sagas allowed Icelanders to exercise a measure of control over risks from beyond the social world, risks they could do little about in reality. That such representation flies so boldly in the face of facts highlights the symbiosis between violence and uchronia: forcing their world to make sense required Icelanders to convert real natural hazards into uchronic accounts of human physical nastiness Book Part Arctic Iceland Oxford University Press (via Crossref) Arctic 221 276 |
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Abstract In medieval Iceland, to be human was to be violent, but the converse was equally true: to be violent was to be human. The preceding chapters explore hostilities within communities and between them; this chapter, an excursion into eco-history, carries the examination of Norse violence beyond species boundaries. The sagas, realistic accounts of a society clinging by its fingernails to a volcanic outcrop at the edge of the Arctic, are remarkably reluctant to address the perils posed by the natural environment. To explain this anomaly, this chapter contrasts the sagas’ silence about Nature both with their own fixation on human violence and with the attitudes towards natural phenomena in adjacent genres, mainly hagiography and annals. Representation supplemented practice; humanizing violence in the sagas allowed Icelanders to exercise a measure of control over risks from beyond the social world, risks they could do little about in reality. That such representation flies so boldly in the face of facts highlights the symbiosis between violence and uchronia: forcing their world to make sense required Icelanders to convert real natural hazards into uchronic accounts of human physical nastiness |
format |
Book Part |
author |
Falk, Oren |
spellingShingle |
Falk, Oren Violence, Naturally |
author_facet |
Falk, Oren |
author_sort |
Falk, Oren |
title |
Violence, Naturally |
title_short |
Violence, Naturally |
title_full |
Violence, Naturally |
title_fullStr |
Violence, Naturally |
title_full_unstemmed |
Violence, Naturally |
title_sort |
violence, naturally |
publisher |
Oxford University PressOxford |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198866046.003.0006 https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/46891636/oso-9780198866046-chapter-6.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Iceland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Iceland |
op_source |
Violence and Risk in Medieval Iceland page 221-C5.F4 ISBN 0198866046 9780198866046 9780191898280 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198866046.003.0006 |
container_start_page |
221 |
op_container_end_page |
276 |
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1766337426883608576 |