"Svá daufr orðinn, at hann mátti eigi heyra": a critical exploration of depictions of deaf and non-speaking characters in medieval Icelandic literature.

Abstract

This article revisits the polarities of oralist and cultural-linguistic approaches to deaf identities through the perspective of the medieval Icelandic sagas, a product of mainly the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Through a historically informed close reading of the Sagas of Early Icelanders corpus, 5 saga episodes were selected for further analysis with regard to the meaning of being deaf and/or non-speaking and intersections with other social categories like gender and class. This study suggests diverse ways in which being deaf and/or non-speaking was given meaning before the advent of oralism and the establishment of Deaf communities in Iceland, that is, as traits that lead to social exclusion as well as a part of the identities of individuals with considerable social status. An intersectional perspective shows male deaf characters exerting control over their lives and yielding political power, while deaf and non-speaking women are more portrayed as disenfranchised, regardless of their social class.