Kenn mær einki um: Kyn, frásagnarviðurskifti og frábrigdi í Sjúrðarkvæðunum

Sjúrðarkvæði (The Ballads of Sjúrður) are a European ancient story which has been transferred into a Faroese cultural environment, having thereby, from its new Faroese context, acquired its special character. In these ballads the women, in comparison with men, play great and important roles, and so the ballads are interesting as far as gender research is concerned. Particularly the principal characters, Brynhild Buðladóttir and Guðrun Júkadóttir, are interesting and complex.

Brynhild is an independent young lady who doesn ́t want to marry and so submit to patriarchal norms. At the same time she ́s being portrayed as a femme fatale, seducing men with her long silky hair. She dresses in a coat of mail and lives as a virgin female king (moykongur) in her own castle on Hildarheygi (Hildar Mountain), her castle being surrounded by a magic wall of fire to keep men at a distance. This, naturally, provokes men to set her right and force her to adopt her female role. So the male hero, Sjúrður Sigmundarson, rapes her and makes a woman of her. In the ballad, these particular stanzas contain no criticism of the fact that Brynhild and Sjúrður have had sexual intercourse prior to marriage or that Brynhild has become pregnant with Ásla. But in the dispute in the river between Brynhild and Guðrun it is being revealed that Brynhild has let Sjúrður violate her virginity and that she has, consequently, become a fallen woman. Brynhild loses her honour and her virginity, and to recuperate her dignity she has no choice but to have Sjúrður killed. In the ballad Brynhild is portrayed as a person of contrasts. She ́s a virgin female king (moykongur) as well as a woman, she ́s active and submissive, and she ́s stubborn as well as yielding. The narrator, moreover, censures her severely using misogynist remarks. She represents those women who have throughout the ages fought for women ́s rights and thus revolted against men. In poetry, the characteristics of these women are frequently being exaggerated and jeered at.

As the story unfolds, the portrait of Guðrun, who has a role in three of the four ballads, is gradually being distorted. In Brynhildartátti (The Ballad of Brynhild) she ́s a young, lovable woman with small silk ribbons in her hair, portrayed as a stark contrast to Brynhild. But in Høgnatátti (The Ballad of Høgni) and Øðrum
Høgnatátti (The Second Ballad of Høgni) she ́s gradually being transformed into an evil witch who practises sorcery and, when biting the throat of her own child, behaves like a monster. Brynhild and Guðrun are both vindictive, but whereas Brynhild loses the zest for life and chooses death, Guðrun chooses life in order to take revenge.

The men perform heroic deeds and are very brave, but all incidents revolve around the women and the male roles are adapted to the female ones. With no woman there would be no story. In Brynhildartátti (The Ballad of Brynhild), Brynhild plays a very important part and Sjúrður is, consequently, tame and weak and isn ́t seen to have the power and stamina he had when killing the dragon in Regin smiði (The Ballad of Regin). But whereas Sjúrður is being compared to other male heroes, Brynhild is being compared to women as a whole who have betrayed men.

The ballads are part of Faroese oral culture and this oral culture, by its very nature, changes with time and with the people who perform the ballads. There exist ten variants of Sjúrðarkvæðunum (The Ballads of Sjúrður), and although they all tell the same story, this story is sometimes being performed in a partly different way.

Right into the twentieth century ballad singing and dancing has played a very important part in Faroese culture. In addition to providing solid entertainment to the village people, the dance evenings have attracted visitors from other villages. In this way the ballads have contributed to expanding the standards of behaviour of men and women in all Faroese villages. On such dancing occasions, the same attitudes to women and the same phrases are being repeated, and consequently the ballads have contributed to strengthening traditional features of Faroese perception of women and men.