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- Title
Invisible Kingship: Liminality and the Maiden King in Nítíða Saga.
- Authors
Murath, Antonia
- Abstract
Like all maiden kings, Nítíða initially rejects her suitors only to accept marriage eventually. Rather than accepting the saga's 'happy ending' as its heroine's choice, this article argues that her kingship is cast as liminal in Victor Turner's sense. Her character reflects liminal traits: visual, temporal and sexual ambiguity, mediated through the motif of invisibility, body-thing relations and notions of space. Nítíða's kingship is structured as a transition to the role of a queen, which she does not take on voluntarily, but because she lacks choice in the face of her increasingly fragile power. Her suitor Livorius ultimately succeeds neither by trickery, military power, nor a courtly approach, but by employing structures Nítíða is excluded from due to her sex. Spared physical violence, she nonetheless suffers structural violence coercing her into a norm-appropriate role and erasing her kingship.
- Subjects
LITERARY criticism; OLD Norse literature; LIMINALITY; INVISIBILITY; ICELANDIC literature; KINGS &; rulers in folklore; MEDIEVAL kings &; rulers; KINGS &; rulers in literature; QUEENS; MARRIAGES of royalty &; nobility in literature; FICTION
- Publication
European Journal of Scandinavian Studies, 2020, Vol 50, Issue 2, p257
- ISSN
2191-9399
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1515/ejss-2020-2002