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7 - Sex in Iceland in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2024

By
Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir
Edited by
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks  and
Mathew Kuefler
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Mathew Kuefler
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Summary

Canon law rules of marriage became the legal means for policing forbidden sex in Iceland during the Middle Ages. These rules were adapted to various needs: enforcing morality, encouraging adherence to Christian sexual norms, and managing inheritance practices and property rights. This chapter explores sex in Iceland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by focusing on legal regulation, the archbishops’ and bishops’ statutes, and selected court cases. In all the Nordic countries the regulation of sexuality was highly influenced by canon law, but a study of sex in Iceland needs to be understood in relation to the special character of the society. It was highly literate, because of Christianity, but decentralized, with no towns and a distant royal administration. There had never been a strong executive authority in Iceland, and its absence seems to have encouraged widespread interest in documenting personal disputes and property rights. This makes Iceland special. Written documents and historical writing were mostly kept at the farms of leading families, for use in disputes over property rights in the local courts. This differs from more urbanized societies elsewhere in Europe.

Keywords

IcelandmedievalmarriageChristianizationcanon Lawpenitentialconfessionsadulterycelibacy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 132 - 149
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Arnórsdóttir, Agnes S. ‘Gender and Donation Culture in Iceland from 1300 to 1600’. In Donations, Inheritance and Property in the Nordic and Western World from Late Antiquity until Today, ed. Rønning, Ole-Albert, Sigh, Helle Møller, and Vogt, Helle, 165‒78. London: Routledge, 2017.Google Scholar
Arnórsdóttir, Agnes S. ‘Motherhood as Emotion and Social Practice: Mary and Anne as Maternal Models in Medieval Iceland’. In Denmark and Europe in the Middle Ages, c. 1000–1525: Essays in Honour of Professor Michael H. Gelting, ed. Hundahl, Kerstin, Kjær, Lars, and Lund, Niels, 43–58. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2014.Google Scholar
Arnórsdóttir, Agnes S. Property and Virginity: The Christianization of Marriage in Medieval Iceland 1200–1600, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Bagerius, Henric. Mandom och Mödom: Sexualitet, homosocialitet och aristokratisk indentitet på det senmedeltida Island (Manhood and Maidenhood: Sexuality, Homosociality, and Aristocratic Identity in Late Medieval Iceland). Gothenburg: Historiska Institutionen i Göteborg, 2009.Google Scholar
Bandlien, Bjørn. Strategies of Passion: Love and Marriage in Medieval Iceland and Norway. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clover, Carol. ‘Regardless of Sex: Men, Women, and Power in Early Northern Europe’.Speculum: Journal of the Medieval Academy of America 68 (1993): 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egilsdóttir, Ásdís. ‘Kvendýrlingar og kvenímyndir trúarlegra bókmennta á Íslandi’ (‘Female Saints and Images of Women in Religious Literature in Iceland’). In Konur og kristsmenn: Þættir úr kristnisögu Íslands (Women and Clerics: Periods from Iceland’s Christian History), ed. Hákonardóttir, Inga Huld, 90–116. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan 1996.Google Scholar
Egilsdóttir, Ásdís. ‘Telling and Writing Miracles in Medieval Iceland’. In The Cult of Saints in Nidaros Archbishopric: Manuscripts, Miracles, Objects, ed. Bø, Ragnhild M. and Sigurðsson, Jón Viðar, 195–212. Turnhout: Brepolis, 2022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friðríksdóttir, Jóhanna K. Women in Old Norse Literature: Bodies, Words, and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guðmundsson, Gunnar F. Kristni á Íslandi. Vol. 2: Íslenskt samfélag og Rómarkirkjan (Christianity in Iceland. Vol. 2: Icelandic Society and the Church of Rome), ed. Hugason, Hjalti. Reykjavik: Alþingi, 2000.Google Scholar
Hákonardóttir, Inga Huld. Fjarri hlýju hjónasængur: Öðruvísi Íslandssaga (Far Away from the Marriage Bed: A Different Sexual History of Iceland). Reykjavik: Mál og menning, 2000.Google Scholar
Hugason, Hjalti. Kristni á Íslandi, Vol. 1: Frumkristni og upphaf kirkju (Christianity in Iceland, Vol. 1: Early Christianity and the Origins of the Church). Reykjavik: Alþingi, 2000.Google Scholar
Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Karlsson, Gunnar. Iceland’s 1100 Years: The History of Iceland – History of a Marginal Society. London: Hurst, 2020.Google Scholar
Karras, Ruth Mazo. ‘Servitude and Sexuality in Medieval Iceland’. In From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland, ed. Pálsson, Gísli, 289–304. Enfield Lock, London: Hisarlik, 1992.Google Scholar
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Magnúsardóttir, Lára. Bannfæring og kirkjuvald á Íslandi 1275–1550: Lög og rannsóknarforsendur (Excommunication and Church Authority in Iceland, 1275–1550: Laws and Some Research Thoughts). Reykjavik: Háskólaútgáfan, 2007.Google Scholar
Magnúsdóttir, Auður. Frillor och fruar: Politik och samlevned på Island 1200–1400 (Concubines and Wives: Politics and Cohabitation in Iceland 1200–1400). Gothenburg: Historiska Institutionen i Göteborg, 2001.Google Scholar
Rafnsson, Sveinbjörn. ‘Þorláksskriftir og hjúskapur á 12. og 13. öld’ (‘The Penance of Saint Þorlákur and Marriage in the 12th and 13th Centuries’). Saga 20 (1982): 131–48.Google Scholar
Riisøy, Anne Irene. Sexuality, Law and Legal Practice and the Reformation in Norway. Leiden: Brill, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigurðsson, Eirika. The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: The Formation of an Elite Clerical Identity. Leiden: Brill, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walgenbach, Elizabeth. ‘The Canon Si quis suadente and Excommunication in Medieval Iceland’. Gripla 30 (2019): 155–85.Google Scholar

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