Revisiting Gísla saga: Sexual Themes and the Heroic Past

by David Clark, Oxford University

Amongst Old Norse texts, Gísla saga Súrssonar has received a comparatively large amount of critical attention over the last century, with additionally a central place on the syllabus for some universities, and a relatively wellknown film adaptation in Águst Gudmundsson's Útlaginn (1981). The attractions of the saga are obvious—conflicting loyalties, far less emotional restraint than is usual in the sagas, murder and suspense, a powerful but doomed poet-hero, and so on. Critical discussion has ranged from textual issues, such as the relationship between the different versions represented by the extant manuscripts, to literary concerns, such as the question of the identity of Vésteinn's killer, and the nature of Gísli's heroism and the saga author's attitude to it. This article reconsiders two other fairly well-trodden paths of enquiry into this text—the saga's allusions to Eddaic verse and its author's use of sexual themes—but by considering them together aims to offer a slightly different but rewarding perspective on the text.