(Trans)gender matters, matters gender: Transmasculine potentiality in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks and linguistic purism in modern Iceland

Abstract This article argues against the dominant scholarly assessment of the figure of Hervör/Hervarðr as a ‘cross-dressing woman’ within the Old Norse–Icelandic saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks . Instead, paying attention to pronoun and name shifts in three manuscript attestations, it reads Hervör/Hervarðr through a transmasculine lens. Placing the saga within the context of linguistic purism in Iceland, issues of medieval ‘heritage,’ and their role in reaffirming cisnormativity, this article asserts that the medieval manuscript recensions validate a temporary male identity for Hervör/Hervarðr, reflecting the potential for more fluid attitudes toward gender than previously assumed to exist in Old Norse–Icelandic literature. Examining the manuscript recensions as well as a later adaptation of the saga in Ormars rímur , I explore how Hervör/Hervarðr’s gendering as a man is co-produced through their movement with and through other bodies—both human and more-than-human—and spaces, aligning them within pre-established narrative trajectories of youthful manhood in Old Norse–Icelandic sagas.