mgr Michał Gniadek-Zieliński

Section 13.: Exposing power: Women's agency in medieval literature and art

The paper will be devoted to the historiosophy of Sven Aggesen, a Danish chronicler writing in the last twenty years of the 12th c. As it turns out, an element particularly important for the chronicler's conceptualization of the past, and at the same time for presenting his views on the political changes taking place in contemporary Denmark, are women. And although he writes a ‘male history’ (the history of kings), the role of the keystones of the entire story, and thus of Denmark's past with its present, is played by women - mainly queens, but in one case also anonymous Danes. During my presentation, I will outline the specificity of Sven's lecture and the female characters themselves on the pages of his work, presenting the role they play in his presentation of the history of their homeland. I will also consider the reasons for such a special role of women in his story, comparing them with contemporary chroniclers from Scandinavia, England and Central Europe.