WICKED WITCHES OR WORLDLY WOMEN?

GENDER, POWER, AND MAGIC IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

By

Melissa J. Castle

Submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

o f American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

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Literature

Chair:

Larissa Tracy

Roberta Rubenstein

Dean offlie Coiieg^

Date

2005

American University 0 (f] 0

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. WICKED WITCHES OR WORLDLY WOMEN?

GENDER, POWER, AND MAGIC IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

BY

Melissa J. Castle

ABSTRACT

Though other scholars have examined magic in medieval literature, this study provides a

specific analysis of valkyries, their use of magic as a means of attaining adequate social

power to gain freedom from a wholly domestic existence, and an analysis of how this

representation contrasts with other contemporary English and French literary tendencies.

This study examines the valkyries without the scholarly bias of wickedness and

malevolence, which highlights their central position in Old Norse-Icelandic culture.

Without the stigma of the categorization of “witched witches,” it becomes clear that the

valkyries were not marginalized women; rather, they were part of the mainstream cultural

existence of Old Norse-Icelandic society. This study provides a fuller picture of the

Germanic world, including Nordic, Icelandic, and Scandinavian cultures, and its

literature—where women and men were valued based on their strength and fortitude,

rather than solely on their biological sex.

ii

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ABSTRACT 11

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION...... 1

2. THE POETRY OF THE ELDER EDDA...... 16

Helgaqvida Hundingsbanna in Fryrri and Helgaqvida a Hundingsbanna Qnnor (“The First and Second Lays of Helgi Hunding’s Bane”)

Sigrdrifomal (“The Lay of Sigrdrifa”)

Sigurdarqvida in Scamma (“The Short Lay of Sigrud”)

Vqlundarquida (“The Lay of Volund”)

3. VOLSUNGA SAGA (The Saga o f the Volsungs)...... 30

4. BRENNU-NJALS SAGA (The Saga of the Burning ofNjal) 42

5. THE ARTHURIAN TRADITION...... 58

Morgan Le Fay

The Lady of the Lake

6. CONCLUSION...... 73

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 78

iii

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INTRODUCTION

Magic played an important role within the social structure of medieval European

societies; the magical and supernatural worlds were inextricably linked, especially in

Germanic cultures which included the linguistically connected peoples in Nordic

countries like Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.1 As Michelle Sweeney discusses

in her book, Magic in Medieval Romance: From Chretien de Troyes to Geoffrey

Chaucer, magic was rooted in the paganism of the early medieval era and was very much

a part of people’s everyday lives and their belief systems. Magic was “frequently a part

of the ‘real world,”’ making the proliferation of magic in the literary realm a logical

extension of these people’s existence. Women in particular were linked with magic,

both in historical practice and in literary lore. The literature of the Middle Ages,

including the poetry of theElder Edda and the family sagas of Iceland, reflects historical

tendencies including the depiction of the importance of magic for Germanic peoples.

Magic can be defined in myriad ways, but a general definition of the term

indicates that any “phenomena which intellectuals would have recognized as natural or

supernatural occurrences which demonstrate the influence of man [and indeed, women]

1 These countries are also cumulatively called Scandinavian; specifically the term encompasses the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the republics of Finland and Iceland. Old Norse-Icelandic refers to the Germanic language once spoken in Nordic or Scandinavian countries. 2 Michelle Sweeney,Magic in Medieval Romance: From Chretien de Troyes to Geoffrey Chaucer (Great Britain: Four Courts Press, 2000), 29. 1

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over nature or mankind” would be considered magical.3 Being able to control one’s

natural surroundings as well as being able to exert power over others makes an individual

magical. Though this definition implies that any control of nature was magical—

consider that farming could be defined as a magical endeavor in this context—magic was

a more specified phenomenon. To perform magical feats, even in the natural world,

required some knowledge or connection with the occult for not everyone could perform

such deeds. A more specific definition of magic separates it into two distinct types,

natural and demonic: “Natural was not distinct from science, but rather a branch of

science. It was the science that dealt with ‘occult virtues’ (or hidden powers) within

nature. Demonic magic was not distinct from religion, but rather a perversion of religion.

It was a religion that turned from God and toward demons for their help in human

affairs.”4 During the Middle Ages, magic was a naturalistic endeavor. It did not have

the negative connotations that would later be applied to witchcraft in the late Middle

Ages and that continued into subsequent eras. Those individuals who could be

categorized as magical or supernatural could either be malevolent or benevolent.

According to Robert Thurston, “traditionally the people equipped in this way [magically]

are not necessarily seen as subordinates of the devil, who did not exist in any event in

Greek or Roman theology and who assumed a leading role in Western Christendom only

in the late Middle Ages.”5 The ancient pagan notions of magic were associated with the

natural world in that it was often demonstrated through the use of herbs in healing, and

was a power often affiliated with women. These early medieval women were important

3 Ibid. 4 Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 9. 5 Robert W. Thurston,Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise and Fall o f the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America (New York: Pearson Education, 2001), 56.

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members of society, because they had the “hidden” or “occult” knowledge of ancient

herbal remedies and of ancient pagan rites. Magical women were neither outcasts nor

were they punished for having this knowledge. Furthermore, much of the literature and

many of oral tales of this older time contain the “wise woman” character who provides

sage counsel to those around her, including the men of her society. She is sought after

for advice, guidance, and occasionally magical remedies for a multitude of personal

afflictions, making her a strong member of her society and explicitly connecting her to

the magical realm.

The definition of magic as being a naturalistic phenomenon or as a means of

controlling natural surroundings was not a static view. The paganism of the early Middle

Ages began to lose sway as the Christian Church gained power and influence, and magic

could no longer remain a benevolent endeavor since it contradicted the dogma of the

Church where it was God who controlled the natural world, not humans, supernatural or

otherwise. The association of paganism and magic with the occult began to be perceived

as evil and unnatural. This change in the perception of magic did not occur immediately.

Indeed, the Church realized it could not eliminate all pagan rituals and traditions if it was

to convert the populace and so it assimilated those pagan rites and rituals that fit

ideologically with Church doctrine. Thurston points out: “In any discussion of magic in

this period it is important to note that Christianity was fighting to make a place for itself;

hence its individuality was most effectively defined by striking out against those pagan

ideas which it could not absorb.”6 Christianity allowed for some syncretism, but it also

attempted to eradicate those pagan elements it could not effectively “absorb;” among

6 Ibid., 37.

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those elements was magic. Thus, women, with their associations with magic, were also

deemed evil and heretical, a tendency much more pervasive in continental European

countries than in Germanic ones. According to Sweeney, the preoccupation of medieval

literature, including the romance and other forms, “with women and magic [contributed]

to the hysteria concerning female power over men, the birthing process, and the sexual

perversions attributed to heretics in the later medieval period.”7 The literature of the time

reflects this change in attitude toward magic and women, though more acutely in Western

European countries, like France and England.

Early medieval literature offers a sympathetic portrayal of the pagan world,

describing the connectedness of magic and the real world, while later medieval literature

separates magic from its pagan origins, making it an aberration of society and

inappropriate. The tendency of literature to mirror its historical context becomes

complicated because Christian scribes often recorded the older pagan tales, imposing

their own religious filter onto the written story, and in some cases authoring a new story

that bore little resemblance to the original tale, besides plot and characters. Because

these scribes were working with popular oral pagan tales, they could not fully impose

Christian ideology onto them by wholly eliminating the pagan elements. Prior to the full

acceptance of Christianity, the scribes allowed for the coexistence of pagan and Christian

elements in the stories that they recorded. Indeed, these

Christian mythographers.. .were not slow to capitalise on the discrepancy between the qualified claims of the old religion for the powers o f the Norse gods and the quite unqualified claims of divine omnipotence and immortality that gave Christianity its competitive edge in early Medieval Europe. However, the traditional mythological system was too closely interwoven with everyday life and thought patterns for people to abandon it simply as a

7 Sweeney,Magic in Medieval Romance, 27.

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devilish charade.8

As Christianity became the central religion of Western European countries, the scribes no

longer needed to filter the tales through a Christian lens. Moreover, with Christianity as

the mainstream religion for much of continental Europe, Christian scribes were able to

transcribe fully Christian stories without concerning themselves with possible societal

discontent because the people in those societies were Christian as well. One facet of

Christianity was its denigration of women as morally and physically weaker than men,

which ultimately effected the presentation of literary women in medieval literature. With

paganism relegated to the margins of acceptable social beliefs in continental Europe, the

scribes could either fully eliminate pagan references or they could disparage those

characters in the stories who were magical, which ultimately propagated Church

ideology.

Christianity did not influence Germanic literature in the same way as continental

European literature. The depiction of magical women in this literature, specifically in the

poetry of theElder Edda, and in Brennu-Njals Saga (The Saga of the Burning ofNjalf

and in Volsunga Saga (The Saga o f the Volsungs), remains the same over time because of

the relative geographic isolation of Germanic cultures, especially Icelandic culture. This

isolation impeded the transfer of Christianity, enabling these Germanic cultures to

maintain their connection to and understanding of their pagan past, which had a decidedly

less misogynistic view of women than that of the Christian Church: “In Icelandic society

where the conversion to Christianity did not take place until the year 1000, one sees less

8 Margaret Clunies Ross,Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society, Volume 2 (Denmark: Odense University Press, 1998), 191. 9 Originally, the saga was titledBrennu-Njals Saga or the Saga o f the Burning of Njal. The saga will be referenced as Njal’s Saga, since the translation used applies the shorter title.

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of the misogynistic tradition of the Christian Church and more of the influence of the

Norse tradition.”10 Since Old Norse-Icelandic societies retained their connection to their

pagan traditions much longer than English and French cultures, the Germanic literature

reflects the paganism more clearly and strongly than on the continent or in England. And

by retaining a connection to their pagan past, these Old Norse-Icelandic societies held

onto the notion that magical women were an integral part of these societies, not marginal

to them; explaining why the depiction of these women remained relatively unchanged

throughout the Middle Ages even beyond the conversion of these societies to

Christianity. The relationship of these cultures with their pagan heritage allows them to

retain the image of the “wise woman” for a much longer period than in other cultures,

which inevitably allows these magical women to resist a categorization as “wicked

witches.” Specifically, the portrayal of the valkyries11 Sigrun, Brynhild, Sigrdrifa, and

others, in medieval eddic poetry and sagas, demonstrates this retention of the older pagan

associations of the early medieval period, because this literature was written by

Christians after the conversion to the new religion. The valkyries use their magic to

attain social power, which enables them to resist being relegated to a wholly domestic

existence. The tendency of the Germanic authors, and the Christian scribes, who later

wrote down the older stories in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to preserve the

magical elements of the pre-Christian stories and to retain the portrayal of the valkyries

10 Katherine Morris, Sorceress or Witch? The Image o f Gender in Medieval Iceland and Northern Europe (New York: University Press of America, 1991), 7. 11 Valkyrie is an Old Norse term that literally means chooser of the slain. In Old Norse mythology, the valkyries are beautiful warrior women, who are magical and part o f the Old Norse pantheon o f gods, who choose the most courageous warriors who have died in battle (they often choose who will die in battle) and they bring them to Valhalla, a type of “heaven” for warriors. The all powerful god, Odin, needs the best warriors to assist him in the preordained battle, Ragnarok, at the end of the world.

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as strong and powerful women contrasts with the representations of magical women in

Western European countries. This suggests the influence of the Church was more acutely

felt in the Western European world than in the Germanic world. Even though societies in

the Germanic world were undoubtedly patriarchal, the sheer number of magical women

in the literature from this geographic area suggests that other options were historically

available for women outside the domestic sphere. This is not to imply that women had

equal social power or position as men, but that some women were able to attain more

social liberties than traditionally allowed by society. This is especially apparent in the

Iceland where women were active participants in the community: “Icelandic women

did.. .frequently play an influential role in the workings of advocacy. They contributed to

the private consensus underlying decisions that determined relations between families

and outcome of feuds.”12 There were a variety of positions women could hold in Old

Norse-Icelandic society, implying that women were neither wholly oppressed by nor

were they wholly equal to their male counterparts. Women historically had more options

than other European women during this time: “Despite their influence in some areas,

Icelandic women played no substantial role in open political life and did not enjoy legal

equality with men. Still, if we are to judge by the sagas, women of property-holding

families had sufficient clout to set in motion actions that escalated or prolonged feuds.”13

The “clout” mentioned by Jesse Byock expresses that even though women were restricted

in some areas, they often had enough social power to take action in situations of import to

them. Though not be equal to their male counterparts in society, some evidence suggests

12 Jesse Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1988), 134. 13 Ibid., 134-135.

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women could participate in battle and could assume the role of head of household when

appropriate without the aid of magic: “the law itself contemplates a situation in which, in

the genealogical breach, a woman becomes the functional son, not only in the transaction

of wergild14, but also in the matter of inheritance and also, at least in principle, in the

actual prosecution of feud.”15 Though the extent to which the “surrogate son clause”

permeated Germanic cultures can never be fully accounted for, the “ubiquity of ‘maiden

warrior’ legends—legends of unmarried, brotherless daughters who on the death of their

fathers become functional sons, even dressing the part—suggests that the idea was very

much alive in the public mind.”16 The maiden warrior directly relates to shield maidens,

virgins chosen to do battle, who are often depicted in sagas. The shield maidens were

mortal, and could arguably have existed in Germanic cultures.17 These “historical”

maiden warriors probably provided the inspiration for the supernatural valkyries who

resemble them in their fierce militaristic occupations. The magical women in the eddic

poetry and sagas, like Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild, who is identified as both a valkyrie

and shield maiden, attain social power within the literature suggesting a cultural

sensitivity and acceptability of strong women in these cultures.

The Elder Edda is a compilation of numerous lays and fragments that began as

oral tales in the ninth and tenth centuries. The eddic poetry is now known from the

written versions, which were compiled by an unknown author between the eleventh and

14 Wergild or man price is the compensatory money that one party paid another when that party was responsible for the wrongful death of someone in the other party. 15 Carol Clover, “Regardless o f Sex: Men, Women, and Power in Early Northern Europe,”Representations, no. 44 (1993): 6. 16 Ibid. 17 “According to Saxo Grammaticus, 300 shieldmaidens fought on the Danish side at the Battle of Bravalla.” Wikipedia, “Shieldmaiden”; available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/shieldmaiden; Internet; accessed 3 March 2005.

