Werewolves in old Norse-Icelandic literature
Keywords: werewolf
medieval literature
medieval Scandinavian literature
medieval Icelandic literature
medieval romance
Old Norse

This thesis investigates ten Old Norse-Icelandic werewolf texts: Vǫlsunga saga, Gibbons saga, Sigrgarðs saga frækna, Sigrgarðs saga ok Valbrands, Ála flekks saga, Úlfhams rímur, Tiodielis saga, Jóns saga leikara, and, on the Norwegian side, Bisclaretz ljóð and a short episode in Konungs skuggsjá. Focusing on these texts and complemented by medieval Latin-Franco werewolf traditions, the thesis examines five aspects (in the form of six chapters) to interpret the dynamic between human and wolf, ‘us’ and ‘other’, and to offer new angles to approach these metamorphosis stories.
The first four chapters present a bidirectional journey. On an external level, they proceed further away from the body: via the skin, the surface of the body; clothing, the layer immediately placed upon the skin; diet, or what is placed on the (dining) table before the werewolf; landscape, or where the human body finds itself. At the same time, however, with each step a different aspect of the werewolf’s interiority comes to light: the skin has the ability to draw out the latent, making visual the individual’s moral/spiritual condition; clothing indicates the individual’s personal and social identity; food, in addition to being another identity indicator, constitutes the body materially; landscape both reflects and affects the individual’s emotional status. At the centre of each chapter lies the interaction between these two ends: the external and social and the interior and psychological. Thus, this thesis is essentially about the same narrative, but told in four different ways, with the last two chapters as the point of convergence, addressing the key questions of purpose and identity.
The first chapter considers the skin, for not only is the skin the outmost layer of the human body but putting on a úlfhamr (wolfskin) is also the most common means for a man to change into a wolf. Starting from the two skin models derived from the Franco-Latin werewolf texts, this chapter demonstrates how change at skin level reflects and affects the human psyche and investigates how these models can be applied to the Old Norse-Icelandic sources. Ála flekks saga is singled out as a case study. In particular, Áli’s four adventures are analysed in detail to show a parallel between werewolf metamorphosis and skin diseases such as leprosy: itself interpreted as a manifestation of the individual’s moral/spiritual status.
Chapter Two considers clothing, for in some werewolf cases clothes and the skin are thought of as interchangeable; the substitution of clothing with the wolfskin blurs not only the wearer’s identity but also the boundary between man and beast. The Bisclavret group (Lai du Bisclavret, Bisclaretz ljóð, and Tiodielis saga) provide an illustrative example for two reasons: (1) The hero’s transformation entirely depends on the loss and reacquisition of his human, knightly clothes; (2) the werewolf tears open the wife’s clothes in public, a detail not found in the French original. This leads to the question of nakedness and the possibility of discussing the werewolf body alongside two marginal, otherly creatures: the madman and the metaphorical she-wolf.
Chapter Three considers food. Although there is much medieval debate over how food turns into human flesh, the consensus is that food directly constitutes the human body. Diet, therefore, also communicates what we are; it not only differentiates human beings from beasts and monsters but also distinguishes one social class from another. Although the authors seldom depict what the werewolves feed on, the silence about the werewolf’s possible diet in the woods speaks to an anxiety over what they might consume in their bestial form. This chapter also serves a transitional function. It continues the discussion of gender and sexuality – for the only wolfish characters who are manifestly associated with cannibalism are females: King Siggeirr’s mother – who physically turns into a wolf and consumes Sigmundr’s brothers – and Gorlagon’s wife, who is symbolically wolfish and cannibalistic. A list of the werewolf’s potential food, ranged from the least unacceptable to the taboo, is examined and analysed, to demonstrate how each of the food has implications for the hero’s identity and mental status.
While dealing with the physical environment, Chapter Four ventures deeper into the werewolf mind and focuses on the emotional impact of the metamorphosis. Applying the theory of psycho-geography and using the semiotic square as an analytic tool, this chapter examines in detail how the landscape changes in correspondence with the werewolf’s mental status in particular sources. Úlfhams rímur is analysed as a case study, as it is the only text that directly links werewolf transformation to landscape changes (manifested in seasonal change) and emotions. Once a parallel has been established between Úlfhamr and his father Vargstakkr (arguing the validity of treating Úlfhamr as a figurative werewolf), the chapter explicates the interaction between landscape and Úlfhamr’s mental status at each stage of the poem, with a special focus on the connection between winter/darkness and dark emotions.
Chapters Five and Six are the summation of the previous four and considers the essential question: how does the interaction with the wolf benefit the human? Reading the werewolf experience as a rite of separation, the two chapters divide the sources into two, according to the werewolf’s role: either as learner (monstratus) or teacher (monstrare). The former includes not only those heroes who are turned into a wolf or but also disguised heroes who lose their identity to gain experience and knowledge, and the latter, the magical werewolves who instruct and intervene in the hero’s rite-of-passage journey. Issues such as kingship, masculinity, and personhood will be closely addressed in the process. Lastly, Konungs skuggsjá will feature as a case study to demonstrate how the werewolf episode is re-contextualised in another genre to serve the overall purpose of these texts.
In the conclusion, I summarise the thesis’s findings in relation to the werewolf’s identity and social integration and evaluate this study. By problematising the boundaries between man and beast, the werewolf embodies both the light and dark sides of man; what hides under the shaggy úlfhamr is revealed to us as that which is indispensable to being human.