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Power Of The Woman In Njal's Saga

1013 Words5 Pages

The Power of The Woman in Njal’s Saga Through the course of the worlds history, the roles that men and women play have been surely distinct. The role of the woman is surely a prominent theme in Njal’s Saga. Each character contributes to building the plot of this saga, but three themes develop that can help to better understand the role of the women in the medieval Icelandic society. The themes that will shape a better understanding will be; power, honor and revenge, and manipulation.

The women in Njal’s Saga take advantage of all the power they are given. Marriage is highly valued in the lives of men and women in this culture. The woman is usually given a choice to see if she will take the power of the household. This act is a very big …show more content…

It sets some sort of boundary or Guidelines that the women must stay in to be holding this power. A perfect example of this demand of respect and honor is in the ultimatum that Queen Gunnchild gives to Hrut and Ozur. Where Ozur says “The moment we refuse her invitation, she will hound us out of the country and seize all we own; but if we accept [her invitation], she will treat us as handsomely as she has promised” (43). Gunnhild knows that she is noble and should be honored, this is what caused her to reject anything that fell short to her assumptions. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that women in a powerful place in Icelandic society would also be wanting respect and honor. The honor seems to be more important to women than it is to men and it propels the Sagas plot. Revenge in this Saga seems to always be started from a devout need for defending honor. For most of these women characters, Honor cannot simply survive without an activeness to seek revenge for a wrongdoing. An Eye for an eye seems to be the conclusion that can be drawn here about a woman with power in the Icelandic culture when honor has been disrespected. A great example of this in the Saga is when Hallgerd refuses to give Gunnar her hair for his bow to save his life. She says to him “I shall now remind you of the slap you once gave me. I do not care in the least whether you hold out a long time or not” (171). To this society a vengeance for a slap to the face of your wife that hold power is worth

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