
Originally Posted by
Irby
I am not quite sure, but I think in Old Norse a queer was ergi, meaning effeminate, and that was the worst thing you could call a man. It was axes out and spliting heads open time if you called someone ergi.
If you call somebody gay in England today, you will get the same reaction!!!
That is true, however it was the one taking the passive role who was labelled less of a man. In the book heim, hov og kyrkje (Studies in norse ethics) by Johan Hovstad he dedicates a chapter to homosexuality in viking times.
Also in Lokasenna Odin insults Loke:
Du var ĺtte vintrar
under jorda,
mjřlke-ku og kvende,
der born du har bori,
kjerring-gjerd kaller eg slikt
Thou was eight winters
on the earth below,
milked cow as a woman,
and didst there bear children.
Now that, methinks, betokens a base nature."
According to the Gulatingslaw and Frostatingslaw insults like comparing a man to a female animal, the fines had to be paid for in the full. He could also kill the mean as a outlaw (utlćg). If the man is compared to a male animal, like an ox, the punishment is a half of the fine which makes the personal right to the one who was insulted.
In Trymskveda we also find that Tor is scared about losing his reputation when he has to take on womens clothing to retrive Mjřlne.
There is also an nidvise from Iceland, the scalds got money to make these to insult the first missionaries that came there, Fredrik and Torvald. Torvald didnt tolerate being called "rage" and he killed two of the skalds involved in the poem making. He was within his rights according to the law.
So it was private juridal consequenses in the viking times here, punishment for homosexuality first came with the stronger state and church power. But according to Laksřla it becomes clear that homosexuality was a valid reason for divorce in heathen times, this is also know from frankish law books.
The strong condemntation from the public about homosexuality and other abormal form for sexuall activity seem to come from a instinctive feeling that it was against the natural order and therefor denounced. One has to look at this in connection with with the strong condemnation in old texts about the blood shame, which was considered a violation of the very laws for existing and therefore came with banishment
(Translated from Johann Hovstad - heim, hov og kyrkje: studiar i norrřn etikk)
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