Ok lá þar at óvilja hennar : A Reconsideration of Sexual Violence in the Old Norse World

• Published in: Journal of Family History
• Main Author: Bell, Jacob
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2021
• Subjects: Social Sciences (miscellaneous); Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Anthropology; Norway; Iceland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03631990211053220; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03631990211053220; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/03631990211053220

Despite the popularized image of the raping and pillaging Viking warrior, the culture of sexual violence in Old Norse society has remained surprisingly understudied. This article uses skaldic verses, a literary genre produced in Iceland and Norway, mainly from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries, to suggest a reconsideration of sexual violence in the Old Norse world. It suggests that skaldic verses can help scholars discern a spatial and cultural geography of sexual violence against free men, women, and slaves, which suggests it was widespread and multidimensional and had ties to a pan-north Atlantic slave trade in the Viking Age.