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fourteenth centuries (1000 A.D. and 1300 A.D.). Since Iceland converted in 1000 A.D.,

Christian scribes were responsible for recording these older tales while preserving the

original pagan elements. The poems contained within the Elder Edda are “stanzaic,

alliterative poetry on mythological and heroic subjects.”1 8 The sagas are contemporary

with the Elder Edda. Njal ’s Saga was written circa 1280 A.D. but records historical

events from around 980 A.D., and the less historical but more heroic epicThe Saga o f the

Volsungs was written during the thirteenth century. Within this Germanic literature the

prominent characters of Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild represent the type of magical

woman with the unique ability to transcend the boundaries of the traditional domestic

role of women in Western European medieval society. This power is not a fictional

device within the stories, but is suggestive of the power historically available to some

women. Truly, these valkyries were like surrogate sons of Odin. As Carol Clover notes,

when a “genealogical breach” occurs in a family line, a woman with no brothers could

assume the role, and assumedly, the power, of a male heir.19 Odin was the all-father of

the gods, and because there were no male counterparts in the Norse pantheon, the

valkyries assumed the role of male progenitor with all its privilege and power. Sigrun,

Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild, along with the other manifestations of these characters, use their

magic and their connection to the supernatural world for specific purposes, to decide the

outcome of battle and to choose warriors for the final battle of the gods. The depiction of

these valkyrie women is quite different from the depiction of magical women in Western

European countries. Old Norse-Icelandic societies were uniquely structured to provide

18 Heather O’Donoghue,Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 62-63. 19 Clover,Regardless o f Sex, 6.

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women with more opportunities than those available to women of other medieval

cultures. Women with social power, as depicted in the literature, were more socially

acceptable in Germanic cultures than in other European cultures: “From the outset of the

scholarly tradition, readers have been startled and not infrequently appalled by the

extraordinary array of ‘exceptional’...women—women whose behavior exceeds what is

presumed to be custom and sometimes the law as well.”9fl Because the power these

magical women possess was socially acceptable, it was not a usurpation of male power.

This added to the overall acceptability of these women as important members of Old

Norse-Icelandic society, and made their power non-threatening to the male patriarchal

system. Furthermore, there is some evidence that women were able to participate in

traditionally male occupations: “It may well be that even that most macho of early

Scandinavian business activities, organized piracy (‘viking’ in the proper sense of the

term), was practiced by women.”91 The fact that women participated in such a decidedly

masculine activity could explain the numerous representations of the warrior woman in

Icelandic literature. Knowing that women historically could partake of duties in the

“masculine realm” could evoke compassion from a literary audience reading about the

adventures of magical valkyrie women; the audience would not fully discount the

representation of powerful women, because powerful women existed historically.

English and French traditions portray their magical female characters differently

than Germanic cultures. Any power that the female characters have in the literature of

Western Europe dilutes over time while the power remains more constant in Old Norse-

20 Ibid., 2. 21 Ibid., 3.

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Icelandic literature. In the French and English literary traditions, the portrayals of

Morgan Le Fay and the Lady of the Lake—as magical women who are strong female

characters, but whose magic is viewed as a misuse of power or as an extension of male

power—contrasts markedly with the portrayals of the valkyries in Germanic texts.

Morgan Le Fay is maligned for her use of magic and the Lady of the Lake is a

Christianized character whose magic is used not solely for her own benefit but typically

for the benefit of King Arthur and his court. The valkyries retain their power and

sovereignty throughout the Middle Ages, while the continental and English magical

women are diminished and often stereotyped into “wicked witches” during the later

Middle Ages. The power of the valkyries made them truly autonomous beings, because

they exercise their power and magical abilities to their own ends, not someone else’s,

whereas Morgan and the Lady of the Lake use their power for the furtherance of male

desires. The loss of autonomy for magical women occurred more readily in England and

France because of their proximity to each other and to the seat of Christianity, making

these cultures acutely sensitive to the influence of the Church. As Christianity was firmly

accepted in France and England, these cultures loosened their ties to their pagan belief

system, which included women as natural healers and as connected to the supernatural.

In these cultures, women deemed supernatural and magical were eventually deemed evil

by the Church:

The central problem is why this demonization of the sorceress took place on the continent and did not take place in Iceland. The answer is Christianity. This new religion denigrated paganism. Iceland converted to Christianity in 1000 AD, whereas the Roman Empire became officially Christian at the end o f the fourth century.22

22 Katherine Morris,Sorceress or Witch?, 2.

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The Old Norse-Icelandic cultures differ from Western European cultures in their literary

depictions of magical women for the most part due to the importance of paganism to

Icelandic society.23 As Margaret Clunies Ross points out, the peoples of the Germanic

world used their mythological belief system to make sense of their existence: . .the

schema of Old Norse myth was part of the basic conceptual equipment of medieval

Icelanders even after they had converted to Christianity.. .it enabled them to use myth as

a means of communication about a whole range of concepts and ideas that were integral

to their culture.”24 Because the ideas of their mythological belief system, which included

magic, were so intricately woven into the tapestry of their social and cultural heritage,

these ideas remained more constant since they were part of the social consciousness of

these peoples. Magic and the women who use it could remain relatively unscathed by the

Christian conversion because the Germanic societies accepted the pagan elements as a

part of life. The Germanic literature maintains an association with paganism through the

positive portrayal of female characters, like Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild who use

magic for their own motivations. Germanic authors consistently presented the valkyries’

power as acceptable and as an appropriate means of attaining their own desires even after

the conversion of Iceland and other Germanic societies to Christianity.

Though other scholars have studied magic in medieval literature, this specific

analysis of valkyries examines how they use magic as a means to gain freedom from a

wholly domestic existence while retaining their own sovereignty and how this

representation contrasts with other contemporary English and French literary tendencies.

23 Ibid. 24 Margaret Clunies Ross,Prolonged Echoes, 12-13.

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The Germanic magical women use their powers, their magic, their supernatural abilities

for their own ends, not in the service of others, compared to the continental women who

were more or less servants to the will of men. Because these French and English stories,

namely the Vulgate Lancelot and Malory’s Le Morte D ’Arthur were written in relatively

the same time period as the sagas and eddic poetry, mid- to late- thirteenth century and

mid-fifteenth century, respectively, these tales highlight the varying impact Christianity

had in Europe, and specifically the impact of the religion on the roles of women and

magic. Magic provides the valkyrie women with a dual existence; they are

simultaneously mortal and supernatural. Indeed, the role of valkyries in the Old Norse-

Icelandic pantheon is to travel between the mortal and the supernatural realms—as the

choosers of the slain, they carry the souls of worthy warriors from the earthly realm to the

supernatural realm of Valhalla. Based on this role, the valkyries have been characterized

in a multitude of ways by scholars such as Alexander Krappe25 and Katherine Morris,26

but those characterizations often are negative in connotation, because of the close

relationship between the valkyries and the world of the dead. Since they choose from the

slain the best warriors for Odin, the valkyries were intimately involved with the outcome

and carnage of battle. This negative characterization does not allow for a full

understanding of these women since modem critics impose their own value systems upon

the role these women played in the Norse mythology. This paper analyzes the valkyries

25 See Alexander Haggerty Krappe, “The Valkyrie Episode in Njal’s Saga,”Modem Language Notes 43, no. 7 (1928): 473. Krappe’s discussion is a bit dated, and no significant study o f the role of these figures has been completed since the early twentieth century. 26 Katherine Morris characterizes the valkyries as “nefarious” when describing their role in Germanic culture which does not represent how the valkyries where viewed in their own mythological context. See Katherine Morris,Sorceress or Witch?, 104. Alexander Krappe describes the valkyries, inNjal’s Saga, as “sinister.”

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without the scholarly bias of wickedness and malevolence and it recognizes their central

position in Old Norse-Icelandic culture. An examination of the valkyries through this

biased scholarly lens which often taints the depiction of these women, presents the

valkyries as if they contain an “otherness” not truly present in their literary

representations. Without the stigma of the categorization of “witched witches,” the

presentation of these women represents them not as marginalized women but as part of

the mainstream cultural existence of Old Norse-Icelandic society. The conventional

culture of the Germanic societies accepted literary images of strong and powerful women

who use their magic to attain social power precisely because it was possible that women

were historically able to participate in predominately male occupations and because there

were some women capable of having a role beyond the domestic sphere. Germanic

cultures did not necessarily stratify their gender roles in a strictly binary way where

women were immediately deemed inferior. These societies existed during a harsh time

and in a harsh environment that demanded strength from both genders in order to survive.

Moreover, these were societies that did not necessarily devalue women based on

biological-sexual identity. Germanic cultures contained a “system in which being bom

female was not so damaging that it could not be offset by other factors. A woman may

start off with debits and a man with credits, but any accident, popularity, a forceful

personality, sheer ambition, and so on—could tip the balance in the other direction.”27

Certainly the valkyrie women’s magic “offset” this traditional binary sexual dichotomy,

because their power was always an asset. And since these societies deemed strength as

the higher value than sex, the valkyries were thus accepted by society because of the

27 Carol Clover,Regardless of Sex, 13.

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power they garnered from their magic. By examining the valkyries in a more open and

unbiased way, without the negative perspective through which they have been previously

examined, this study provides a fuller picture of the Germanic world and literature—

where women and men were valued based on their strength and fortitude, rather than

solely according to their biological sex.

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THE POEMS OF THE ELDER EDDA

Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild assume roles of power and of wisdom and

counsel. The lays in which these characters appear are within the heroic section of the

Elder Edda, but these women are wholly tied to the Old Norse-Icelandic pantheon.

These are no ordinary women; indeed, they are valkyries who are magically and

supematurally powerful: Sigrun actively participates in warfare; Sigrdrifa transmits

ancient knowledge; and Brynhild facilitates revenge against those who wronged her. The

fact that these magical and supernatural women are included in the heroic portion of the

Edda brings into the focus the gender roles of women in Old Norse-Icelandic culture:

The heroines o f these poems— Sigrun, Svaa, Brynhild, [Sigrdrifa], and Gudrun (a valkyrie referentially)— are figures of the royal court, with ties and obligations to a worldly environment.. .At the same time the valkyrie-brides (so called because of their erotic attachment to the hero) have supernatural powers (they are not limited by spatial and temporal considerations).28

By being simultaneously part of the mortal and supernatural worlds, these women must

transition between the world of the gods, which gives them power, and the world of man,

which traditionally restricted that power. The world of man imposed societal strictures

on women who lacked physical and emotional strength which placed them in a somewhat

inferior standing within a dual-sexed gender model present in the European world as a

whole.29 Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild reconcile this parity in social standing by using

28 Helen Damico,Beowulf s Wealtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 42. 29 Carol Clover,Regardless o f Sex, 13.

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their magic and supernatural abilities to satisfy their needs, allowing them to resist being

relegated to a completely domestic existence, and enabling them to be accepted as

powerful women without being maligned for it.

HELGAQVIDA HUNDINGSBANNA IN FRYRRI AND HELGAQVIDA HUNDINGSBANNA ONNOR (“THE FIRST AND SECOND LAYS OF HELGI HUNDING’S BANE”!

Sigrun, as she appears in theElder Edda, is a powerful valkyrie who uses her

magic to marry the man whom she most desires, Helgi. “The First and Second Lays of

Helgi Hunding’s Bane” recount the meeting and eventual marriage of Sigrun and Helgi.

In the first lay, Sigrun initially appears in bloody armor above the fray of the battle: “The

warrior [Helgi] saw women riding / tall under helmets at Himinvanga; / their shining

bymies were stained with blood, / and from their spears shot gleaming flames.”30 From

the very beginning of the poem, Sigrun is established as powerful and as an active

participant in battle because her “bymie was stained in blood.” As a valkyrie, she is

intimately connected to the highest god in the pantheon, Odin. It is at his bidding that

she, along with her fellow valkyries, “select the men who are destined to fall in battle and

they reward victory to the survivors. As such they form an important link between the

divine and the human world.”31 Sigrun is physically strong and vital to the mythic idea

of providing worthy warriors for Odin and the impending battle of Ragnarok, which

signals the doom of the gods and the end of the world. As a woman, she is pressured to

submit to the request of her father and of Odin, but her magic allows her to alleviate that

30 “The First Lay of Helgi Hunding’s Bane,” Trans. Patricia Terry,Poems of the Elder Edda (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), stanza 15. 31 Jenny Jochens, Old Norse Images o f Women (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 39.

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pressure, satisfying her desires rather than those of her men in her life. Her father

establishes a marriage arrangement without including her in the negotiations, and it is a

match with which she does not agree. She does not believe that Hodbrodd is strong

enough or as good a warrior for her:

Hogni’s daughter leaned down from her horse — the crashing shields quieted— and said to the king, We are bound for other business / than drinking beer with you ring-breakers. My father means to make me marry / the grim warrior, Granmar’s son; but I, Helgi, have said that Hodbrodd, famed for his courage, is a feeble kitten.. .32

The idea that she is required to marry a man not of her choosing is a reflection of the

historical reality in Icelandic culture, where daughters were subordinate to their father’s

edicts, in that she is obligated to obey the requirements of mortal law: “Although the

woman had the greatest interest in the [marriage] arrangement, she was totally absent

from the negotiations.” However, even though she faces a traditional and somewhat

submissive position in regards to Odin and her father’s demands, she relies on her magic

and supernatural abilities to determine a way to resolve the situation of her unwanted

marriage to a man she deems inadequate. Sigrun is both domestic and supernatural, and

as a mortal she is constrained by societal pressures surrounding matrimony. It seems that

she must marry a man of her father’s choosing and although restricted in the choice of her

husband, she is not fully constrained to accept her father’s decree since she enlists Helgi

in her cause. Her magical and supernatural associations draw Helgi to her, as a warrior,

he is interested in a woman suitable to his temperament and values, and she uses her

position to convince him to get rid of Hodbrodd, freeing her to pursue her own desires.

32 “First Lay o f Helgi,” trans. Patricia Terry, stanzas 17-19. 33 Jenny Jochens,Women in Old Norse Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), 27.

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Significantly, Sigrun is not punished by her father for her behavior. Indeed, the poet does

not give her father any opinion about her action against his choice of a spouse. The

absence of animosity for Sigrun’s behavior is telling of the historical context surrounding

the eddic poetry in that women could exact control over their lives: “.. .the sources tell of

a number of women who prosecute their lives in general, and their sex lives in particular,

with a kind of aggressive authority unexpected in a woman and unparalleled in any other

European literature.”34 With this notion in mind, it makes sense that Sigrun’s father

would not criticize her for seeking Helgi because women controlled their sex lives, which

is part of the marital relationship and historically, women did have the power to refuse

suitors.35 Therefore, Sigrun establishes a relationship with Helgi where she has the

power to seek the fulfillment of her own desires.

