There are not many kind words to be said about the notion
of ‘race’. In the last century alone, it has shown itself to be a way of
thinking that both lacks any basis in empirical reality (Montagu 1997,
121–44), and is liable to cause a great deal of human misery. But like a
lot of bad ideas, it has been around for a long time. However erroneous or
dangerous the notion of race may be, it is at least a highly convenient way to
think about the world. Concepts which we would today label ‘racial’ existed
long before Enlightenment figures such as Linnæus set about dividing
humanity into the clades of Americanus, Asiaticus, Africanus, Europeanus
and Monstrosus.1 Prior to these scientific endeavours, and the tendency
beginning around the same time to deploy the word ‘race’ itself in an ethnic
sense (OED 2014, s.v. race), the intellectual mechanisms that inspired racial
schemas were at work. As will be seen, groups were still being rendered
‘Other’ on account of their lineage, their supposed hereditary characteristics
and/or the shaping environments of their ancestral homelands. Individuals
were presumed to exhibit certain qualities (physical, intellectual, moral) on
the basis of their affiliation with these groups. Skin colour and geographical
setting were used to amplify the alterity of fictional characters, forming
recognisable tropes that enjoyed literary currency. These psychological
developments constitute ‘race’ in all but name. The purpose of this article
is to excavate their presence and function in Old Norse literature.
The past twenty years has produced some interesting research into racial
thinking during the Middle Ages. A special issue of the Journal of Medieval
and Early Modern Studies in 2001 dedicated to the topic is particularly
worthy of note. There Robert Bartlett elucidated a conception of medieva
