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Monstrous Transformations in Old Icelandic Sagas

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Monstrous Transformations in Old Icelandic Sagas Hugvísindasvið Monstrous Transformations in Old Icelandic Sagas Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs Astrid Jungmann September 2011 Háskóli Íslands Íslensku- og Menningardeild Medieval Icelandic Studies Monstrous Transformations in Old Icelandic Sagas Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs Astrid Jungmann Kt.: 151086-3739 Leiðbeinandi: Torfi H. Tulinius Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir September 2011 Abstract In medieval literature monstrous bodies form an integral part of the supernatural. Some are simply used as foils for the hero, some may trigger fear, others trigger a feeling of the uncanny. The latter ones most often appear in the shape of metamorphosing bodies, transformers, displaying the horror and wonder of unstable corporeal boundaries. Old Icelandic saga literature, with its high density of supernatural elements, provides numerous accounts of bodily transformation. This thesis discusses three somatically unstable figures, Fáfnir from Völsunga saga, Ögmundr from Örvar-Odds saga, and Glámr from Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar. They all are prone to change and to exceed common limits of the monstrous. Those transformers are no mere narrative tools, but they carry immense relevance for the course of action because they function as individuals deeply inter-woven with the heroes' destinies. By the interplay of corporeal transformation and the utterance of a curse or prophecy the sagas portray the medieval Icelandic preoccupation with the inevitability of change. Líkamar sem hafa skipt um ham eru samofnir hinu yfirnáttúrulega í miðaldabókmenntum. Sumir eru notaðir til að blekkja hetjuna, aðrir geta hrætt eða fyllt óhugnaði. Hinir síðastnefndu birtast oftast í gervi líkama sem verða fyrir umbreytingum og sýna því hrylling og furður óstöðugra marka líkamans. Í fornsögunum er mikið af yfirnáttúrulegum fyrirbærum, þar á meðal margar frásagnir af líkamlegum umbreytingum eða hamskiptum. Í ritgerðinni er fjallað um þrjú dæmi um slíkar hamhleypur, Fáfni í Völsunga sögu, Ögmund í Övar-Odds sögu og Glám í Grettis sögu, sem allir taka breytingum og verða að skrímslum. Hamhleypurnar gegna mikilvægu hlutverki í frásögninni, því sem einstaklingar er tilvist þeirra samofin lífi hetjunnar. Með því að tvinna saman hamskiptum og formælingu eða forspá, setja sögurnar á svið hversu Íslendingar á miðöldum voru uppteknir af óumflýjanleika breytinga. Monstrous Transformations in Old Icelandic Sagas - Table of Contents - 1. Introduction …..................................................................................................... 1 2. Preconditions …................................................................................................... 2 2.1 The fantastic Middle Ages …..............................................................…. 3 2.2 Medieval monster …...........................................................................…. 6 3. The Uncanny: Another stranger me ….......................................................…... 10 4. Textual analysis ….........................................................................................…... 13 4.1 The sources …........................................................................................... 13 4.2 The monsters' backgrounds ….................................................................. 16 4.2 Boundless monsters …......................................................................…... 20 4.2.1 Somatic instability ….........................................................…... 21 4.2.2 Elusive monstrosity ...........................................................…... 26 5. Metamorphosis: A medieval concept of change …........................................... 29 5.1 Hybridity and metamorphosis …............................................................. 29 5.2 The medieval concepts of change and the imperative of transformation ….........................................................................…..... 32 5.2.1 The human monster …..........................................................… 33 5.2.2 Facial masking …...................................................................... 38 5.2.3 Freud and the saga monsters …................................................. 41 5.2.4 Summary …...........................................................................… 42 6. Nexus: Curse, prophecy and the Old Icelandic concept of fate ….................. 42 6.1 Uncanniness, repetition and fate …......................................................... 43 6.2 Collective fate …..................................................................................... 49 6.3 Individual fate …..................................................................................... 