In the first meeting between them, Sigrun enlists Helgi to wage war against

Hodbrodd, which he willing accepts for she offers herself to him. She says: “Soon he

[Hodbrodd] will come here; he’ll be my husband—/ unless you are willing to wage war /

or make the prince give up his prize.”36 By soliciting his assistance in this manner, she

actually guarantees his success because she and the other valkyries will be on his side as

well. She uses her magical power to provide his men with protection: “Helgi said to hoist

the tall sail higher; / they would come through the crowding waves, / even when those

dread daughters of Aegir / reached up, trying to wreck the ships. / Sigrun the valkyrie,

above them in the sky, / rescued the ships and saved the warriors.”37 It is her skill,

strength, and magical power as a valkyrie that leads to the death of Hodbrodd, freeing

34 Carol Clover,Regardless o f Sex, 4. 35 Jenny Jochens,Women in Old Norse, 162. 36 “First Lay of Helgi,” trans. Patricia Terry, stanza 19. 37 Ibid., stanzas 29-30.

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Sigrun to marry Helgi, whom she deems a more appropriate husband. After Helgi defeats

Hodbrodd, Sigrun visits the dying warrior on the battlefield: “Sigrun went into the field

and found Hodbrodd dying. She said: ‘You won’t have Sigrun / of Sefafells, / Hodbrodd,

king, / to hold in your arms; / time has run out—/ grey wolves sink their teeth / in slain

men’s bodies / for Granmar’s sons.’”38 Sigrun’s statement contains strong and powerful

diction. Her presence on the battlefield is telling of the structure of Old Norse-Icelandic

society because the battlefield was a place where women were traditionally absent in the

continental European tradition. However, within the Germanic cultures, the battlefield

was not only the domain of men; it was truly the domain of women, because there were

times when women would actually participate in battle, and at the conclusion of battle the

valkyries choose the warriors for Valhalla or they assisted with cleaning up the carnage.

A Germanic woman would have had an accepted place on field no matter the reason for

her presence.

Sigrun also contrasts with her female historical counterparts (mortal women),

because she actively changes her fate. She does not have to submit fully to the marital

decision of her father; her magical powers enable her to have her own desire met. She

does not want to marry Hodbrodd because he is not strong enough for her, and she

accomplishes this. Once Helgi defeats Hodbrodd, Sigrun is true to her word and she

marries him: “Prince, you shall have a worthy prize: red-gold rings and a royal maiden. /

In health and happiness you shall have Hogni’s daughter and Hringstead too, triumph and

lands; the fight is finished.”39 Like her male counterparts, Sigrun is beholden to the

38 “Second Lay o f Helgi Hunding’s Bane,” trans. Patricia Terry,Poems of the Elder Edda (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), stanza 23. 39 “The First Lay o f Helgi,” trans. Patricia Terry, stanzas 54-56.

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strictures of the warrior code, which requires full compliance with one’s trothe or word.

Sigrun is truly a warrior and she has the power to support that position.

As a valkyrie, it is her duty to determine the conclusion of battle, and in this

instance, it is due to her personal and active participation that Helgi is successful: Sigrun

“provides the cause of his great triumph. She is a valkyrie who protects his expedition,

and she pronounces the final victory and prophesies the hero’s successful future.”40 Even

though it seems that within the societal framework of Old Norse-Icelandic culture, Sigrun

would have been restricted in her options in the marriage arrangement that her father

negotiated, her role as a valkyrie, and the magic associated with it, gives her more power

over her own destiny and desires which suggests, especially with the proliferation of

these types of magical women, that women in this society would have other options than

traditionally offered. As a valkyrie, Sigrun can be classified on the “plus” side of

Clover’s one-sex gender model present in Germanic cultures. Indeed, the binary system

that was most relevant in this society was not between men and women; rather, “the

binary, the one that cuts most deep and the one that matters [is] between strong and weak,

powerful and powerless or disempowered, swordworthy and unswordworthy, honored

and unhonored or dishonored, winners and losers.”41 Within this binary, Sigrun is on the

side that is valued for she is strong, powerful and sword-worthy. Though she is called a

“strife among strong men” by Hodbrodd’s kinsman, Sigrun is not demonized for her

participation in the start of the war between Helgi and Hodbrodd because her desires and

her actions are perfectly within the warrior ethic. Helgi comforts Sigrun by stating that

40 Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age (New York: The Boydell Press, 1991), 170. 41 Carol Clover,Regardless o f Sex, 13.

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her position as a shield-maid of the Volsungs connects her to Helgi’s family more than

her own, because the Volsungs are descendents of Odin, the high god in the Old Norse-

Icelandic pantheon. Her supernatural position allows her to break from social and marital

norms without social repercussions. Sigrun is not the only valkyrie to demonstrate her

strength and value in society. Sigrdrifa also maintains a position of power within the

social dynamic in Germanic cultures which emphasizes the popularity and prevalence of

these power female characters.

SIGRDRIFOMAL (“THE LAY OF SIGRDRIFA”)

Sigrdrifa is also a valkyrie who through her magic attains power, circumventing

Odin’s wishes and publicizing her desire to marry only a man who is fearless like herself.

Like Sigrun, Sigrdrifa is first introduced wearing her full armor: “Her bymie was so tight

it seemed to be her very skin. He [Sigurd] cut it with Gram [his sword] from the

neckpiece all the way down and through both sleeves. When he took the bymie off her,

she awakened and sat up.”42 The fact that Sigrdrifa and Sigrun are first introduced in

these lays wearing their battle armor associates the women with the masculine occupation

of battle and showing their physical strength, which was a highly valued trait in

Germanic culture for both men and women. The reason Sigrdrifa is in such a

predicament is due to her tenacity, garnered from her magical ability as a valkyrie, for

disobeying Odin’s order. He wants Hjalm-Gunnar to win a battle but she gives the battle

decisively to Agnar because she believes him to be the better of the two warriors 43 She

also refuses to accept any choice Odin makes regarding a marriage partner for her. She

42 “The Lay of Sigrdrifa,” trans. Patricia Terry,Poems of the Elder Edda (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1990), 161). 43 Ibid., 162.

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has her own notions and desires for whom she wants as a husband; she will only marry a

man who “never knew what fear was.”44 Within the historical context of continental

Europe, a woman going against a father figure, like Odin, in his decisions is a dangerous

proposition; truly, a “real” woman outside of the Germanic culture would not have been

able to go against her father’s wishes in a matrimonial negotiation. But because Sigrun is

part of culture that values strength over sexual biology, she can assert herself against

Odin, which she does in two ways, against his marriage proposition and against his battle

decision, demonstrating the strength of her convictions and her determination not to

acquiesce her own desires for someone else’s. In this way, then, Sigrdrifa is “more active

and independent than the other valkyries. Not only has she directly participated in battle,

but she also dared to contravene the chief god.”45 Sigrdrifa’s strength comes from her

role as a valkyrie, which separates her from the mortal world while it concurrently

associates her with the pagan past of Germanic culture. She uses her magic to acquire

more social power than what is available to real women in Western European countries

which base gender roles and assign value based on the tradition gender model where man

were superior to women.

In addition to the power she derives from her magical and supernatural abilities,

Sigrdrifa is also wise. Sigurd goes to Sigrdrifa in hopes of learning the ancient

knowledge of their culture: “I will teach you the runes of triumph / to have on the hilt of

your sword—/ some on the blade, some on the guard.”46 Sigrdrifa, as a valkyrie and the

44 Ibid. 45 Jenny Jochens,Old Norse Images o f Women,1. 9 46 “Lay of Sigrdrifa,” trans. Patricia Terry, stanza 20.

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repository of ancient knowledge, “embodies both war and wisdom.”47 Even though she

is punished by Odin for insubordination, it is her role as a valkyrie (and the power she

acquires from that role) that allows her to be successful in her desire to marry whomever

she feels appropriate; it also allows her to contradict Odin’s wishes since she has the

courage and physical and mental strength to make her wishes known. If Sigrdrifa were a

mortal woman in England or France, she would have had to accept the decisions of her

father for fear of social and familial repercussions. Since Germanic cultures were more

accepting of strong women who exert control over their lives, including to some extent

control over their marriage arrangements, Sigrdrifa would not be seen as an aberration to

societal norms. Her behavior would be deemed acceptable, thus leaving her free from

social criticisms and punishment.

SIGURDAROVIDA IN SCAMMA (“THE SHORT LAY OF SIGRUD”)

The last valkyrie from theElder Edda, who will be discussed is Brynhild, who is

not explicitly tied to mythology, though some scholars have argued that she is similar to,

if not the same person as, Sigrdrifa. In other Old Norse-Icelandic texts, it is Brynhild

who is sleeping in her full armor and who Sigurd awakens by cutting through her bymie.

As Jenny Jochens notes in her book, Old Norse Images o f Women'.

convinced that only a supernatural woman would be a suitable counterpart for the male hero, [the Nordic compiler of the poem] created an encounter between Sigurd and a valkyrie... Nameless, she may have been characterized by the fitting termsigrdrifa (the one who brings victory) which a later compiler understood as a proper name.48

47 Jenny Jochens,Old Norse Images o f Women, 90. 48 Ibid., 92.

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Other scholars also debate the identity of Brynhild: “Is she, in these lays, a divine

valkyrie, or the daughter of a mortal king? Are Brynhild and Sigrdrifa one and the same

person here and in their origin, or two different persons, later combined into one?”49

Although Brynhild in this particular text is not wholly identifiable with the

valkyrie/shield-maiden tradition as are Sigrun and Sigrdrifa, her relative association with

that tradition would have been familiar to the audience hearing the tale. Indeed, the

myriad myths and legends that were conflated to formulate the character of Brynhild

would have been known to a contemporary audience:

.. .it seems there were several different elements...ultimately combined in her figure. There was the mortal maiden fond of war, as she appears in chronicles of old Germanic times, when, among a war-loving people, even maidens sometimes donned helmet and hauberk and tasted of the joys of battle.... At some time there certainly entered in the Norse conception o f the valkyrie: the maiden riding through the air and hovering over the battlefields, possessed o f supernatural powers of prophecy and allotment of fate in war; sometimes in the service of Odin, carrying out his will in battle and bearing the dead heroes to Valhalla.50

So, the strength of her character in the tale and the power she attains from the magical

association with the valkyries enables Brynhild to seek revenge for the wrongs done to

her by Sigurd, Gunnar, and Gudrun. Brynhild avenges her betrayal without the negative

associations that often are connected with the “a woman scorned.” Within the social

structure of Germanic society, feud was an integral part of how the society functioned:

“Participation in feud was a way of life in Iceland. Feuding regulated wealth and status, a

situation reinforced by the courts and the focus on law.”51 Though the feud ends with the

deaths of Brynhild and Sigurd, it re-establishes the balance of wrong-doing and revenge.

49 Virginia Gildersleeve, “Brynhild in Legend and Literature,”Modern Philology 6, no. 3 (1909): 11. 50 Ibid. 51 Jesse Byock,Medieval Iceland, 154.

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Because she was initially betrayed, Brynhild could seek revenge without fear of

becoming a social pariah. Her actions are perfectly justified in a culture that demanded

the payment of blood for injuries and insults; she operates within the accepted social

structure which makes no distinction between genders when it comes to revenge.

In “The Short Lay of Sigurd,” the revenge Brynhild seeks is fueled by the fact that

she is deceived into marrying Gunnar which enrages her. When alone, Brynhild

vocalizes her anger for this deceit: “I must have him [Sigurd] here in my arms, / though

Sigurd die for my desire! Yet I am wrong to speak such words—/ Gudrun is his wife,

and I am Gunnar’s; / never will foul Noms free us from longing.” Brynhild recognizes

the futility of her anger and the inappropriateness of her desires, but even acknowledging

this, she still whole-heartedly wants revenge. In order to achieve the revenge she is

justified in pursuing, Brynhild must rely on the power she gains through her affiliation

with the valkyries. To execute her revenge plot against Sigurd successfully, she must use

her power to convince her husband to seek revenge for her:

Driven by rage, she sought revenge: ‘I shall leave you, Gunnar; before too long You will have lost me and all my lands; I won’t live with a weakling lord. I will go back to where I lived before, Return to my relatives, my close kin, Stay there and sleep my life away, Unless you demand Sigurd’s death, And you, prince, take the chieftain’s place.’53

Although reluctant to seek revenge against Sigurd, for he had “vowed friendship with the

Volsung,” Gunnar eventually agrees to have his younger brother actually perform the act

52 “The Short Lay o f Sigurd,” trans. Patricia Terry,Poems of the Elder Edda (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), stanzas 6-7. 53 Ibid., stanzas 10-11.

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that kills Sigurd.54 By successfully convincing Gunnar to precipitate this action against

Sigurd, Brynhild demonstrates the power of her words on the actions of those around her.

Indeed, this “hvqt (incitement) merged verbal and physical activity, as female words

produced immediate results in male deeds.”55 It is because she is part of the tradition of

Sigrun and Sigrdrifa that she assumes social power not available to real women in

Western European society—it is the magic and supernatural associations that gives her

the power to pursue her revenge actively. Although Sigurd finds no blame with

Gunnar—he states that “Brynhild alone has wrought this evil”—his sentiment is not

shared by Brynhild.56 She believes that Gunnar is equally responsible for the actions

against Sigurd and the deceit against her: “What I will tell you, Gunnar, you know

already: / yours is the guilt for all this grief.../ 1 did not mean to be married ever, / before

you Gjukings came as guests.../ The man I thought that I would marry / sat with the gold

cn on Grani’s back; / his eyes were not like yours, / he did not look like you at all...” Her

betrayal at the hands of Gunnar and Sigurd drive her to seek revenge and Sigurd’s death,

but her love for Sigurd is true and lasting. As is appropriate for someone associated with

the warrior women of shield-maidens and valkyries, Brynhild requests to be burned

alongside Sigurd, who she feels is her true spouse. It is fitting for her to share the same

burial as the warrior Sigurd, since she is also part of a warrior class of the valkyries. At

the very end of her life, she pronounces her death, as the valkyries do for other warriors

on the battlefield: “you’ve heard the truth—my time has come.”58 Even though Brynhild

54 Ibid., stanzas 13-20. 55 Jenny Jochens,Old Norse Images o f Women, 165-166. 56 “The Short Lay of Sigurd,” stanza 27. 57 Ibid., stanzas 34-36. 58 Ibid., stanza 71.

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is not unequivocally linked to the supernatural beings of Old Norse-Icelandic mythology

in this particular eddic poem, she is implicitly connected through the history of her

character in other sagas and poems and through her association with Sigrdrifa. It is

through these associations that she is able to attain her heart’s intent: revenge against the

man who should have been her husband, Sigurd. To accomplish this, she goads Gunnar

into action with her verbal power and achieves revenge for her betrayal. Brynhild’s

satisfies her truest desire, and even though this was counter to her husband’s wishes, she

is successful and receives no rebukes from Helgi or any other men in her family.

