Coercion, vengeance, feud and accommodation: homicide in medieval Iceland

• Published in: Early Medieval Europe
• Main Author: FIRTH, HUGH
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2012
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2012.00339.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1468-0254.2012.00339.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2012.00339.x

Quantitative methods were employed to situate medieval Icelandic homicide in comparative context. Estimates of homicide rates were derived from samtíðarsögur, and found comparable with European rural medieval homicide estimates: late twelfth‐century Iceland was probably not as violent as a qualitative reading of the sagas might suggest. There were significant differences in patterns of vengeance between íslendingasögur and samtíðarsögur. In íslendingasögur, farmers committing homicide faced flight, outlawry or death; chieftains who initiated homicide might escape justice, although most became embroiled in feud. In samtíðarsögur, lethal vengeance following ordinary homicide was less common, and not a source of feud. These results generate a critique of previous notions of reciprocity in Icelandic vengeance, and support more recent interpretations of early medieval Icelandic society as a highly unequal, divided society. Both sources suggest that, although vengeance may have been legitimated in the language of ‘repayment’, vengeance is best understood within a cross‐cultural context as competitive behaviour designed to achieve superiority rather than parity.