Heroes or fools? Insular outlawry in medieval Iceland

“Outlawry as a social phenomenon in Medieval Iceland is the subject of my research,” says Marion Poilvez Ph.D student from France who originally came to Iceland as an Erasmus student in 2009. Marion studies Old Icelandic law codes and Icelandic medieval sagas, both of which are full of information about how Medieval Iceland dealt with criminals.

“Surprisingly, Icelandic outlawry did not get much of attention in the scholarly milieu. I wonder why sentenced Icelandic criminals who supposedly were dangerous were expelled from society (skóggangr), yet were prevented from leaving the island. Iceland became their prison in a way. This appears to be unique in medieval Europe. I would like to develop the hypothesis that full outlawry was indeed a scapegoat mechanism to channel violence present within medieval Icelandic society. Gísli Súrsson and Grettir sterki fit my hypothesis and I’m hoping to find more in the next few years.”

Marion investigates outlawry as both a historical and literary phenomenon, and why outlaws were so memorable. Outlaws sagas were produced three centuries after the alleged events took place. “I’ll integrate Iceland as a specific case in the understanding of medieval criminality and justice to help understand the ambiguous role of heroes in fiction who are at the same time rejected and admired, feared and laughed at.”

Marion is the co-editor of “Valland”, a French newsletter on Old Norse Studies which aims to spread interest in Icelandic studies. She studies Icelandic for foreigners with the purpose to gain greater insight into Icelandic society. She is also a guest at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and is a member of various research groups involved in medieval studies.

Supervisor: Torfi H. Tulinius, Professor of Medieval Icelandic Studies, Humanities, Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies.