Issued also as thesis, University of Wisconsin. / Scandinavian university books. Bibliography: p. [154]-159.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 1997. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 321-327).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1956. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-225).

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This thesis is a study of the position of women in Icelandic society which incorporates historical and contemporary perspectives. It is divided into three sections, entitled Invisible Women, Visible Women and Becoming Visible. The first part opens with an outline history of Iceland from its settlement by the Vikings until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the life of women, both aristocrats and those of other classes and the gender-related division of labour. This analysis is elaborated in the next chapter which utilises census data from the area in which I carried out fieldwork, to examine the form and functions of the household and changes in women's role resulting from the industrialisation of the society. The following two chapters consider women's dual contemporary role as housewives and wage earners, focussing on fish-factory work. The section entitled Visible Women concerns The Women's Day Off (Kvennafrfdagurinn) held in 1975, when the majority of Icelandic women stopped work for one day. The Day is described and the reasons for the mass participation of the nation's women are analysed. The final section of the thesis is a consideration of those organisations which have campaigned on behalf of Icelandic women. Chapter seven describes the women's societies which developed in the nineteenth century, the suffrage movement, women's trades unions and legislation during this century which formally extended women's rights. The final chapter analyses The Redstockings Movement (RauOsokkahreyfingin), the Icelandic representative of the modern feminist movement. Its inception, structure, growth, development and relationship with other organisations are examined.

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For much of the history of saga scholarship, questions of origins, the role of feud, kinship, and the structure of the society, and its institutions, have been fertile grounds for research. As such, the female characters – who were certainly less overtly prominent in the settlement of the country as outlined in the texts, as well as in the public and institutional structures – have often been overlooked as subjects of in depth scholarly enquiry. Turning a sharp gaze upon three particular characters, from three different sagas: Auðr from Gísla saga, Guðrún from Laxdæla saga, and Hallgerður from Njáls saga, and entering upon a comparative analysis of the introductions, marriages, and divorces – if applicable – of the characters, this study refutes the archetypical models under which these characters are sometimes studied, and examines the idea of marriage, contrary to its commonly perceived function, as largely a destabilizing force.

The argument of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it is to show that from the eighteenth century onwards Scottish scholars and writers have made a distinct and important contribution, hitherto mostly unnoted, to the dissemination of Old Norse history and literature in Britain. Furthermore Scottish writers such as Samuel Laing, Thomas Carlyle, and R.M. Ballantyne played a significant role in the creation of the literary notion of a Norse ethos which was to be a central point in the literary and journalistic debate in Scotland between c.1880 and 1940 on the relative merits of opposing Norse and Celtic influences on Scottish history, culture and society. Secondly, and more particularly, the thesis illustrates how this consciousness of a literary and historical Norse heritage in Scotland influenced many minor authors in Orkney and Shetland, and eight important Scottish writers in the twentieth century: Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Hugh MacDiarmid, Neil M. Gunn, John Buchan, David Lindsay, Naomi Mitchison, Eric Linklater, and George Mackay Brown. The thesis examines in detail the Norse-inspired works of these writers and investigates how and why they became influenced by Old Norse history and literature, what sources they used, and what effect this had on their work. The Old Norse influence is mostly notable in the writers' attitudes to the Norse/Celtic debate, their use of saga and skaldic styles, their knowledge and application of Viking history, their interpretation and use of Old Norse mythology, and a belief in atavism and contemporary applications of a Norse ethos. The nature of this influence on each individual author varies both in extent and form, but its existence and relevance cannot be questioned, and the thesis argues that this Old Norse influence has thus played an interesting and significant role in modern Scottish literature.