"Far From Drunk with Ale": Women, Sobriety, and Power in Old Norse Literature (original) (raw)

21st International Medieval Congress, 2015

Abstract

In this paper I argue that female characters in Old Norse-Icelandic literature gain power by remaining sober through the opportunities to either advise or outsmart men who had become drunk. I engage directly with what Jenny Jochens describes as a 'sober queen topos', a model wherein queens and women remain sober and aid and advise their kings and husbands after stupid, rude, or dangerous actions caused by their husbands' intoxication or where they outwit or even harm men by taking advantage of their drunkenness. This paper examines this 'sober queen topos', the few women in the corpus who do imbibe alcohol, the ways in which sober female behavior manifests in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, and its connection to female power.

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