51 6.4 Summary …............................................................................................. 58 7. Conclusion – The cultural hybrid …..............................................................… 59 8. Bibliography …..................................................................................................... 64 9. Declaration in lieu of oath …............................................................................... 71 1. Introduction „[...] the monsters are not an inexplicable blunder of taste; they are essential, fundamentally allied to the underlying ideas of the poem, which give it its lofty tone and high seriousness.“1 − J. R. R. Tolkien When it comes to the academic interpretation of supernatural ingredients in medieval literature, J. R. R. Tolkien formulated one of the most seminal approaches: In an article on Beowulf (1936), Tolkien argues forcefully against the literary criticism of the poem, which downplays the importance of supernatural occurrences in order to use Beowulf as a historical source. Instead, he pleads for the acceptance of supernatural motifs as key elements to the epic, and for the recognition of the poem as a work of art and not as a source text for historiography.2 The 'lofty tone' and 'high seriousness' Tolkien attributes to Beowulf becomes more palpable if the abundance of supernatural elements is analysed in great depth. In this sense, it is the aim of this thesis to examine specific supernatural elements, monsters, in Old Icelandic saga literature. The word saga is etymologically derived from the Old Icelandic verb segja, meaning to say or to speak. It is this plain translation which suggests a core problem of saga research: Sagas are tales and narratives, they speak of things, but yet – what do they tell? It is the reader's difficult task to enter a dialogue with the past via the saga at hand, facing the problem of encountering another dialogue – of the saga author with his past.3 In this sense literature is always mirroring both author and reader, the communication between the two – author and reader as well as past and present – can function as a vehicle and bring forth fruitful insights into past mental landscapes. In accordance with anthropological approaches of the last decades, which are concerned with reading medieval Icelandic society through its literature,4 this thesis examines a specific supernatural element in Old Icelandic literature, the monster. The focus is put on those beings prone to, and well-known for, physical change – beings which morph into something monstrous during the narrative, monstrous transformers as 1 Tolkien 1983, p. 19. 2 This article followed his lecture „Beowulf: the monster and the critics“ from 1936. 3 Cf. Vésteinn Ólason 1998. Vésteinn describes the dialogue between the saga author and his own past as a “conversation of two closely related old men”, while the modern readers are “like a distant relative or child listening to the conversation […] and trying to understand its meaning by asking some questions”, Vésteinn Ólason 1998, p. 247. 4 Cf. e.g. Miller 1990; Meulengracht Sørensen 1995; Byock 1990; Fechner-Smarsly 1996; Hastrup 1985; Hastrup 1990. 1 I shall call them.5 This study examines several monstrous examples from Old Icelandic saga literature as case studies, and seeks to explain the process and the uncanniness of their corporeal transformations of substance, as well as the significance of these transformation episodes for the narratives. What factors lead to this monstrous metamorphosis, why do these monsters trigger a feeling of deeper significance and uncanniness while others simply fail to do so, and how can this visual act of transformation be interpreted in terms of change- and fate-concepts of a past medieval culture? The primary theoretical model this study will employ is Caroline Walker Bynum's understanding of medieval concepts of change, and a specific, yet admittedly debatable, view of the uncanny. I believe that the transformers examined here convey uncanniness rather than mere fear – a condition that is concerned with the question of otherness and, most interestingly, that of likeness. Fundamental to this is the Freudian theory of the uncanny and the pleasure principle, although one must act with caution when applying modern ideas to medieval sagas.6 I believe that some of Freud's ideas prove fruitful to analyse the medieval concept of change, notably corporeal change, and monstrous functions. Surely, the elements of the transformation episodes, the nature of the particular monster, must be set into their respective medieval Icelandic contexts. The episodes examined in the following will show that monsters that feature strongly in the saga always cross the limits of corporeality, as well as the border between otherness and humanity, instead of obeying a distinct separation. This thesis brings to light
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