If She Says Yes or Is Silent: A New Interpretation of Female Marital Consent in the Settlement Period
in Iceland as Revealed Through the Family Sagas
Fortney, Jill Marie
M.A. Thesis, History, Emory University (2009)
Abstract
This thesis seeks to explain how female marital consent functioned in Saga-Age (870 1050) Iceland by examining the Family Sagas and the Law Code. It is in part a response to the work of another scholar, Jenny Jochens and her book Women in Old Norse Society. Jochens believes that female marital consent did not exist in Iceland 
during the Saga Age and that any mention of it in the Sagas is a Christian interpolation and does not represent historical fact. This thesis seeks to counter that argument by arguing that the authors of the Sagas, while Christian, did not have a writing program that included inserting female marital consent when there was none before.If She Says Yes or Is Silent: A New Interpretation of Female Marital Consent in the Settlement Period in Iceland as Revealed Through the Family Sagas.
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