
Contents
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Gylfaginning’s Gender Binary Gylfaginning’s Gender Binary
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Frigg Frigg
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Frigg: Domestic Diva Frigg: Domestic Diva
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Notes Notes
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10 Straightening Out the Gods’ Gender
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Published:November 2018
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Abstract
Drawing on Bruce Lincoln’s argument that Snorri Sturluson’s Edda provides an explicit, indigenous pantheon, this chapter examines the place of gender in a part of the Edda, Gylfaginning. This text divides the Old Norse deities in a relatively rigid binary of male and female, a binary that provides one of structures that organizes Snorri’s explicit pantheon. This gender binary further intersects with other binaries such as those of light and dark, and of god and giant. Snorri’s systemization of gender certainly has an impact on modern scholars and neopagan, but not as much as Lincoln’s argument would predict. Instead, intermediaries such as Jacob Grimm elaborate on Snorri’s text to a significant extent. Frigg, the case study for this chapter, becomes a goddess of weaving, family, and domesticity in Grimm’s reworking. This image of Frigg is widespread among contemporary neopagans, especially the more conservative subset of neopagans. The result is that the complex and sometimes non-heteronormative Old Norse myths are re-read and redeployed to support the more “traditional” gender binary of male and female roles championed by contemporary, conservative neopagan communities.
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