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Research ArticleArticles

Face-Threatening Acts across Binary and Nonbinary Gender Dynamics in Old Norse–Icelandic Literature

Eric Shane Bryan
Scandinavian Studies, June 2026, 98 (2) 1-30; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/sca.98.2.1
Eric Shane Bryan
Eric Shane Bryan is a Professor of English and Technical Communication at Missouri University of Science and Technology. His most recent book, Discourse in Old Norse Literature, was published in 2021 with Boydell & Brewer.
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  • For correspondence: bryane{at}mst.edu
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Works Cited

Primary Sources

  1. Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa. 1938. In Borgfirðinga sögur. Edited by Sigurður Nordal and Guðni Jónsson, 109–211. Íslenzk Fornrit 3. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
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  2. Brennu-Njáls saga. 1954. Edited by Einar Ól. Sveinsson. Íslenzk Fornrit 12. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
  3. Egils saga Skallagrímssonar. 1933. Edited by Sigurður Nordal. Íslenzk Fornrit 2. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
  4. Gísla saga Súrssonar. 1943. In Vestfirðinga So˛gur. Edited by Björn K Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson, 1–118. Íslenzk Fornrit 6. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
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  5. Grágas:Lagasafn íslenska þjóðveldisins. 1992. Edited by Gunnar Karlsson, Kristján Sveinsson, and Mörður Árnason. Reykjavík: Mál og Menning.
  6. Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu. 1938. In Borgfirðinga so˛gur. Edited by Sigurður Nordal and Guðni Jónsson, 49–107. Íslenzk Fornrit 3. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
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  7. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. 1981. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda 2, 2nd ed. Edited by Guðni Jónsson, 1–71. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
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  8. Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar. 1981. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda 4, 2nd ed. Edited by Guðni Jónsson, 51–176. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
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  9. Kristni saga. 2003. In Biskupa sögur I. Edited by Jónas Kristjánsson, 1–48. Íslenzk Fornrit 15, 2 vols. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.
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  10. Laxdœla saga. 1934. Edited by Einar Ól. Sveinsson. Íslenzk Fornrit 5. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
  11. Víga-Glúms saga. 1956. In Eyfirðinga so˛gur. Edited by Jónas Kristjánsson, 1–98. Íslenzk Fornrit 9. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska Fornritafélag.
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  12. Völsunga saga. 1981. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda 1, 2nd ed. Edited by Guðni Jónsson, 107–218. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
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Secondary Sources

