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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by Medieval Institute Publications 2020

Dólgr í byggðinni: Meeting the Social Monster in the Sagas of Icelanders

From the book Paranormal Encounters in Iceland 1150–1400

  • Rebecca Merkelbach

Abstract

Monstrosity has long been regarded as only a physical category in medieval literature and culture as well as possessing an inherent essentialism. This article aims to challenge both of these ideas, instead offering a reading of monstrosity as a fluid spectrum based on contemporary monster theories, and as a concept that, in the Íslendingasögur, depends more on behavior than on looks.

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston
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