“The love that dare not speak its name” truly was a mute love in pre-Christian Norse society. The Norse viewed male homosexual intercourse through a curious (by modern American standards) dichotic lens. Similarly to Roman and Greek societies, the Norse attached no great negative stigma or condemnatory connotations to the idea itself of homosexual intercourse. However, the Vikings intensely disapproved of free men taking the passive role in any male-male sexual acts. Norse society regarded passivity in all penetrative intercourse as intrinsically related to unmanly, and therefore feminine, behavior. Thus, any man who participated in this behavior was defamed as less than worthy of the title of ‘man’. Sociolinguistic evidence, contemporary legal accounts, and social mores and norms all confirm the intense contempt that the Norse had for free men playing the passive role in any form of intercourse.
As a disclaimer, throughout this paper the terms ‘homosexual’ and ‘passive intercourse’ are used often. To clarify, the term ‘homosexual’ is anachronistic when applied to the Viking Age (793-1066) at all, being coined much more recently in the late nineteenth century by Karoly Maria Benkert (Pickett). All the literature read and cited to support the arguments in this paper maintains that Norse society recognized no concept of exclusivity in sexual orientation, or indeed any concept of modern sexuality at all. Thus, throughout this paper, the word ‘homosexual’ refers to any male who participated in male/male sexual intercourse without taking into account other factors such as if the male in question has also engaged in heterosexual intercourse. The other term ‘passive intercourse’ is used in the cited literature to refer to the acts of be...
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... upon sex or love between males. The only limitation that the culture put on intercourse was the prohibition on two free men engaging in penetrative intercourse due to perception of honor and gender. Considering these facts, one could safely say that Norse society before the advent of Christianization was not homophobic in the modern sense of the word.
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Sørensen, Preben Meulengracht. Norrønt Nid. Odense Universitetsforlag, 1980.
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In his translation of The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, Jesse L. Byock compiles many versions of this famous Norse epic and creates a very important scholarly work. Of special importance is the introduction, which provides a central working background to base readings upon. There are several themes echoed throughout the translation that reflect accurately on this portion of history. Byock does a superb job of illustrating these important aspects in his work. While the tale Byock tells is a fairy-tale handed down by generations of families, within the reader can find tell-tale signs of important aspects of Norse culture. For instance, important aspects of family life and the role of men and women surface. Likewise, the importance of wealth and material possessions on the power and prestige of a king is also evident.
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Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed. Henry
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The concept of intimacy only applied to a man and woman. Homosexuality was rejected by society, with imprisonment and/or death as punishment. Because of this refusal to
These three articles give the modern reader a sense of what sexuality was in Ancient Rome. These articles reinforce that sexuality is important in human societies. They show that how you did or did not do sexual activity was very important and under scrutiny like in Western societies today. Though these articles are using limited resources to make conclusions, they do their best to help the reader make sense of sexual Roman society.
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Wilton, Tamsin. "Which One's the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbain Sex." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 157-70. Print.
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Homosexuality in Today's Society. In today's society, there exists a mixture of issues which tend to raise arguments with people all over. There are a handful of topics that always seem to escalate these differences between people to the point where one who earnestly participates in discussion, debate and argument can direct their anger towards their feelings on the person themselves. Some examples of such delicate subjects are the death penalty, abortion, and euthanasia.
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