The Multifaceted Figure of the Woman in Clári saga

This thesis examines how Clári saga, a riddarasaga from the fourteenth century, portrays the figure of the woman, as to its characterisation and roles. The focus will be on the main female character, princess Séréna, who is depicted in different ways throughout the story: mainly as a strong, wicked ruler and as a submissive woman. The latter characterisation has been considered of the Griselda type and a comparison with the figure of Griselda in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (tenth day, tenth story), will be made. The aim of the research is to shed light on the meaning that the complex depiction and role of Séréna in Clári saga might have and on how it might reflect structures at work in Icelandic society of the time in which the text was produced, the fourteenth century. The two main, different manuscript contexts in which the saga has been preserved, АМ 657b 4to (late fourteenth c.) and Stock. Perg. 4to no. 6 (ca. 1400), will also be considered, in order to shed light also on how the text was read and interpreted by those who produced the same manuscript collections, as well as on the possible audience for the text.