VOLUNDAROUIDA (“THE LAY OF VOLUND”)

In addition to these three striking valkyrie women, the Elder Edda also contains

references to other less prominent, but no less powerful, valkyries. In “The Lay of

Volund,” three brothers, Slagfid, Egil, and Volund, marry three valkyrie warriors, but the

marriages last for only seven years since these women cannot be constrained by the

conventional domestic role of wife:

So they lived / for seven years, but the eighth / they started yearning, and the ninth / could remain no longer; the maidens wanted / to go through Mirkwood, young valkyries / on their way to wars.59

These valkyries have more sovereignty in their domestic existence than Western

European women during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries since the Church impacted

the literary production in Western Europe in ways that propagated a misogynistic

viewpoint. Because of the magical abilities of the valkyries, they are able to acquire a

59 “The Lay of Volund,” trans. Patricia Terry,Poems of the Elder Edda (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), stanza 3.

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social power that enables them to remove themselves from marital responsibilities. The

valkyries have a palatable desire to continue with the business of war—the valkyries are

able to leave their husbands on their own terms without fear of societal repercussions

because their position as magical and supernatural beings connects them to the pre-

Christian paganism of Germanic societies, which was an integral part of the cultural

make-up of these societies.

It seems reasonable that the Elder Edda, a compilation of eddic poems dealing

with the heroic and the mythic, would contain fantastic tales of strong warrior women

whose magical abilities give them more social power than what was traditionally

available to historical women of the time in continental Europe. These poems are full of

the mythology of the Old Norse-Icelandic peoples, so they are a repository of the

culture’s mythic heritage which was truly a part of their everyday lives. Not only do the

valkyrie women have a strong presence in the eddic poetry—indeed, the characters are

often “reborn” in other incarnations throughout other poems—but they are also present in

the more “historical” literature60 of the time. The valkyries, and other variations of their

mythic characters, appear within many of the medieval Icelandic sagas. Even though

some of the valkyrie women change forms into mortal women, their association with the

pagan past remains intact, and the social power they acquire in the eddic poetry is

mirrored in the sagas.

60 The family sagas of medieval Iceland were considered retellings o f actual historical events. Though not a complete replication of history, the sagas are a way to understand the real workings o f Germanic society because these sagas contained details about the mythic beliefs as they are intertwined with the society’s history. The sheer number of sagas provides a means o f historical comparison for events. Indeed, scholars often use the saga literature as a trusted source for studying the history of Iceland in that the sagas have adequate detail from which to conduct archeological expeditions based on the information in the sagas.

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VOLSUNGA SAGA (THE SAGA OF THE VOLSUNGS)

The Saga o f the Volsungs, a heroic saga far more concerned with magic and

supernatural intervention than the family sagas, was written in the thirteenth century by

an unknown author, and is contemporary with Njal’s Saga. A prose epic,The Saga o f the

Volsungs recounts a good deal of the material in the Elder Edda: “Eighteen of the Eddic

poems in the thirteenth century Codex Regius, the most important manuscript of the

Poetic (or Elder) Edda, treat aspects of the Volsung legend.”61 The epic records the

deeds of the Volsung family, particularly the epic heroes, Sigemund and his son Sigurd,

the dragon slayer. The story of Sigurd and his family was well known and widely told in

Norse communities: “In Scandinavia, during the centuries after the Middle Ages,

knowledge of the Sigurd story never died out among the rural population. Many of the

saga’s historical episodes, however, may be traced to actual events that took place in the

fourth and fifth centuries, A.D.”62 Like theElder Edda, The Saga o f the Volsungs is

divided into two sections; the first containing mythic motifs and supernatural beings and

the second “takes place in the human world with recognizable social problems. Nearly

all the characters in this section may be identified with historical figures.”63 The Saga o f

the Volsungs connects the Scandinavian and Old Norse-Icelandic cultures with their

61 Jesse Byock,Medieval Iceland, 3. 62 Ibid., 1-2. 63 Ibid., 8. 30

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pagan pasts through the inclusion of pre-Christian elements, like magic, supernatural

beings, and references to Norse myth, which ultimately proves that the paganism

remained important to these cultures beyond the conversion. This particular saga,

however, makes very specific reference to the Norse mythological system, especially the

valkyries tradition making it of closer relation to the eddic poetry tradition than the

historicity of the sagas. Njal’s Saga, which will be discussed in the next section, does not

name the valkyries who weave at the conclusion of the saga; they are nameless women

who share the outcome of the Battle of Clontarf with the world. In contrast, in The Saga

o f the Volsungs, the author retells the story of Sigurd, Gunnar, Gudrun, and Brynhild

from the Elder Edda. The unknown author used the older source material for his saga

and chose to retain Brynhild’s specific association with the valkyrie tradition allowing

her to continue as a powerful and strong female character. As with the other Germanic

texts discussed, the author ofThe Saga o f the Volsungs depicts Brynhild as a powerful

being who attains power through her magic and who uses that power in socially accepted

ways, which protects her from negative criticism from the author and from the audience

of the saga itself.

This saga begins with a mythic reference identifying a precise delineation of the

ancestry of the Volsung family; the family has a strong patrilineal line directly descended

from the father of all gods, Odin: “Here we begin by telling of a man who was named

Sigi, and it was said that he was the son of Odin.”64 By having a connection with the

Norse pantheon, Sigurd is by extension semi-divine himself, or at the very least, he

assumes a position of great worth based on his ancestral line. Therefore, it is fitting that

64 The Saga o f the Volsungs, trans. Jesse Byock (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1990.

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Sigurd falls in love with a valkyrie, a semi-divine and supernatural being whose strength

and battle prowess are equal, or comparable, with his own. Sigurd first encounters

Brynhild in a magical hall where she sleeps because Odin pricked her with a sleep thorn.

At this first encounter, Brynhild sleeps with her full military regalia and Sigurd assumes

that she is a male warrior:

Sigurd went into the rampart and saw a man lying there asleep, dressed in full armor. First he removed the helmet from the man’s head and saw it was a woman. She was in a coat o f mail so tight that it seemed to have grown into her flesh. He sliced through the armor, down from the neck of the opening and out through the sleeves, and cut it like a cloth.65

It is imperative that Sigurd first sees Brynhild in this manner of dress, because it

immediately establishes her connection with her heritage as a valkyrie and as a warrior.

It is her military dress, and by extension, her military prowess that attracts Sigurd to her,

which suggests that Sigurd values her strength over her femaleness, per se. In Germanic

culture, strength was valued above all other personal traits, so it makes sense that Sigurd,

the famous dragon slayer, would desire a warrior woman as a spouse. The fact that her

mail coat is so tight it seems like “second skin” implies that her connection with the

occupation as a valkyrie is an intense one. Her “second skin” highlights the duality of

her existence; she wears the armor as a valkyrie and warrior, but she is also part of the

mortal world in that, in this version, she is also the daughter of a mortal king. As the saga

progresses, the identification of Brynhild as a valkyrie blurs because the author could not

reconcile his source material. Critics, like Virginia Gildersleeve,in her discussion of

other critics like Sijmons and Boer, argue that Brynhild, since she was awaken by male

strength and the use of a male implement of power, Sigurd’s sword, she lacks power and

65 Ibid., 67.

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agency because she remains powerless until Sigurd takes action. Though a valid

interpretation it fails to acknowledge the fact that Brynhild is not asleep for the entire

action of the story nor is it the aim or the goal of the story to awaken her. Once she

wakes, Brynhild is not passive nor does she lack agency, because it is her agency that

causes Odin to punish her in the first place. Indeed, she also wields a sword, a typical

image of male authority in continental Europe, but standard fare for valkyries and some

motal women in Germanic culture. Brynhild’s magic and her sword provide her with a

power that she wields in both the supernatural and mortal realms, emphasizing that

female power was not wholly a fictionalized occurrence. Like Brynhild, Germanic

women could also wield swords if the need called for them to do so.

Brynhild’s character is more fully developed in this saga than in the eddic poetry

though the saga author seems unclear as to the full nature of her being; whether she is a

valkyrie out right or a hybrid character who begins as a valkyrie and then assumes a more

mortal role after she marries Gunnar, believing him to be Sigurd. It is without a doubt

that Brynhild is a valkyrie who contravenes the father of all gods, Odin, by choosing the

warrior she feels stronger and braver than Odin’s choice. Because of her strength and

power as a semi-divine valkyrie, she is able to achieve her own desire for whom should

be taken to Valhalla, though it should be noted that she is obviously punished for her

disobedience. Even though Odin punishes her for her actions, he neither criticizes her

nor maligns her for that behavior. As often is the case in continental European literature,

magical women who go against the established social hierarchy, like Morgan Le Fay who

defies King Arthur and his court, are equated with dissenting behavior and are criticized

fully as aberrations to the known social order. Morgan Le Fay, who will be discussed in

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a later section, is forced to assume the role of “wicked witch” while Brynhild is still

considered normative within her social environment. This disparity in perception

emphasizes how both these women use the power they attain through their magic—

Morgan Le Fay misuses her power to counter the social order while Brynhild uses her

power in ways that further her own desires without disturbing the established social

structure since Germanic cultures were more suited to accept a balanced gender system.

The impetus for most of the saga is the relationship between Brynhild and Sigurd,

which begins with Brynhild teaching him the ancient runic language. Brynhild provides

Sigurd with wise counsel that he accepts whole-heartedly: “Sigurd said: ‘Never can there

be found a wiser woman in the world than you. Give me more wise counsel.’”66 In the

eddic poetry, it is Sigrdrifa who teaches Helgi the runic language not Brynhild, so inThe

Saga o f the Volsungs, Brynhild is a conflated character. The saga author could not

reconcile the fragmentary source material to create a cohesive narrative whole from the

separate and incomplete lays of the eddic poetry, and had to combine characters from the

lays. This conflation of characters continues the valkyrie tradition beyond the

mythological poetry of theElder Edda which allows for the retention of powerful female

characters within the historical sagas. Although unable to reconcile with any full

authority and certainty the character of Brynhild, the saga author obviously viewed

Brynhild as a powerful woman and since Sigurd is a direct descent from Odin, it is

logical for his true mate to be of the valkyrie tradition. And by representing her power as

a result of her magical ability, the saga author recognized the importance of her heritage

to the literary and cultural continuity of Iceland. As a popular literary and mythological

66 Ibid., 71.

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character, Brynhild must maintain her associations with the other known sources, and to

remain faithful to the historical tendency of Germanic cultures, Brynhild must maintain

her social power.

Throughout the saga, the author refers to Brynhild’s heritage as a warrior woman

and valkyrie, further establishing her power both in the domestic realm and beyond. He

even contrasts Brynhild with her sister who assumes a more domestic existence: “A great

chieftain named Heimir ruled over [a large estate]. He was married to the sister of

Brynhild, called Bekkhild, because she had stayed home and learned needlework and

other feminine skills. But Bymhild took up helmet and mail coat and went to battle.” 67

The names of these characters further contrast their respective roles in society:“Hild

(battle) is a common element in women’s names in Old Norse. The element bekk literally

/TO means bench. Bryn, from brynja, means mail coat.” These quotations emphasize

Brynhild’s role as a valkyrie and as someone who does not need to assume a traditional

domesticated position, as was often expected in other European countries during this

time. Brynhild was “bom” to be an active participant in life while her sister was “bom,”

or more precisely named, to be a passive individual who remains at home most likely on

a bench near the hearth. Though contrasted with her sister, Brynhild is not criticized for

her pursuit of adventure on the battlefield; it is an option for her because of her magical

abilities and her position as a valkyrie. Indeed, the author furthers this notion when

Sigurd appears in Brynhild’s father’s court looking to propose to her; however, this does

not come to pass which Brynhild foresees with her supernatural abilities which is a

67 Ibid., 73 68 Jesse Byock, “Introduction,”The Saga o f the Volsungs (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1990), 119.

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testament to the Norse ideology of accepting fate as the Noms have predetermined.

Though it seems fatalistic that Brynhild does nothing to stop the devastating

consequences of her marriage to Gunnar, it truly was a reflection of Norse belief that fate

was preordained. Others in the court know her position as a warrior and valkyrie and

accept it without reservation: “She wants to go warring and win all kinds of fame.”69

Brynhild has her own desires, especially regarding marriage, and she hopes to fulfill them

of her own accord. Though it appears that she is adverse to marriage, Brynhild truly

desires to marry Sigurd who is the only warrior worthy of her considering her power and

strength as a valkyrie. Brynhild knows that she is not fated to marry Sigurd though she

desires it with her full heart: “It is not fated that we should live together. I am a shield-

maiden. I wear a helmet and ride with warrior kings. I must support them, and I am not

averse to fighting.”70 The saga author respects Brynhild’s position as a warrior and fully

supports her desire to go warring and pursue life on the battlefield. By excluding any

criticism of Brynhild, and by presenting her a way that praises her abilities, the author

suggests a general acceptability of powerful women who are able to pursue their own

desires without fear of societal repercussions. This tendency is in stark contrast with the

depiction of magical women in continental European countries where magical and

powerful women must remain marginalized precisely because of their magical abilities.

Because they felt pressure from the Christian Church, these continental European

countries followed the edicts of the church which included the displacement of pagan

69The Saga o f the Volsungs, 74. 70 Ibid., 75.

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practices such as magic, and this displacement caused magical and powerful women to

lose their central position in society.

Not only does the author praise Brynhild’s behavior as a warrior, he also

describes and lauds Brynhild’s weaving which connects indirectly with the weaving

valkyries inNjal’s Saga. It is perhaps not a direct reference to that particular scene in

Njal’s Saga, but it is an allusion to the notion that valkyries do weave and the fact that

through this weaving battles are decided. Shortly after the author describes Brynhild and

her sister, Bekkhild, and their respective skills and positions, the author describes another

of Brynhild talents, that of weaving, which in this instance differs from Bekkhild’s more

domesticated skills. Though weaving can be described as a domestic and female

endeavor, the weaving that the valkyries complete directly effects the outcome of war.

