Excavating Lost Puzzle Pieces
By Kel Menton
Cork born Artivist, Kel Menton completed their MA in Medieval Literature at UCC. Kel discusses their dissertation ‘Of Monsters and Thems: Problematising Cis-Heteronormativity in Old Norse and Old English Scholarship’. Their research encourages us “to think twice”.
In a funny kind of way, the past is always changing.
This is possibly due to time travellers, but it’s more likely that it’s actually due to our perception of the past. History is communicated to us through stories, after all. Depending on the teller of the tale, the heroes, villains, and other details change, or are left out completely.
For my Master’s dissertation (“Of Monsters and Thems: Problematising Cis-Heteronormativity in Old Norse and Old English Scholarship”), I wanted to complicate the narrative we’re usually given about Early Medieval English and Norse literature. I did this by viewing texts (like Beowulf, or the Poetic Edda) from the perspective of a transgender, non-binary person – like me! I loved studying Old English and Old Norse literature in university, but I realised that a lot of really interesting stuff – like Grendel’s Mother using masculine and feminine pronouns, or Loki both siring and giving birth to children – was being overlooked or just plain ignored. Even with such explicit textual evidence of non-binary genders, academics seemed to assume that the texts, their characters, and the people who created them had the very same conceptions of gender and sex that we commonly do today, without thinking twice about it. The point of my dissertation is to start getting people to think twice about it!
Of course, I’m not the first person to notice and write about any of this. There are many wonderful scholars reshaping the way we see the past in a similar way. This research changes our understanding of how gender was constructed in these texts and the societies that created them. It shows us how a cultural construction like the gender binary can be passed off as ‘natural’ and hold huge power over our lives. It’s pretty cool proof that transgender and non-binary people have existed for a lot longer than a lot of people might think, too!
Even with such explicit textual evidence of non-binary genders, academics seemed to assume that the texts, their characters, and the people who created them had the very same conceptions of gender and sex that we commonly do today, without thinking twice about it.
Unfortunately, the world of Old Norse and Old English literary studies has long been contaminated by colonialist ideas. Fascist groups often appropriate Old English or Old Norse iconography, and claim to be descended from the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ race. The research I and many other wonderful people do pushes back against misinformation used to further fascist propaganda.
While our conception of the Early Medieval English and Norse worlds may never be completely right, it is the duty of scholars in the field to strive for the most accurate reconstruction we can achieve. It’s essential that we shed our modern biases – no matter how seemingly small, insignificant, or subtle! – and listen to as many voices as possible. The voices of minority groups, including queer, trans, disabled, and especially people of colour, have long been neglected. Thankfully, that seems to be changing a little now!
I put my blood, sweat, and tears into my dissertation, and I’m very proud of it. Yet I knew, even while writing it, that it was flawed and incomplete. I suppose that’s the same with all research! There’s always more to read, always more tangents to go on, or threads to follow. I wasn’t making a jigsaw, though; I was crafting a single puzzle piece. I am human. I have internalised biases that I’m not even aware of. Notably, I am a white person writing about gender and colonialism, and so by extension, race. I work at constantly being a better ally to people of colour, and to be anti-racist, but I still subconsciously hold racist and Eurocentric beliefs. Rather than fret about my dissertation’s failings, however, I’ll put my energy into making my next project better.
All puzzle pieces, each more skillfully crafted than the last.
You can read Kel Menton’s dissertation on Academia.edu, or find more of their academic work on wyrmeswyrd.wordpress.com.
I am human. I have internalised biases that I’m not even aware of. Notably, I am a white person writing about gender and colonialism, and so by extension, race.
