Mother of Kings IV - A Woman of Great Dignity
- 2 minsMother of Kings IV - A Woman of Great Dignity
In this episode, we continue to discuss the life and legend of Gunnhild konungamóðir, tracing her path from Norway to Northern England and finally Denmark as she was repeated transformed from Royal to Refugee and back again.
Along the way we encounter and discuss shapeshifters, scorn poles, unruly noblemen and treacherous kings. To wrap things up, we explore the presence and influence of households headed by independent woman in the Norse world, studying the life of Auð the Deepminded and seeing what runestones have to tell us about powerful woman in the Viking Age.
Sources
Primary Sources
Heimskringla translated by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes.
Fagrskinna translated by Alison Finlay.
Ágrip af Nóregskonungasogum translated by M.J. Driscoll.
Historia Norwegiae translated by Devra Kunin.
Egil’s Saga translated by Bernard Scudder in The Sagas of the Icelanders.
Saga of the People of Laxardal (Laxdaela Saga) translated by Keneva Kunz in The Sagas of the Icelanders.
Sagas of the People of Vatnsdal (Vatnsdaela Saga) translated by Andrew Wahn in The Sagas of the Icelanders
Njal’s Saga translated by Robert Cook.
The Saga of Hrolf Gautrekkson translated by Ben Waggoner in Six Sagas of Adventure.
The Saga of the Sworn Brothers translated by Martin S. Regal in Comic Sagas and Tales from Iceland
The Poetic Edda translated by Carolyne Larrington.
The Poetic Edda translated by Jackson Crawford.
Grágás I translated by Andrew Dennis, Peter Foote and Richard Perkins.
Grágás II translated by Andrew Dennis, Peter Foote and Richard Perkins.
Secondary Sources
Women in Old Norse Literature, Bodies, Words, and Power by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir.
Gender by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir in The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas.
Gender, Humor, and Power in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir.
Women in Old Norse Society by Jenny Jochens.
The Norns in Old Norse Mythology by Karen Bek-Pedersen.
Viking Diaspora by Judith Jesch.
The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth.
Women in Old Norse Poetry and Sagas by Judy Quinn in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture.
Gunnhildur and the Male Whores by Jóna Guðbjörg Torfadóttir.
Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014 by Clare Downham
The Viking-Age Rune-Stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia by Birgit Sawyer.
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