Steel as the Answer? Viking Bodies, Power, and Masculinity in Anglophone Fantasy Literature 2006–2016

The idea of the Viking is a figure with wide appeal and a large presence in popular culture. The Viking motif also has long-standing associations with normative masculinity, reactionary values, and even white supremacy. This study examines a common but understudied arena of the popular Viking: popular fantasy literature. More specifically, it looks at a recent subgenre called gritty fantasy. First developed in the 2000s, gritty fantasy is deeply invested in and revolves around contemporary concerns regarding masculinity, masculine failure, and narratives of masculinity in crisis. The study emerges from queer engagements with masculinity and the method of queer reading, asking how to understand the seemingly ubiquitous masculinity of the Viking and its popularity beyond an assumed direct relation to men or men’s concerns, and how this relates to ideas about the Nordics and the North. With readings of Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law (2006–2012) and The Shattered Sea (2014–2015), Richard K. Morgan’s A Land Fit for Heroes (2008–2016), Mark Lawrence’s The Red Queen’s War (2014–2016), and Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s The Iskryne Saga (2007–2015), the study examines the Viking in relation to masculinity, power, sexuality, embodiment, spatiality, and temporality. Anna Bark Persson is a scholar in gender studies at Södertörn University, Stockholm. Her research interests include popular literature, speculative fiction, masculinity, and queer theory. The study was part of the Reimagining Norden in an Evolving World (ReNEW) excellence research hub, funded by Nordforsk.