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Accepted Paper:
Facing uncertain emotions regarding source material and academic writings: Ibn Fadlan’s slave girl
Gerður Halldóra Sigurðardóttir
(University of Iceland)
In a 10th C account of a Rus funeral, a slave girl is raped and killed. The usual interpretation of this is the girl's elevation through a ritual wedding to the dead man. By focusing on the slave girl's central role it becomes evident how vital it is in itself for the proceedings.
Paper long abstract:
In an early 10th century account, an important part of a Rus chieftains’ funerary proceedings were the multiple rape and eventual brutal killing of a young slave girl. This account has been known among Old Norse scholars since the early 19th century and has frequently been used in discussions about Old Norse religion. When reading the source material, the slave girl’s ordeal is central to the ritual. Despite this, scholars have for most of the last two centuries ignored it, diminished its importance, and even doubted if it truly happened at all. More recently, attempts have been made to deal with the slave girl’s role. Those attempts have however even further trivialized the girls plight by claiming the sexual violence she endures, and her death, leads to her elevation through the ritualistic wedding of the slave girl and the dead man. This paper will cast a light on how the patriarchal lens of the scholarly research and treatment of the Ibn Fadlan account has abjected the slave girl in multiple ways by refusing to face the difficult emotions and ethical questions that the extreme violence surely evokes. By ignoring the violence, the slave girl is subjected to a supporting role to the dead male. When the violence is acknowledged, her pain and suffering is not only recognized but it becomes clear that she is a central female figure whose role in the ritual is both vital and horrific.