All For Her Sake

The chivalric cultural turn of the Old Norse culture claims the motivation of heroic deeds in the riddarasögur is woken by the duty either to the liege-lord or to the beloved woman. This is confirmed explicitely by quotes in the texts, as well as implicitely by the narrative’s sujet. So far, the conclusions of my dissertation are correct - the knight fights for honour of his king, his unnasta or his own fame. And the unnasta is the newest discovery indeed. But...

You see the narrator or the character may claim they are doing it all for the woman’s sake but to be truthfull, the real motivation is the praise they get from her. They wish they would finally get to sleep with her or earn some other form of reward, not to selflessly please her. They may wish to contribute to her social standing (look, oh fair lady, how much your fame can be elevated at tourneys and feasts) but the hero s appreciation of the woman s lot is rather dimmed (if not omitted). In the Old Norse sagas the laconic omissions of many points in the sujet make it harder to see, it is well-known for litotes and reading between the lines, but:

Either the texts do not mention this because it is too well-known (we do not speak about the basic facts everyone agrees on) or the focus still remains shifted to the male perspective: why bother describing her inner life other then her thoughts that can be used as a mirror of his bravery. Or love, yes, do not forget about "courtly love". There is simply too little that mentions the "heroinne s own bravery", you can watch her being brave on his sake by hiding him in a perilous situation - yet it is AGAIN all about him and a bit of the lovers fear of being discovered. What remains after we omit these scenes is a laconic note on the heir she may later give to him. But the story s real hero is still the knight who - oh woe - may heriocally get wounded during his journey for grateness. Get all the necessary attention by both the narrator and the doctors. Whereas when it comes to childbearing, it remains rather a dynastic fact, the question of lineage, and the effort of pregnancy, childbearing, and breastfeeding remains mostly hidden between the lines. Shouldn’t we expect that when the discourse shifts towards the glorifocation of courtly women, such deed may earn you some points, right? Well, you see, it’s complicated...

If you are a noble female character in an Old Norse chivalric saga (let’s forget the meykóngr narrative now, then you would end much much deeper in problems...), the new courtly discourse brought to the North by the translations would earn you courtly wooing and a bit more focus of your female chambers and companions, and of course nicer clothes... Afterwards, your background role of simply giving our husband his heirs, noble and necessary as it is, would remail precisely as it was, not a very grateful task. Fot the narrator, the hero is the knight in shining armour. So the term riddarasaga is a fitting one, isn’t it?

Next time? The quotes. It simply takes some time to find them. I will look them up during the daytime.