“Compar And Contrasting Women And Queens In Both Beowulf And The Saga Of The Volsungs”
...and Contrasting Women and Queens in both Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs”
When determining what kind of topic I wanted to write my term paper on, the issues dealing with women really stood out for some reason. Sure Kings, brave warriors, and noble knights would have been the easier choice to write about, but a lot of that seemed similar too each other; It seems to overlap too much. Throughout the remainder of this paper I will discuss a number of key issues dealing with women in Medieval literature, highlighting Queenship, marriage norms, and the similarities and differences between the two texts I chose.
One of the first things I would like to discuss is some of the roles, duties, and expectations of queens during these time periods, and how they relate to actual history. When thinking about queens and women during medieval times, one of the first duties that comes to my mind is child bearing. If a woman was unable to produce children, in a way she was “useless”. One common thing all kings, even all men, would want would be for their name to live on, and to have an heir to their throne, somebody that would be able to take over his kingdom in the event of his death. “Throughout the early Middle Ages, the basic aim remained the same: the security and continuity of the dynasty, achieved by raising up acceptable heirs while at the same time minimizing destructive intrafamily conflict. High rates of infant mortality might require many sons to ensure these ends; varying views on legitimacy might determine the nature of the unions which produced them. But the aim remained the same: continuity of the line. No wife who failed to conceive could ever feel entirely safe.”[1] This basic idea is reinforced in The Saga of the Volsungs.
Located on page 36-37 in the text, Rerir is a king who has chosen a wife that he saw fit for himself for a number of...
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