Kvinnans sociala status i norrön mytologi : Alternativa tolkningar

Sammanfattning: In this paper the author has read and compared The Poetical Edda, and Margaret Clunies-Ross' book, Prolonged echoes: Old norse myth in medieval northern society(1998). The aim of this paper is to offer alternative interpretations to the ones Clunies-Ross has made by drawing on The Poetical Edda and other sources. Margaret Clunies-Ross' interpretations left much unaccounted for by giving one-sided analyses of love, marriage, status and family relations. She simply focused on the female as the one who gets undermined in all of these categories. Modin finds that this is a very narrow perspective of the gender dynamics in Norse mythology, especially after reading The Poetical Edda. She is not alone in her opinion. There is much evidence that contradicts Clunies-Ross' theories which the author of this paper aims to clarify by offering new perspectives on these texts. She also gives the reader examples of parts in Norse mythology that are not only interpreted differently from Clunies-Ross, but also several other authors, such as Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg, Peter Andreas Munch, John Lindow et cetera.