The valkyries inNjal’s Saga depict the conclusion of the Battle of Clontarf in their

tapestry and Brynhild uses her talent in a similar vain: “More skilled at handicraft than

other women, she embroidered her tapestry with gold and on it stitched stories of the

noble deeds that Sigurd had wrought.”71 Completing this type of activity illustrates

Brynhild’s personal desire for Sigurd which stems from his prowess as a warrior, because

she depicts the valor of his skills as a warrior and not scenes from their relationship. As a

valkyrie, Brynhild is acutely aware of Sigurd’s martial ability and it is this shared ability

that draws them to each other. Like the valkyries in Njal’s Saga, Brynhild has the gift of

foresight, but she does not include Sigurd’s future endeavors in the tapestry. This is most

likely due to her knowledge of the events. Brynhild clearly knows that she and Sigurd

are not fated to be together, but she does not realize until later the extent to which Sigurd

71 Ibid., 73.

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and Gunnar will betray her. Sigurd travels through the ring of fire, behind which

Brynhild waits for the warrior worthy of her hand in marriage, to win Brynhild for

Gunnar. He assumes the shape of Gunnar and marries Brynhild, but in reality, Sigurd has

married Gudrun and Gunnar has married Brynhild. She only becomes aware of the

betrayal after she brags to Gudrun about the ability of her husband, Gunnar:

‘I think my father is more powerful than yours, and my husband has accomplished many splendid feats and rode through the burning fire, but your husband was a thrall of King Hjalprek.’ Gudrun answered angrily: ‘I would be wiser for you to hold your tongue than to insult my husband....He lay with you and took from your hand the ring Andvaranaut, which you can now see here for yourself.’ Brynhild saw the ring, recognized it, and became as pale as death.72

The fact that Brynhild possesses the power of foresight yet is unable to see this betrayal

emphasizes the love she feels for Sigurd, and it also a resignation to fate. Because

Brynhild knows about the betrayal, she accepts this fortune with no attempts to change

fate, since the Norse fully and unquestioning accepted what the Noms doled out for them.

Both Brynhild and the valkyries in Njal’s Saga disseminate the events of warriors

through their tapestries, but Brynhild’s depictions tend to focus on the positive

adventures of Sigurd and not the betrayal he perpetrates against her while the unnamed

valkyries have no vested interest in the individuals involved in the battle they depict.

Brynhild’s social power has little to do with her decision to ignore the events leading up

to her betrayal, because the fates do not discriminate on gender or on level of social

power. No one, not even a semi-divine being like a valkyrie, could alter the course of

fate. Knowing this, Brynhild chooses to focus on Sigurd’s martial prowess, the trait that

most attracts her to him and the trait that they share. As a warrior herself, Brynhild

72 Ibid., 82.

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values physical strength and honor in battle, which are reasons why she focusing solely

on Sigurd’s military success.

In order to avenge her betrayal, Brynhild must enlist her husband in the task.

Brynhild actively plans and arranges the murder of Sigurd and his son as recompense for

Sigurd’s duplicity in wooing her for Gunnar. To modem sensibilities this course of

action may seem a bit harsh, but the “Norse poets.. .would probably not analyze the

situation as subtly as modem critics. Nor would revenge by murder seem to them the

terrible and unusual thing it is to us.”73 The Norse lifestyle of revenge and murder, with

wergild as a compensatory means of mitigating revenge, was an accepted social norm.

Brynhild acts within the confines of this legal tradition and cannot be criticized for her

initiation of Sigurd’s murder. As the saga progresses, the author lessens the emphasis on

Brynhild as a valkyrie, leaving her with her domestic power as the means through which

to convince Gunnar to act. Brynhild incites Gunnar into action through her words and

powerful persuasion: ‘“You [Gunnar] shall lose both power and wealth, life and me, and I

shall journey home to my kin and remain there in sorrow unless you kill Sigurd and his

son.’”74 It is important to note that Brynhild is not able to commit the murder herself

even though she possesses the strength and skill to do so. Her role as a valkyrie, even if

it is slightly mollified in the saga, prohibits her from arbitrarily killing a warrior and she

is not able to take the life of a warrior when not on the field of battle. To rectify this

inconsistency, Brynhild convinces Gunnar, who ultimately persuades his younger brother

to commit the murder, to follow through with act of revenge. Once Guttorm, Gunnar’s

73 Virginia Gildersleeve, “Brynhild in Legend,” 362. 74The Saga o f the Volsungs, 89.

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brother, kills Sigurd, Brynhild is able to free herself from her unwanted marriage to

Gunnar and is able to join Sigurd for eternity in Hel, not the Christian conception of the

word. Like a true warrior, Brynhild dies at the tip of sword: “Then she [Brynhild] took a

sword and stabbed herself under the arm, sank back into the pillows and said: ‘.. .let one

huge funeral pyre be raised on the level field for all of us: for me and Sigurd and for

those who were killed with him.”75 In this particular instance, choosing death is an active

and appropriate decision for Brynhild to make. For a warrior, death by the sword was the

only assurance that she would achieve a place in Valhalla, and as true sole mates, it is

fitting for Brynhild and Sigurd to share the same fate. There is blame to be placed on

both sides of this situation: Sigurd should not have lain with Brynhild at their first

encounter as a symbol of their betrothal and Brynhild did not have to brag to Gudrun

about her husband’s prowess. Death is the only option to eliminate the wrongdoings of

both parties: “.. .by death alone can their love be made again pure and perfect.”76 Her

magical ability is unable in this instance to remedy her betrayal at the hands of the man

she loves, but she has a considerable amount of domestic power to enact revenge.

Gunnar clearly values her as a wife and she has'powerful influence over him, even

though he hesitates to follow through with her plan, he obeys her request, and does not

demonize her for it. This distinguishes Germanic representations of powerful women,

like Brynhild, from other contemporary European portrayals of magical women, because

those women would be restricted in satisfying their desires. The magical women in other

European literary traditions could not act as Brynhild does in response to a betrayal

75 Ibid., 92. 76 Virginia Gildersleeve, “Brynhild in Legend,” 363.

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without being relegated to the fringes of society, emphasizing their lack of power. Even

the portrayal of historical women in Germanic texts differs from the depiction of Western

European women. These historical Germanic women, like Hallgerd and Bergthora, have

domestic power that enables them to satisfy their own desires.

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BRENNU-NJALS SAGA [THE SAGA OF THE BURNING OF NJAL)

Njal’s Saga presents a context through which to examine historical tendencies in

Old Norse-Icelandic culture since sagas provide a “picture of a living society—men and

women at work and at leisure, a quiet self-restraint rural community through which

occasional violence erupts brutally.”77 Sagas present life as it typically could be in

Iceland and Scandinavia, and they provide a historical context with which to compare the

eddic poetry. Both the sagas and the poetry were contemporary and reflected the context

of Iceland and Scandinavia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Of particular interest

in Njal’s Saga is the proliferation of magical elements and the presence of strong,

prominent female characters who are important to the plot of the story, and by extension

were integral to the society as a whole. When characters use magic, it is part of their

everyday routine and the magic is not highlighted as an anomalous event; this type of

magic is vital to the characters’ existence. Early in the saga Gunnhild uses a magic spell

to ensure that Hrut, a man she desires to have for herself, cannot have sexual pleasure

with the woman to whom he is betrothed: “If I have as much power over you [Hrut] as I

think, the spell I now lay on you will prevent your ever enjoying the woman in Iceland on

whom you have set your heart. With other women you may have your will, but never

77 Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, “Introduction to Njal’s Saga,”Njal’s Saga (New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1960), 17. 42

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with her. And now you must suffer as well as I.. .”78 Though her statement can be

construed as merely the bitterness of a woman scorned playing on the superstitions of a

lover who betrayed her trust, the statement actually reflects the cultural beliefs of

medieval Iceland. As with the Elder Edda, Njal’s Saga also illustrates how paganism is

central to the pre-Christian social structure, an orientation retained in the literature

beyond Iceland’s conversion to Christianity. Like the eddic poetry, in the saga a woman

uses her magic to achieve her own desires, in response to the betrayal of the man she

loves, which makes the motivation for action appropriate and even expected. Even

though Gunnhild is not part of the valkyrie tradition, she relates to it through her ability

to employ spells that enable her to alleviate the pain she feels at Hrut’s desire to return to

Iceland to his betrothed. This is similar to the valkyries in that they also use their magic

to achieve their own desires, even when those desires are counter to what the men in their

lives want. In addition, Gunnhild and the valkyries are not maligned for their use of

magic. Hrut does not consider her vindictive or spiteful; in fact, he is not at all surprised

at her actions because he knows that he did betray her trust. Hrut cannot retaliate for her

actions, because he initially misled Gunnhild, making her spell justifiable. Both magic

and the women who employ it are central to the Old Norse-Icelandic society because of

the inclusion of a historical woman who uses magic in the historical family saga.

Because the sagas are considered a historical recounting of events, the presence of magic

suggests that the culture accepted it as the norm rather than as an exception. Considered

a normative occurrence, magic, and the women who use it, are thus fully accepted as part

78Njal’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson (New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1960), 49.

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of the society. The power that Gunnhild attains, as well as valkyries’ power, is used in an

appropriate manner. Hrut betrays her, and in a society where any wrong doing was met

by a retaliatory action, it was expected that the individual who was wronged would seek

revenge, whether that individual was male or female did not matter. Women could

avenge themselves with distinct authority and power and without fear of societal criticism

as long as their power was used within the bounds of the legal system.

Hallgerd and Bergthora are the two most prominent characters throughout a

majority of the saga; they provide much of the action in the story due to their interactions

and participation in a familial feud. Because they are part of the historical literary

tradition, these women are decidedly mortal. Neither of these women employs magic,

nor do they achieve the level of social power the valkyries do; but they do attain power,

albeit restricted to the domestic realm. Unlike their counterparts in the supernatural

world and unlike Gunnhild and Grimhild from The Saga o f the Volsungs who employ

magic for their own purposes, Hallgerd and Bergthora are restricted to domesticity and

are somewhat restricted in their possible responses to unwanted situations. Hallgerd and

Bergthora do not have the occult knowledge that Gunnhild and Grimhild do, which keeps

Hallgerd and Bergthora from using magic to remedy their problems. This is a

commentary on the changing social and religious landscape in Germanic cultures.

Because the saga author wrote the tale after the conversion to Christianity, he needed to

determine how to assimilate the pagan elements with the Christian. The author

accomplishes this by allowing the older generation of women like Gunnhild and Grimhild

to preserve that ancient occult knowledge of magic while the younger generation of

women like Hallgerd and Bergthora have only their domestic power to resolve their

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problems. For the saga author it is appropriate for the older women to have connections

to the ancient pagan beliefs since they are closer to that tradition. These older women are

much like the “wise woman” character of the older pagan tales, making them repositories

of the pagan vestiges of the ancient lore. One of the problems that Hallgerd must address

is marriage. Throughout the saga, she is faced with marital arrangements negotiated by

her father. In the first arrangement, she is forced into a marriage that she does not agree

to and is not consulted about:

They [Thorvald, his father Osvif, and Hallgerd’s biological father, Hoskuld] discussed the terms there and then. Hoskuld did not consult Hallgerd about it, because he was anxious to marry her off. They reached complete agreement on the terms, Hoskuld offered his hand, Thorvald shook it, was betrothed to Hallgerd, and then rode back home.79

Although Hallgerd is not pleased with this particular marriage arrangement, and she

complains to her foster father about it, she is still bound by the oath her biological father

gave to Thorvald, so she must marry him even though her desire lies elsewhere: “It was

obvious that she thought she was marrying beneath her. ‘Your pride,’ said Hoskuld ‘is

not of such concern to me that I would let it interfere with any arrangements I make. I,

on and not you, will make the decisions whenever we differ.” It is her father who has the

power in this particular relationship and she is beholden to that power, since it is her

father who “will make the decisions.” Unlike Sigrun, who successfully alters the marital

arrangement made by her father for the purpose of marrying the man that she desires,

Hallgerd is forced to comply, in this instance, with her biological father’s decision since

she lacks the power to achieve what she desires. It is true that her husband is killed,

79 Ibid., 56. 80 Ibid., 57.

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allowing her to be free of the marriage, but this is not achieved through any action she

takes. This murder occurs after Hallgerd wastes her household’s supplies when she

accuses her husband, Thorvald, of being too frugal enraging him: “Thorvald was furious

Q 1 and struck her so hard in the face that it bled.” This slap precipitates vengeance by her

foster father, but his vengeance is not wholly justified, and his participation in this type of

vengeance is more a statement about his malevolence than Hallgerd’s own power in the

situation. Throughout the saga, the author describes her foster father as being deceitful

and malicious, so his action in this situation suits his well-established personality.

Hallgerd is unable to locate any viable or lawful recourse in her desire to dissolve the

marriage, so she must turn to her foster father who has the power to amend, albeit

dishonorably, her unwanted marriage.

In Hallgerd’s second marriage arrangement, her father does consult her about the

possibility of marriage prior to solidifying the agreement which illustrates her control and

power over the outcome of this situation. In the negotiations her father still presides over

marital negotiation, as is typical in a patriarchal society like Iceland is, noting that it is

essential to “tell them [the potential betrothed man and his family] all the woman’s assets

and defects.”82 He provides Glum, the man interested in marrying Hallgerd, with the

necessary information regarding his daughter, especially since her first marriage ended

with the murder of her husband, but he also allows his daughter some choice in the

matter: “Let her know all about this proposed marriage-deal now, meet Glum, and decide

for herself whether she wants to marry him or not.” Even though Hallgerd does not

81 Ibid., 59. 82 Ibid., 65. 83 Ibid., 66.

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choose to initiate the marriage negotiations, she is allowed to participate in some

capacity. Because her father shows Hallgerd respect by allowing to her to consent to the

arrangement, Hallgerd reciprocates this by agreeing to the arrangement as her father

proposes: “Since you have shown me such consideration over this father, and you, Hrut, I

shall do as you advise. Let this contract stand as you have proposed.”84 Hallgerd has the

choice to accept or decline this marriage proposal and it can be assumed that her father

would accept either decision. By being given a choice, Hallgerd is also given agency and

power over this second marriage arrangement even if she chooses to allow the contract to

stand as proposed. Unlike Sigrun and Sigrdrifa, who are able to choose the men they

desire for marriage and whose power extends beyond the domestic realm, Hallgerd must

follow the decisions of her father in marriage arrangements, a limitation of Hallgerd’s

power to make choices based on her own desires. Even though her power is restricted to

domesticity, Hallgerd still has power over that aspect of her existence. In this way, she

and the valkyries are similar in that they both have some type of power. What truly

separates them is the manner in which they employ that power. The valkyries use their

power in appropriate ways while Hallgerd misuses her domestic power in that she

oversteps the bounds of that power leading to criticism from others, including the author.

