Although the New Testament clearly prohibits Christians from taking personal
revenge, Christian societies—whether in first-century Palestine, medieval Europe,
or contemporary North America—have always found this a difficult prohibition to
observe, and, indeed, individuals and institutions have often cited other parts of
the Bible to legitimise vengeful acts. This article considers the changing attitudes
to clerical and secular vengeance in medieval Iceland. It adduces evidence from a
range of legal, political, and ecclesiastical documents to contextualise a study of
the representation of revenge in family and contemporary sagas in the light of
ecclesiastical precepts. The analysis points to a growing perception that secular
revenge must be tempered with moderation, and that clerics should not involve
themselves in acts of vengeance. Within the sagas, religious figures are employed
variously as the voice of the Church, and as those implicated in the turmoil of the
Sturlunga old. [From introduction]
History
Citation
Leeds Studies in English, 2005, 36, pp.133-156
Version
VoR (Version of Record)
Published in
Leeds Studies in English
Publisher
School of English, University of Leeds
issn
0075-8566
Available date
2007-12-06
Publisher version
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lse/lse.html
Notes
The article is also freely available at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lse/lse.html