    1. Anderson, Sarah M.
    , and Swensen, Karen, eds. 2002. The Cold Counsel: The Women in Old Norse Literature and Myth. New York: Routledge.
    1. Ármann Jakobsson
    . 2011. “Óðinn as Mother: The Old Norse Deviant Patriarch.” Arkiv för nordisk filologi 126: 5–16.
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  1. ↵
    1. Arnold, Martin
    . 2014. “Hárbarðsljóð: Parody, Pragmatics, and the Socio-Mythic Controversy.” Saga-Book 38: 5–26.
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    1. Bampi, Massimiliano
    . “Genre.” In The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas, edited by Ármann Jakobsson and Sverrir Jakobsson, 4–14. New York: Routledge.
    1. Bampi, Massimiliano
    , Larrington, Carolyne, and Rikhardsdottir, Sif, eds. 2020. A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literature Genre. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
  2. ↵
    1. Bax, Marcel
    , and Padmos, Tineke. 1983. “Two Types of Verbal Dueling in Old Icelandic: The Interactional Structure of the Senna and Mannjafnaðr in Hárbarðsljóð.” Scandinavian Studies 55 (2): 149–74.
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    1. Berkowitz, Dana
    , Windsor, Elroi J., and Han, C. Winter. 2023. “Introduction.” In Male Femininities, edited by Dana Berkowitz, Elroi J. Windsor, and C. Winter Han, 1–16. New York: New York University Press.
  3. ↵
    1. Brown, Penelope
    , and Levinson, Stephen. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  4. ↵
    1. Bryan, Eric Shane
    . 2013. “Indirect Aggression: A Pragmatic Analysis of the Quarrel of the Queens in Völsungasaga, Þiðreks Saga, and Das Nibelungenlied.” Neophilologus 97: 349–65.
    OpenUrl
    1. Bryan, Eric Shane
    . 2021. Discourse in Old Norse Literature. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer.
  5. ↵
    1. Callow, Chris
    . 2017. “Dating and Origins.” In The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas, edited by Ármann Jakobsson and Sverrir Jakobsson, 15–33. New York: Routledge.
  6. ↵
    1. Clover, Carol J.
    1986. “Maiden Warriors and Other Sons.” Journal of English and German Philology 85 (1): 35–49.
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    1. Clover, Carol J.
    . 1993. “Regardless of Sex: Men, Women, and Power in Early Northern Europe.” Speculum 68 (2): 363–87.
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  7. ↵
    1. Culpeper, Jonathan
    . 2011. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offense. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  8. ↵
    1. Evans, Gareth Lloyd
    . 2019. Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
    1. Evans, Gareth Lloyd
    . 2020. “Female Masculinity and the Sagas of the Icelanders.” In Masculinities in Old Norse Literature, edited by Gareth Lloyd Evans and Jessica Clare Hancock, 59–75. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer.
  9. ↵
    1. Evans, Gareth Lloyd
    , and Hancock, Jessica Clare, eds. 2020a. Masculinities in Old Norse Literature. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer.
    1. Evans, Gareth Lloyd
    , and Hancock, Jessica Clare, eds. 2020b. “Introduction.” In Masculinities in Old Norse Literature, edited by Gareth Lloyd Evans and Jessica Clare Hancock, 1–18. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer.
  10. ↵
    1. Goffman, Eriving
    . 1967. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face to Face Behavior. New York: Anchor.
  11. ↵
    1. Grønlie, Sîan
    . 2006. “No Longer Male and Female: Redeeming Women in the Icelandic Conversion Narratives.” Medium Ævum 75 (2): 293–318.
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  12. ↵
    1. Harris, Joseph
    . 1979. “The Senna: From Description to Literary Theory.” Michigan Germanic Studies 5 (1): 65–74.
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    1. Jóhanna Katrín Fríðreksdóttir
    . 2012. “From Heroic Legend to ‘Medieval Screwball Comedy’? The Origins, Development and Interpretation of the Maiden-King Narrative.” In The Legendary Sagas: Origins and Development, edited by Annette Lassen, Agneta Ney, and Ármann Jakobsson, 229–49. Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press.
    1. Jóhanna Katrín Fríðreksdóttir
    . 2013. Women in Old Norse Literature: Bodies, Words, and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
    1. Jóhanna Katrín Fríðreksdóttir
    . 2015. “Gender, Humor, and Power in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature.” In Laughter, Humor, and the (Un) Making of Gender: Historical and Cultural Perspectives, edited by Anna Foka and Jonas Lilliequist, 211–28. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
    1. Jóhanna Katrín Fríðreksdóttir
    . 2017. “Genre.” In The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas, edited by Ármann Jakobsson and Sverrir Jakobsson, 226–39. New York: Routledge.
  13. ↵
    1. Laqueur, Thomas
    . 1990. Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  14. ↵
    1. Layher, William
    . 2007. “Caught between Worlds: Gendering the Maiden Warrior in Old Norse.” In Women and the Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity, edited by Sara S. Poor and Jana K. Schulman, 183–208. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
  15. ↵
    1. Leech, Geoffrey
    . The Pragmatics of Politeness. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  16. ↵
    1. Self, Kathleen M.
    2014. “The Valkyrie’s Gender: Old Norse Shield-Maidens and Valkyries as a Third Gender.” Feminist Formations 26 (1): 143–72.
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  17. ↵
    1. Soper, Harriet
    . 2022. “Echoing Retorts in ‘Hárbarðsljóð’ and ‘Lokasenna’.” Scandinavian Studies 94 (4): 475–503.
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  18. ↵
    1. Spencer-Oatey, Helen D. M.
    2007. “Theories of Identity and the Analysis of Face.” Journal of Pragmatics 39 (4): 639–56.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
    1. Swenson, Karen
    . 1991. Performing Definitions: Two Genres of Insult in Old Norse Literature. Columbia, SC: Camden House.
  19. ↵
    1. Thoma, Sebastian
    . 2021. “A Friend in níð: On the Narrative Display of Gender and níð in Njáls saga.” In Unwanted: Neglected Approaches, Characters and Texts in Old Norse-Icelandic Saga Studies, edited by Andreas Schmidt and Daniela Hahn, 57–86. München: Utzverlag.
  20. ↵
    1. Tolkien, Christopher
    . 1960. “Introduction.” In Saga Heiðreks Konungs ins Vitra—The Saga of Heidrek the Wise, edited and translated by Christopher Tolkien, vii–xxxv. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons.
  21. ↵
    1. Turco, Jeffrey
    . 2016. “Gender, Violence, and the ‘Enigma’ of Gísla saga.” Journal of English and German Philology 115 (3): 277–98.
    OpenUrl
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Scandinavian Studies: 98 (2)
Scandinavian Studies
Vol. 98, Issue 2
1 Jun 2026
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Face-Threatening Acts across Binary and Nonbinary Gender Dynamics in Old Norse–Icelandic Literature
Eric Shane Bryan
Scandinavian Studies Jun 2026, 98 (2) 1-30; DOI: 10.3368/sca.98.2.1

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Face-Threatening Acts across Binary and Nonbinary Gender Dynamics in Old Norse–Icelandic Literature
Eric Shane Bryan
Scandinavian Studies Jun 2026, 98 (2) 1-30; DOI: 10.3368/sca.98.2.1
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Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • FTAs and Types of Face
    • Sources, Discourses, and Gender Identification
    • Face-Threatening Acts across Gender Binaries
    • FTAs across Binaries: General Tendencies
    • Quality, Social Identity, and Relational Face across Gender Binaries
    • Relational Face and Subcategories of Relationality
    • FTAs across Binary Gender Dynamics: Some Conclusions
    • FTAs across Nonbinary Gender Dynamics: Preliminary Considerations
    • Nonbinary Relationality
    • Conclusion
    • Footnotes
    • Works Cited
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

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Keywords

  • Old Norse–Icelandic literature
  • face-threatening acts
  • gender
  • nonbinary
  • verbal aggression
  • impoliteness
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