Even though Hallgerd’s social power is limited in comparison to the extensive

social power the valkyries attain, once she firmly establishes herself in the domestic

realm of marriage with her third marriage to Gunnar, Hallgerd exerts power over the

household including the financial concerns of the home and the servants. With the

negotiations for her third marriage, Hallgerd is present during the negotiations and “as

84 Ibid.

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before [she is] allowed to declare her own betrothal.”85 Since she has a vested interest in

the marriage arrangement, it is important that she is present during the discussions of the

arrangement and that she is given the opportunity to decline the proposal without concern

over her father’s disapproval. After consenting to the marriage, Hallgerd takes “charge

Q /r of the household at Hildarend, and [is] extravagant and overbearing.” Although the

domestic realm was traditionally the domain of women, the fact that Hallgerd is in charge

of the entire estate, and is truly the main focus, not Gunnar in this portion of the saga,

highlights the authority Hallgerd attains through her position as wife. Her authority

reflects possible historical tendencies in the Germanic cultures during the Middle Ages:

“.. .ideally, households were headed by men, but the laws provide for the female

exception, and although the female householder was in principle subject to the authority

of male guardians, the sagas give evidence, as William Ian Miller puts it, that ‘women

were more than mere title holders with managerial powers lodged solely with men.’” 87 In

her position as Gunnar’s wife, Hallgerd incites a feud with Bergthora, Njal’s wife. Their

husbands have an extremely close relationship where good advice is given by Njal and

followed by Gunnar, which Hallgerd tests throughout their marriage. Hallgerd

encourages her servants to enact sometimes murderous plans against Bergthora through

her language, a powerful tool which often compensates for her lack of magical ability. In

one instance, Hallgerd desires to have Svart, one of Bergthora’s servants, killed for

chopping too much wood on Hallgerd’s property. Kol, Hallgerd’s servant, murders

Svart, which satisfies Hallgerd for a time. In order to compensate for the loss of the

85 Ibid., 94. 86 Ibid., 97. 87 Carol Clover,Regardless o f Sex, 4.

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servant, Gunnar pays wergild88 to Njal removing any chance for societal repercussions

against Hallgerd. This feud continues between the two women, and as long as their

antics remain within their acceptable roles as domestic wives, Njal and Gunnar can

choose to continue compensating each other with money. Hallgerd misuses her social

and domestic power when she convinces her slave, Melkolf, to steal food and set a

storehouse on fire.89 This action extends beyond the bounds of the domestic feud

between Hallgerd and Bergthora and their families and Gunnar slaps her for it. While he

is perfectly justified in punishing her because, at the time the story is set, Iceland was

suffering through a famine, so stealing and setting fire to the storehouse and its extra

supplies affects individuals in the surrounding community, Hallgerd still retaliates for

what she considers a grave insult. She refuses to give Gunnar strands of her hair to repair

his bow while their farm is under siege, precipitating his death. She is condemned by the

society as a whole, including the men who are able to kill her husband because of her

actions, and because she abuses her power and proves disloyal. Not only does the

community punish her, but the author of the saga does as well, as Skarp-Hedin says of

Hallgerd: “Your words don’t count.. .for you are either an outcast or a harlot.”90 After

this point in the feud and after the climax of the burning of Njal, Hallgerd is almost

completely absent from the remainder of the saga. By excluding her character from the

conclusion of the saga, the author highlights how particularly inappropriate her behavior

is considering the situation of the community in which she lives. Her behavior is not

only inappropriate, but it is also evidence of the manner in which she uses her power,

88 In this instance, Gunnar must pay Njal for the death of Njal’s servant. The payment o f wergild could go on for quite awhile with each party paying for subsequent murders. 89Njal’s Saga, 122. 90 Ibid., 199.

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which directly contrasts with the how the valkyries use their social power. Hallgerd is

criticized and her character is diminished—indeed, her character is truly “excised” from

the conclusion of a text in which she is a vital part—because of her power exceeds the

bounds of acceptable behavior.

The valkyrie women certainly do share some of the marriage woes and pressures

that Hallgerd does, but the valkyries use their magic to move through them and more

importantly, they use that power suitably within the social system. Hallgerd behaves

excessively and unjustly precipitates Gunnar’s murder; whereas the valkyries’ actions are

justifiable. Some valkyries need only be married for seven years before they return to the

field of battle to do Odin’s work91 while others like Sigrun and Sigrdrifa use their magic

in an active way to deal with unwanted marital arrangements. Hallgerd does not achieve

the social power that the valkyries do, but she does attain and maintain a domestic power

which enables her to alter her current existence, as long as it does not affect individuals

beyond her household, which is a definitive misuse of that domestic power.

In a very deliberate manner the author places Bergthora and Hallgerd at polar

opposite positions as women and as wives. Hallgerd’s three marriages are rife with

discontent, feuds, and in some instances murder. In contrast to these marriages is

Bergthora’s markedly stable marriage to Njal. Even though the saga does not emphasize

the negotiation of her marriage with Njal, it is evident that Bergthora remains married

and loyal to Njal throughout their long marriage until they are both killed when their

home is burnt to the ground. It is true that Bergthora never states whether she initially

agreed to the marriage, but her behavior and reaction to the marriage indicate that she

91 See note 59.

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accepts the marriage and that she is a partner in it. The saga author depicts Hallgerd as

an irrational woman, “hard-willed woman” and depicts Bergthora as level-headed, “an

Q'y exceptional and courageous woman, but a little harsh natured.” Though harsh natured,

Bergthora maintains a positive image in the perspective of those around her, which

partially due to the way the author sanctifies her and Njal after the burning of their home.

In contrast, Hallgerd is often perceived as malevolent: the saga contains “four villains:

Hallgerd, Mord, Hrapp and Thrain.” Although these female characters are portrayed

differently, Hallgerd is often maligned for her participation in the family feud, while no

firm critique is offered against Bergthora’s part in the feud because throughout the saga

she uses her domestic power in an appropriate manner, these women are both strong

female characters who exert power over their domestic existences. Indeed, both women

are “in charge” of their respective households and the affairs associated with them.94

Furthermore, when a potential servant asks Bergthora whether she has the authority to

hire him, she states, “I am Njal’s wife.. .and I have as much say in hiring servants as

he.”95 These women drive the plot of the saga with their actions against one another and

are important to the cohesiveness of the saga as a whole. As literary figures, Hallgerd

and Bergthora are central to the narrative flow of the saga, and as representations of

historical women, they were essential to the society because their strength made them

crucial to the society’s survival.

92Njal’s Saga, 57 and 74. 93 Thomas Bredsdorff,Chaos and Love: The Philosophy of the Icelandic Family trans.Sagas, John Tucker (Denmark: Museum Tusulanum Press, 2001), 78. 94Njal’s Saga, 981 95 Ibid., 101.

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Similar to the valkyries’ position, Hallgerd and Bergthora are central to the

culture in which they exist. The valkyries attain a more distinctive sovereignty that

enables them to seek positions outside of the home like on the battlefield, where they are

capable of choosing the most appropriate warriors to fight by Odin’s side. Hallgerd and

Bergthora, as representations of historical women, demonstrate the appeal and long-

lasting effect of the paganism from which the valkyries developed. Though Hallgerd and

Bergthora’s power is presented differently, the inclusion of these dynamic women is the

author’s attempt to reconcile the valkyries with historical women. In the literary and

religious tradition of pre-Christian Iceland, strong and powerful women were prevalent

and an integral part of the social fabric of the culture. In the harsh and unfriendly climate

of Iceland, strength was a valued commodity. It did not matter whether the strength was

from the males or females of the society, for gender had much less to do with value

judgments then did physical and mental fortitude. The valkyries as well as Hallgerd and

Bergthora are valued for their strength; they are only separated by the magic the valkyries

possess. It is this magic that enables the valkyries to vocalize their desires, and more

importantly, actively pursue them. It is their magic that allows them to rise, literally,

above the societal pressures that place Hallgerd and Bergthora under the power of their

fathers and husbands when outside the domestic realm.

The saga literature of Iceland is part of the historical evidence that provides

information about the country’s cultural, religious, and political tendencies during the

Middle Ages. Because this literature supplies a recounting of the historical context of

when the saga was written, it is fascinating that Njal’s Saga ends with an explicit

reference to the valkyrie tradition. The latter part of the saga depicts the cultural

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landscape of Iceland after the relatively peaceful conversion of Iceland to Christianity,96

so the inclusion of this direct reference to the valkyries emphasizes the pervasiveness of

the Norse mythology in the consciousnesses of the Old Norse-Icelandic peoples as well

as the importance and value of the valkyrie women in the mythology and in the cultural

context of Iceland. The scene occurs after the Battle of Clontarf—during which Brodir,

who is associated with some of the people responsible for the burning of Njal and

Bergthora, ambushes and kills King Brian of Ireland. A man named Dorrud observes the

valkyries as they do work at a weaving loom:

.. .Dorrud went outside and saw twelve riders approach a woman’s bower and disappear inside. He walked over to the bower and peered through a window; inside, he could see women with a loom set up before them. Men’s heads were used in place o f weights, and men’s intestines for the weft and warp; a sword served as the beater, and the shuttle was an arrow.97

As the women weave, they chant verses foretelling the outcome of the Battle of Clontarf

which is also depicted in the images on the cloth. After completing the tapestry, the

women rip it to pieces and then take those to various parts of the Old Norse world so that

the story of the battle is told to all: “Then they tore the woven cloth from the loom and

ripped it to pieces, each keeping the shred she held in her hands... .The women mounted

their horses and rode away, six to the south and six to the north.”98 In the Norse

mythology, the valkyries decide the outcome of battle and choose the most courageous

warriors for entrance into Valhalla which they accomplish in this scene through creating

96 During the peaceful conversion to Christianity, as detailedNjal’s in Saga, there was no animosity between paganism and Christianity at the time, which is why magical women and magic in general are so pervasive in the sagas. 97Njal’s Saga, 349. 98 Ibid., 351.

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the tapestry. Weaving in this instance is not a feminized occupation as is typical in

Western European countries; it is part of the valkyries’ martial skill set.

By including this scene in the “Christian” portion of the saga and by specifically

identifying the women as valkyries and not as some other beings within Norse mythology

like the Noms," the saga author maintains a definitive and explicit connection with the

mythological and pagan heritage of Iceland. This highlights the centrality of the

mythology and the valkyries themselves since they are identified specifically, in the

existence and consciousness of the Icelandic peoples. Furthermore, this non­

marginalized position enhancing the notion that women who use power in ways that

support the greater good of the community were valued and essential members of their

societies. The valkyries were powerful women who had independent lives that enabled

them to travel throughout the land recounting the outcome of battles, which emphasizes

their role in the culture for it was through the valkyries that the outcome of battle and the

deeds of brave warriors were known. It is also of note that within this scene the valkyries

still straddle the mortal and supernatural realms. These women are involved in weaving,

a truly domestic and often feminine activity, but the scenes that they include on the cloth

are those of battle, a typically masculine activity in continental Europe: “Staged during

the battle of Clontarf in 1014, the poem contains a remarkable mixture of gender

metaphors, as the outcome of masculine battle is determined by the feminine activity of

weaving performed by martial yet female valkyries.”100 This duality brings into focus the

disparity between the depictions of magical women in Germanic cultures and continental

99 The Noms are similar to the Fates in Greek mythology. They dole out and determine how long individuals live. 100 Jenny Jochens, Old Norse Images o f Women, 39.

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European cultures. By placing the valkyrie scene in the “Christian” portion of the saga,

the saga author, who was likely Christian himself, chose not to eradicate the pagan

elements of the past because those elements were such an integral part of the cultural

understanding of the Germanic peoples. Instead, the author chose to place in a rather

memorable position, almost at the conclusion of the saga itself, the scene with the

valkyries. The author also draws attention to the scene by writing the lines the valkyries

chant in verse as opposed to prose, which makes a more lasting impression on those

reading to the saga. Verse, in and of itself, separates its lines from the margins of the

prose paragraphs, which focuses one’s attention on the lines themselves: “Blood rains /

From the cloudy web / On the broad loom / Of slaughter. / The web of man, / Grey as

armour, / Is now being woven; / The Valkyries / Will cross it / With a crimson weft.”101

Again, the verse lines emphasize the importance of the images and characters included in

them since the author wants those images to leave an indelible mark on the audience.

Alexander Haggerty Krappe says this scene establishes his interpretation of the valkyries

as dreadful creatures: “The sinister figures of theNjals Saga are seen weaving... .It is

clear that this activity of the war witches is connected with the Teutonic belief in the

Noms and the conception of their spinning or weaving the fate of man.”102 Krappe,

writing in 1928, envisions these valkyrie women in a negative manner, characterizing

them as “sinister” and as “witches.” It is tme that the scene is rather gruesome with the

description of human body parts used as pieces of the weaving loom, but the negative

characterization of these women is not fitting because the word “sinister” suggests

101 Njal’s Saga, 349. 102 Alexander Krappe, Modern Language Notes, 473.

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malevolence and premeditated conniving behavior, which is not at all an accurate

description of the valkyries. The Germanic culture and their system of law and

retribution was a bloody reality, but it was a reality nonetheless. They are not capricious

in choosing which warriors are best suited to fight alongside Odin in final battle of the

gods. Among the fallen warriors, they choose the most courageous and best warriors.

There is no spite or wickedness involved in the decision. This characterization of the

valkyries illustrates the scholarly bias held by critics. Seeing these women as “witches”

instead of supernatural figures diminishes their role in the culture and minimizes the

importance that the culture placed on these powerful women. Women were important to

the cultures that they were apart as seen through their prevalence in the eddic poetry and

sagas, and as such scholars should examine these women within their respective cultures

to obtain a fuller and more apt understanding of their positions. The valkyries are neither

dreadful beings nor malicious in their role as Odin’s choosers of the slain, and their

cultures wholly accepted them for their part in the Old Norse-Icelandic pantheon.

Njal’s Saga provides a glimpse into the everyday lives of the Old Norse-Icelandic

peoples who deemed saga literature as a means of recording events of historical families.

The saga author not only incorporates historical tendencies of tenth century Iceland,

when the saga was set, and the thirteenth century, when it was written, but also magical

and pagan elements which were such a strong part of the social frame work of the Old

Norse-Icelandic culture. The valkyries help to establish the single-sex gender system in

Germanic cultures where physical strength was always a positive value. In general,

valkyries maintain that positive value in the gender system because of their active

participation in battle. The placement of the valkyrie scene at the conclusion of the saga

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leaves a lasting image of the valkyrie women and it helps to define the social and cultural

existence of medieval Iceland as an inclusive society where women were not categorized

in one way. The valkyries, and the mortal women in the sagas, help to demonstrate the

plurality of women’s existence in medieval Germanic cultures. Women did not

necessarily fit the classifications as only “wicked witches” or as “worldly women;” rather

these women illustrate the variety and potentiality of female-ness in these cultures. If

women used their power poorly, they were often criticized; and if used appropriately,

women were praised and deemed crucial to the society as a whole. Morgan Le Fay is an

excellent counterpoint for the Germanic portrayals of women in medieval eddic poetry

and sagas because her magical abilities give her power, but it is described as improper for

mainstream European culture. Unlike Brynhild, Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and even Hallgerd and

Bergthora from Njal’s Saga, who are central to the societies that include them in their

literature, Morgan is deemed a deviation from society and is demonized as a “wicked

witch” for her attempts to have her own desires met.

