The article examines thirteenth-century
Icelandic conceptions of female suicide and ideas about their causes and
motives by conducting a case study of a saga figure called Brynhildr, who
commits suicide. The story of Brynhildr is told in several medieval Icelandic
sources: in the mytho-heroic legendary saga (fornaldarsaga) Völsunga saga,
Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda and the
Poetic Edda. The story of Brynhildr
in these sources offers fruitful material for the study of the history of
suicide, since the northern version in question differs from the southern
version of the Brynhildr legend that was known especially in medieval Germany, in
which Brynhildr does not kill herself. In this study, the causes and background
factors of Brynhildr’s suicide and her motives for her deed, which are
described and mentioned in the sources, represent possibilities for female
behavior that were part of the mental toolbox of medieval Icelanders. It is
argued that the Icelandic audience believed some women committed suicide to
protect or restore their honor, or to take revenge, and that such an act
required determination, capability to make rational choices, and sense of
responsibility. The act could also be seen as a manifestation of power and
authority: the woman decided herself when her life would end. However,
Brynhildr’s death represents only one possible type of female suicide, and not
all were expected to be the same. Committing such a preconceived self-killing
as Brynhildr’s required an especially strong will. Most women, who were usually
maintained by men, were thought not to possess such might and strength.

Keywords: history
of suicide, gender, medieval history, medieval Iceland, Old Norse-Icelandic saga
literature, legend of Brynhildr.