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THE ARTHURIAN TRADITION

Morgan Le Fay and the Lady of the Lake contrast with how the valkyrie women

of the Germanic mythic and literary culture are depicted in the literature of the twelfth

and fifteenth centuries. These two women from the Arthurian tradition use magic in a

more familiar manner than do the valkyrie women, since the valkyries are supernatural

beings whose magical abilities are inherent and require no external study of occult

practices. The Lady of the Lake is more similar to this tradition in that she is also a

mythical being, but her power comes not only from her mystical background and

connection to the earthly element of water, but also from the charms she creates. Morgan

is the most removed from the valkyrie tradition of magic; she is able to learn her magic

from external sources. Although the magic of Morgan Le Fay and the Lady of the Lake

originates from a different source than that of the valkyries, these characters from the

Arthurian tradition still use magic for the same purpose—to acquire more power than

would be traditionally available to them—but with differing results. Morgan Le Fay’s

power is maligned and the Lady of the Lake’s power is Christianized and used not for her

sole benefit. The Lady of the Lake is fully in the service of King Arthur and his court,

and her power satisfies their needs and not her own—contrasting with the valkyries

whose desires are fulfilled of their own accord.

58

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MORGAN LE FAY

In the Vulgate Lancelot, Morgan Le Fay is a powerful woman whose magic

enables her to exact control over situations, but unlike the valkyries, Morgan is

condemned for her use of magic. Her magic and power originate with her association

with ancient Celtic ideology: “She has acquired not only the attributes and activities of

Macha, the Morrigan, and Matrona, but also the mythic heritage of other Celtic deities.

She is a female pantheon in miniature.”103 By incorporating, within the character of

Morgan, these Celtic deities, the author of this Arthurian cycle explicitly ties her to a

magical tradition making it a logical extension that she possesses magical abilities. In

this version of the Lancelot cycle, many of Morgan Le Fay’s actions are motivated by her

love, or perhaps lust, for Lancelot and she uses her magic to expand her power over him.

Though seemingly reasonable for Morgan Le Fay to desire Lancelot, her actions actually

violate the tenets of courtly love which require Lancelot to be faithful to Guenevere, the

lady to whom he has pledged his love. In this situation, Morgan does not have any social

power to alter Lancelot’s oath to Guenevere, so she must turn to her magic in an attempt

to persuade Lancelot to break his vow. Morgan becomes upset because Lancelot does

not violate his vow to Guenevere, which generates enmity between Morgan and

Guenevere:

When she learned that he was Lancelot, she guessed right away that he was in love with the queen, and resolved to cause her some distress. Indeed, she thought that, if the queen loved him as much as he did her, she would deprive her of happiness forevermore, for she hated the queen more than any other woman.104

103 Roger Loomis, “Morgain La Fee and the Celtic Goddesses,” Speculum 20, no. 2 (1945): 200. 104 The Vulgate Lancelot, ed. Norris Lacy, (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000), 173.

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Morgan seeks to further her magical ability in order to gain more power, since she feels

greatly incapable of altering Lancelot’s love for and loyalty to the queen. To gain power

over this situation, she seeks out Merlin for education in the art of magic: “She sought

him and at last found him, bringing great wealth and many horses with her. She came to

know Merlin well, and he loved her more than anything else. He taught her all the spells

and bewitchments that she knew later on, and she stayed with him for a long time.”105

From Merlin’s education, she learns to create a multitude of enchantments, charms, and

potions. One such enchantment she uses to imprison Lancelot: “Once she was sure that

Lancelot was asleep, she came up to him and slipped a ring onto one of the fingers of his

right hand. This ring was such that, if it was put onto the finger of a sleeping man, he

would remain asleep as long as it stayed in place.”106 Having lost some control over her

desire, to have Lancelot as her love, she turns to her magic to reassert her own power

over the situation. By using her magic, she keeps Lancelot with her; she does not fully

satisfy her desire, since Lancelot does not love her, but she does keep the two lovers

apart, and she does keep Lancelot in her “possession.” Through Lancelot’s refusal to

break his courtly love vow, it becomes evident that Morgan’s behavior is unacceptable

within the social norms of this culture. It is not appropriate for Morgan to pursue

Lancelot in this manner, and she is criticized for it: “When Lancelot heard [that Morgan

is Arthur’s sister], he thought he should go back to kill her, but he refrained out of love

for King Arthur and because she was a woman.... [He said] tell your lady that

Lancelot.. .greets her as he should, as the most disloyal woman in the world.”107 In these

105 Ibid., 174. 106 Ibid., 175. 107 Ibid., 265.

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scenes, Morgan asserts her power, which comes from her magic, in ways that seem to

mirror the behavior of the valkyries. Both use magic to alter situations, like unwanted

marriage arrangements, or to have their desires met, like keeping Lancelot from returning

to Camelot and both use this power beyond the domestic realm. What differs between

the valkyries and Morgan is the manner in which they are depicted in the literature of

their respective cultures. The Germanic cultures accept the valkyries’ motivations and

subsequent actions while the continental and English societies demonize Morgan for her

motivations and behaviors, suggesting that the Germanic cultures were more accepting of

various depictions of women since those portrayals were reflected in literature of the

time.

Although Morgan’s magic gives her control over Lancelot, it does not equate to

the same social power, as that of the valkyries. The portrayal of Morgan is not a stable

representation as the depiction of the valkyries is because Morgan’s image changes

depending on the time period during which it was created. The earlier Arthurian tales,

prior to the Christianization of Europe, contain numerous elements of paganism. Within

these earlier stories, Morgan is more often affiliated with her Celtic origins rather than

with the sorcery depicted in the Vulgate Lancelot. Because these older tales were written

down at a time when paganism was the accepted religion, the association of Morgan with

magic, a close product of paganism, is deemed acceptable. It is not until Christianity

takes a strong foot-hold in Western Europe that magic is no longer associated with its

naturalistic origins, and thus, by extension, magic and those who practice it, are regarded

as evil. Unlike the depiction of the valkyries in the Germanic texts, the representation of

the character of Morgan Le Fay mutates after Christianity becomes the dominant religion.

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In the later tales, such as the Vulgate Lancelot, Morgan’s power in the way that she uses

it—for her own purposes and against Arthur’s court—is maligned and deemed wholly

inappropriate. Though this is often the case, there is one specific instance where in a later

text Morgan maintains her pagan associations allowing her use her power appropriately.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 10R a fourteenth century text, Morgan continues her

role as a Celtic goddess who tests the reputation of Arthur’s court. The inclusion of

Morgan in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight provides the author with a means to instruct

his audience on the tenets of Christianity. The author blends pagan and Christian

elements to create a syncretic text that enables the author to pursue his didactic purpose

of disseminating Christian dogma more effectively. Morgan, in this instance, is a

powerful woman who employs magic for her own purposes that extend beyond

domesticity, and her inclusion is the author’s attempt to blend religious traditions in a

way that neither accepts nor repudiates either the pagan or the Christian.109 Morgan’s

role differs from that of the valkyries, because they exercise their power without societal

repercussions and without being assigned the maliciousness that often is applied to

Morgan Le Fay. As the pre-Christian paganism was replaced by the Christian Church

doctrine in England and France, characters like Morgan Le Fay were “punished” by the

Christian scribes recording the stories, with the exception of Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight. The authors and the scribes of these narratives had to reinvent the role of

Morgan Le Fay in light of the harsher message of the Church, which relegates Morgan to

108 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. and ed. William Vantuono, (Indiana: University o f Notre Dame Press: 1999). 109 For more information about Morgan le Fay’s appearanceSir inGawain and the Green Knight, see Larissa Tracy, “A Knight of God or the Goddess?: Rethinking Religious SyncretismSir Gawain in and the Green Knight,” delivered at the annual conference o f the Southeastern Medieval Association at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, October 2004, unpublished.

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the position of “wicked witch” more decidedly in the later stories. Within Christian

dogma, the role of magical women was detrimental to the established belief system which

placed women in subordinate position to men: “A particularly important element in the

stereotype of the witch was the centrality of women.. ..Ultimately the vulnerability of

women in this context must be seen as a corollary to the precarious position women held

in late medieval society (and, for that matter, in almost every society through history).”110

Morgan Le Fay is a magical woman, who fulfills her desires, but those desires are

extreme and as a result, her role as pagan priestess is diminished while her role as a

sorceress is magnified. The Christian Church more distinctively influenced the

continental countries, and as a consequence, Morgan Le Fay’s character had to be

reformulated by removing her previous associations with paganism, which made her

character more susceptible to harsh treatment from the Church.

In Malory’s Le Morte D ’Arthur,111 a fifteenth century rendition of the Vulgate

Lancelot, Morgan Le Fay attempts to attain more power through her magic, but instead of

attempting to convince Lancelot to violate his oath to his courtly love interest, she uses

her magic to obtain the ultimate power, the monarchy over Camelot. In order to assume

the role of queen, Morgan must have Arthur murdered, leaving the throne open to her as

Arthur’s sister. Morgan uses magic to fashion a scabbard that is identical to Excalibur’s

scabbard so her lover may switch the false scabbard with the real one to protect himself

and, simultaneously, leaving Arthur vulnerable to weapons: “And she wolde have had /

Arthure hir brother slayne; and therefore she lete make anothir / scawberd for Excalibur

110 Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, 197-198. 111 Malory’s Le Morte D 'Arthur was a product of his desire to free himself from prison, so it was necessary for him to write a narrative that reinforces the established social hierarchy and reinforces the Church’s teachings.

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[lyke it, by enchauntement, and gaf the / scauberd Excalibur to her love—] and the

knyghtes name was / called Accalon, that aftir had nere slayne Kynge Arthure.” Her

enchantment gives her authority, but this markedly differs from the power that the

valkyries wield. Morgan misuses her magic in a way that threatens the social order while

the valkyries, who are more integral to the cultural make-up of Germanic cultures, use

their power in appropriate ways and for acceptable motivations. It is her desire to punish

Arthur and to protect her lover; so to accomplish this, she must actively involve herself in

the situation. It is her magic that allows her to create a scabbard that tricks Arthur for a

short while proving that her occult abilities effect change in her preferred way, against

Arthur. Even though Accalon does not succeed in the ultimate revenge, he obeys

Morgan’s command which is evidence of her power over her life for it is because she has

the magical ability to create enchantments that gives her the opportunity to make the

conscious choice to attempt to punish her half brother. As Accalon explains to Arthur,

what Morgan most desires is to be queen:

‘Now, sir,’ seyde Accolon, ‘I woll tell you. This swerde hath bene in my kepynge the moste party o f this twelvemonthe, and Morgan le Fay, Kyng Uryence wyff, sente hit me yesterday by a dwarfe to the entente to sle Kynge Arthure, hir brothir— for ye shall undirstonde that Kynge Arthur ys the man in the worlde that she hatyth moste, because he is moste of worship and of prouesse of ony of hir bloode.. .And than she devised to have my kynge in this londe, and so to reigne, and she to be my quene.’113

She also wants to punish Arthur for being the most worshipped and the one with the most

prowess in her family—truly she hates Arthur because he is more powerful than she is.

In order to remedy this situation, for Morgan to gain power in her own right, she must use

112 Thomas Malory,Le Morte D 'Arthur, ed. Stephen Shepherd, (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), p. 52, lines 17-23. 113 Ibid., p. 90, lines 7-16.

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her magic to create the situation where her paramour has the opportunity to kill Arthur.

Without her magic, she would not be able to attempt her plan. It is her magic that allows

her to vie for this power. In her “power play” with Arthur, Morgan makes Arthur and his

knights distinctly aware of her magic and the power she hopes to gamer from it: ‘“Tell

hym [Arthur],’ seyde she, ‘that I rescewed the / nat for the love of hym, but for the love

of Accolon; and tell hym I / feare hymn nat whyle I can make me and myne in lyknesse

of / stonys—and lette hym wete I can do much more whan I se my / tyme.’”114 Her

magic enables her to control her men and to some extent Arthur (at least, that is her

desire); indeed, she states that she does not fear him while she has the magical ability to

transform herself and her knights. But here power is flawed because Morgan’s actions

are driven by selfish motives. Her magical power does not reflect social power in the

same way as the magic of the valkyries because it is inappropriate, excessive, and cruel,

and it pits this woman against the heroes of the narrative as an adversary, rather than as

an equal.

The manner in which Morgan utilizes her power forces her to maintain an

antithetical position to social norms throughout the Vulgate Lancelot and Le Morte

D ’Arthur, because she attempts to murder Arthur, and thus, attempts to usurp the throne

of England. Albeit flawed, Camelot was the epitome of courtly life and was the standard

by which knights and warriors compared themselves. Knights came from many lands to

seek a position at King Arthur’s court. Within these stories, Morgan is oppositional to all

that is right and sought after in Camelot forcing her to the fringes of accepted society.

She misuses her power diminishing her role in these narratives. Her magic contrasts with

114 Ibid., p. 95, lines 4-8.

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that of the Lady of the Lake and Merlin for her magic is used against Camelot; she is the

antagonist in the plot of these tales. It is her behavior that causes turmoil and upheaval in

Arthur’s court. The authors of both cycles firmly establish her as the “wicked witch”

who is marginalized and characterized as aberrant. Morgan’s role, to reconcile the stories

with the more callous Church message, must be reinvented so that her position as pagan

goddess is replaced with her role as witch. Her desire for the throne is unreasonable in

the bounds of social and familial standards, and she is demonized for it. The authors

criticize Morgan for her behavior and they leave her on the outskirts of normalized

society.

THE LADY OF THE LAKE

Throughout both versions of the Arthurian legend, the Vulgate Lancelot and Le

Morte D ’Arthur, the Lady of the Lake employs her power by using her magic in

benevolent ways. She is often the protector of Lancelot, Arthur, and the Knights of the

Round Table. It is her desire to protect those who she deems worthy of her benevolence.

Her desire to protect Lancelot stems from her role as his foster mother. The Lady of the

Lake is in charge of Lancelot’s education as a knight and of the rules courtly life: “In this

way the Lady prepared everything the young man needed for hisknighting.. 15 In

attempts to protect her foster son, the Lady of the Lake provides Lancelot with a magical

charm: “.. .the Lady took a small ring from her finger and put it on the boy’s finger,

saying that it had the power to uncover and reveal all magic spells.”116 In addition to

protecting Lancelot, her magic gives her power to control his fits of madness and rage:

115 Vulgate Lancelot, 100. 1,6 Ibid., 102.

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“As soon as she had spoken this name [Fair Foundling], he stopped and was deeply

ashamed.. .Then she took him and made him lie down upon a couch; he recognized her

11 n and began to weep most bitterly...” Along with her magic charms and healing skills,

the Lady of the Lake also possesses foreknowledge: “.. .you will see still greater wonders

concerning that shield than you have seen thus far, for I knew in advance what has

happened, and for that reason I sent it [shield] to you, knowing full well that I could send

it to no one else who would hold it so dear.”118 In this particular cycle, the Lady of the

Lake achieves her desire of protecting her foster son and protecting Arthur against

Morgan Le Fay’s power plays through her supernatural abilities. The perception of her

magic as “good” is reflected in the respect she receives from the court. The Lady of the

Lake uses her power appropriately, in a way that reasserts the values of the dominant

social structure, and she is praised for it. Morgan Le Fay’s power is a contradiction to

social demands, because her motives are excessive and inappropriate, and she is

demonized for it.

The Lady of the Lake contrasts with both Morgan Le Fay and the valkyries. In

this version of the Arthurian story, the Lady of the Lake is a mystical and supernatural

being who seems to relate directly with the valkyrie tradition because of her origins.

Neither the valkyries nor the Lady of the Lake needs to learn their magic from external

sources whereas Morgan does; they are inherently magical and therefore are more natural

in their use of magic because it is part of their being. Even though the valkyries share

this heritage with the Lady of the Lake, they maintain their associations with the

117 Ibid., 136. 118 Ibid., 137.

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paganism from which they developed much more firmly than Lady of the Lake. Though

the Lady of the Lake uses her magical ability to protect Lancelot, her power is limited to

looking after his well-being—she does not verbalize nor does she actively pursue her

own personal desires. She is only a guardian whereas the Germanic women are active

participants in their fate and the actions of their communities, in many cases foretelling

their own destruction through their magical powers, but still unwilling to change their

destinies. In the Vulgate Lancelot, the Lady of the Lake does not receive much attention;

her personality is not described in great detail nor is much information given regarding

her background. In contrast, the valkyries act harshly, as Brynhild does when she

precipitates Sigurd’s murder or as Sigrun does when she incites Helgi to murder

Hodbrodd, but their rationale for the behavior is described and their actions are

justifiable. The Lady of the Lake’s sovereignty is not for her own sake but for the sake of

Lancelot. Her actions are entirely selfless which makes her magic far more acceptable to

French and English medieval audiences. Though not maligned and not characterized as a

“wicked witch” as Morgan is, the Lady of the Lake does not attain the power and

attention that the valkyries do. The Lady of the Lake is much more of a passive guardian

whose motivations for using her power are entirely for the benefit of others whereas the

Germanic women are actively involved in battle and adventures and their motives for

using their power are the driving force behind the progression of the narratives in which

they appear. The differences between the Lady of the Lake and the valkyries highlight

the historical variations between medieval Germanic cultures and medieval France. With

a stronger reliance on the heroic warrior code and on the paganism of the past, medieval

Germanic literature extols the virtues of strong women who wield their power in a way

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that coincides with social norms. The medieval French literary tradition with its reliance

on the tenets of courtly love, either places women on a pedestal or on the fringes of

society depending on how they exercise their occult abilities, but in either instance, these

women are passive and unable to satisfy their wants because someone else’s desires

always took precedent.

The Lady of the Lake in Le Morte D ’Arthur can be identified with several

characters, though there is only one “chief’ Lady of the Lake called Nymue.119 As in

Vulgate Lancelot, Nymue is benevolent and protects Arthur from Morgan’s attempts to

gain the ultimate power of the throne. One of the first gifts of protection that Nymue

bestows upon Arthur is his legendary sword, Excalibur: ‘“The name of hit,’ seyde the

lady, ‘ys Excalibir—that ys as muche / to sey ‘Kutte Stele.”1 00 ” This is the sword that

will protect Arthur. With the use of her magic, she obtains a high position within

Arthur’s court. She becomes very much like his advisor in that she speaks to Arthur

about the possible dangers that await him. When Morgan sends Arthur “the rycheste /

mantell that ever was sene in the courte,” it is the Lady of the Lake whose prescience

allows her to recognize the magic contained on the cloak. 191 When the Lady of the Lake

realizes the malicious nature of the gift, she asks to speak to the king in private which

Arthur does readily—which illustrates how much Arthur values her opinion and respects

her counsel: “With that come the Damesell of the Lake unto the Kynge, and / seyde ‘Sir,

I muste speke with you in prevyte.’ ‘Sey on’ seyde the / Kynge, ‘what ye woll.’ / ‘Sir,’

119 S. E Holbrook, “Nymue, the Chief Lady o f the Lake, in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur,”Speculum 53, no. 4(1978): 761. 120 Thomas Malory,Le Morte D'Arthur, p. 43, lines 15-16. 121 Ibid., p. 95, lines 21-22.

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seyde this damsell, ‘putt nat upon you this mantell / tylle ye have sene more...”’122 In

this role as Arthur’s counselor, she provides Arthur with advice that she feels will be of

most benefit to him and his court. The Lady of the Lake has power similar to that of

Merlin: “For, in Malory’s subsequent use of Nymue, she carries on, in a circumscribed

way, Merlin’s role as enchanter and prescient advisor, whose skill, knowledge, and

1 j ' i loyalty are dedicated to Arthur and his court.” In this version of the Arthurian tale, the

Lady of the Lake’s magic provides her with the same type of influence that Merlin

attains, which is a power that no other woman can claim to have. Though she is the only

woman with as much sway over Arthur, the Lady of the Lake does not have the authority

to effect changes in the court of her own benefit. Her authority is restricted by the

demands of the men in her life. As with her representation in the Vulgate Lancelot, the

Lady of the Lake is not a fully developed character whose desires and feelings are

expressed in a clear fashion. In her role as protectress, the Lady of the Lake has no

independent desires; her work is for the common good, rather than for personal gain, and

she exists entirely as a servant to Arthur and his desires and goals. The magic that the

Lady of the Lake possesses enables her to protect Arthur and his knights and to help

increase the prestige of Arthur’s court. This contrasts with the representation of the

valkyries, and the women in the historical sagas, because these women express their

desires and needs while maintaining their centrality in Iceland and Scandinavia. Even

though the Lady of the Lake has a position of authority in the court, she truly does not

have any sway over the politics and social happenings occurring there. She is unable to

122 Ibid., p. 95, lines 30-35. 123 S. E. Hobrook, “Nymue, the Chief Lady of the Lake,” 771.

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prevent the ultimate collapse of the Round Table and of Camelot itself. She seems most

suited as a protectress against the magic of Morgan Le Fay, which ultimately situates

these two women in an oppositional dichotomy. Morgan Le Fay is improper for she

employs her magic in such a way as to attempt to contravene the established social order;

whereas the Lady of the Lake uses her magic in a manner that supports the normative

social structure. This dichotomy highlights the gendered social structure present in

medieval England and France. Women were present and had a role in the social

structure, but their presence was often relegated to the margins, as evidenced by the

demonization of Morgan Le Fay in a majority of medieval texts. As a powerful woman

who attempts to subvert the social tendencies of the established hierarchy, she is

subjected to harsh and pointed criticisms, because her desires are capricious and

unwarranted. The Lady of the Lake is also a powerful woman, but her authority is

limited to the needs of Arthur’s court. She appears to maintain a central position in the

court, but she is truly on the sidelines of that system because she does not use her position

in any way for herself. The Lady of the Lake does not exact changes in the system for

her own benefit. She serves as a means to support the established system which places

men in the central and integral position and places women, especially magical women, on

the fringes. The valkyries, in contrast, verbalize their own desires and apply their

supernatural skills to satisfy them. No matter how violently they pursue their desires, as

long as they remain within the social bounds of retribution, the valkyries remain valued

members of the society.

This is a distinct difference from the representation of the valkyrie women in the

eddic poetry and sagas of medieval Iceland and Scandinavia, because image of the

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valkyries remains constant even beyond the Christianization of these Germanic cultures.

The contemporary continental European portrayals of magical women change as the

Christian Church established itself as the mainstream religion that displaced some aspects

of paganism. Because of England and France’s relative proximity to the center of the

Christian Church, Rome, they were more susceptible to the edicts and demands of the

Church, which were decidedly more misogynistic than pre-Christian ideology. The

relative proximity of England and France assisted with the transmission of Church

doctrine. These countries were more socially interactive than the Germanic cultures were

with other European countries. The transmission of “accepted” Church ideological edicts

would have been more readily accessible to the continental countries, and truly, the

Church was more readily able to verify whether stated Church policy was being

implemented. The geographic isolation of the Germanic cultures enabled them to retain a

more decisive connection with their ancient pagan past which valued the supernatural

realm and the social structure of these cultures also allowed for the presence of powerful

women because strength was valued over all else. Therefore, these Germanic cultures

accepted much more readily the notion of powerful women who used their magic to

extend their existence beyond the domestic realm and who used their power in a unique

way from other cultures of this time to maintain a central and important position in the

social hierarchy.

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CONCLUSION

Because Western European countries were more sensitive to the edicts of the

Church their literature often imposed the Church’s misogynistic views on the literature

during this time from around twelfth century through the mid- to late-fourteenth century.

Characters such as Morgan Le Fay were no longer presented with the same connection

with their pagan past, as the valkyries were. Morgan Le Fay no longer was an

appropriate image for the Christianized stories. Her character diminished through the

Christian lens and she ultimately assumed the position of a “wicked witch,” proving that

her behavior and actions were inappropriate and were in contrast with accepted social

customs and beliefs. And this suggests that there is differentiation between the types of

power that women employed. Powerful women have been present in the literature of

various cultures; what differs among these literatures is the manner in which the powerful

women are depicted. The role of magical women changed depending on how they used

power; those who employ magic in a way that reinforced cultural values and beliefs were

depicted more positively throughout the Middle Ages. The valkyries used this type of

“good” power in that their motivations and behaviors were consistent with the social

norms of the time. Women in Germanic cultures could participate in feuds and did

participate in battle, making the valkyries an accurate depiction of the Old Norse-

Icelandic historical potential for women. Revenge and martial valor were important

73

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social values in Germanic cultures; the valkyries used their power to seek revenge and to

demonstrate their military prowess in a way that reinforced those values. Because the

valkyries used their authority in ways that suited the cultural framework of Germanic

cultures, they were depicted as crucial to the cultures as a whole.

The inclination toward imposing outside views onto characters was not only

perpetrated by Christian scribes and authors in the Middle Ages, but, more recently, has

been expressed by scholars who remove the historical and mythological context

surrounding characters like the valkyries. By doing so, these critics impose a scholarly

bias that places valkyries in the same position as Morgan Le Fay, as outsiders on the

margins of society. Critics like Katherine Morris and Alexander Krappe characterize the

valkyries as terrible and menacing creatures, which fails to account for the centrality and

the positive actions of these characters in the cultural mythology and in the cultural

make-up of the society as a whole. These warrior women are essential to understanding

the societies in which they were present. They provide a glimpse into Germanic cultures

and into the way those societies viewed gender. In the societies that created literature

about and believed in the valkyries, biological sex was not the only criterion on which to

base an individual’s worth. Strength of body and mind were always positive values in

these societies since life was harsh and everyone, regardless of gender, was needed to

help communities survive. These women with magic as their implement of social power

maintained their worth and demonstrate, for the contemporary reader, the centrality of

strong women within Germanic cultures. The valkyries not only provided Odin with the

greatest warriors for the final battle, but they themselves earned an integral place in

Valhalla and on the battlefield.

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The impact of Christianity on the representation of the magical women was more

intensely felt in European countries closest to Rome and in those countries that were

more socially interactive. Those European countries, such as England and France, were

under the close scrutiny of the Christian Church and they accepted and practiced the new

religion more readily than the Germanic cultures did: as Heather O’Donoghue observes,

“in Iceland, one of the furthest outposts of Western Christendom, this process seems to

have been much less intrusive than almost anywhere else in Europe.”124 Christianity

propagated and furthered misogynistic ideologies which characterized women as weak

and passive in comparison with their male counterparts. While this tendency occurred

more fully and directly in continental European societies, Germanic societies maintained

a much more positive characterization of women in the eddic poetry and sagas of the

time. The Elder Edda presents numerous female characters who are strong and who use

magic as an instrument to attain social power. That is, magic enables them to have

choice and agency in their lives. These women, like Sigrun, Sigrdrifa, and Brynhild, are

active participants in battle and truly are warrior women. In theElder Edda, the

valkyries are undeniably mythological beings who remain connected with Old Norse-

Icelandic paganism which valued magical women as wise counselors and strong warriors.

With the value they placed on their heritage and ancestry and with the proliferation of

magical female characters who attained power, Germanic cultures felt that these strong

magical women were central to the cultural make-up of the societies as a whole.

Though some critics, like Jenny Jochens, suggest that the prevalence of strong

female characters was merely a consequence of male authors’ fantasies, this discounts the

124 Heather O’Donoghue,Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, 62.

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value and the lasting impact of the pagan religious system on these Germanic cultures.

The inclusion of strong female characters in both the poetry and sagas of the time

suggests that the characters may be reflections of the possible historical potentialities of

women in these cultures. Indeed, women were not always relegated to inferior or

marginalized positions, especially if those women were as strong and powerful as the

valkyries were. These societies tended not to divide social duties based on biological

sex; rather, they tended to determine social participation and worth based on physical

strength: “This is a universe in which maleness and femaleness were always negotiable,

always up for grabs, always susceptible to ‘conditions.’ The ‘conditions’ that mattered in

the north—the ‘conditions’ that pushed a person into another status—worked not so

much at the level of the body, but at the level of social relations.”125 Because the

valkyries were closely tied to Odin, they maintained a close social relationship with the

Norse pantheon. With this relationship, these women can be seen as not only natural and

acceptable but truly central to the Germanic societies as whole, which ultimately suggests

that historically women were able to attain more social power than was typically

provided in continental European countries. The body of literature present in Germanic

cultures reflects actual cultural potentialities of women in these cultures. Powerful

women are not merely fictions and they do not merely exist in these Germanic cultures’

mythological system. Other cultures, like the culture of ancient Greece, had a mythology

that did not reflect its actual social practices. The Greek mythological system contains a

number of strong, powerful women, but these women were merely fictionalized because

historical ancient Greek women did not have such social power. By contrast, Germanic

125 Carol Clover,Regardless o f Sex, 12.

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cultures valued power when it was used in proper ways, by either women or men. The

proliferation of powerful women in the Germanic literature is evidence of the worth these

cultures placed on these women. In these Germanic cultures, the historical possibilities

for women did not necessarily fall into the polarized categories of “wicked witches” or

“worldly women.” Germanic women had the potential as well as historical opportunities

to go much farther than these categories suggest. How the women were depicted in the

literature depended on how they used the power they garnered from their magic. If they

used it inappropriately in ways that deviated from socially accepted norms, they were

relegated to the margins as “wicked witches.” If they use their power in appropriate

ways, as was more often the case with the valkyries, the women were praised, valued,

and remembered, through the literature, as integral to the culture as a whole. They were

truly “worldly women.”

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