Invisible Kingship: Liminality and the Maiden King in Nítíða Saga

Abstract

Like all maiden kings, Nitioa initially rejects her suitors only to accept marriage eventually. Rather than accepting the saga's 'happy ending' as its heroine's choice, this article argues that her kingship is cast as liminal in Victor Turner's sense. Her character reflects liminal traits: visual, temporal and sexual ambiguity, mediated through the motif of invisibility, body-thing relations and notions of space. Nitioa's kingship is structured as a transition to the role of a queen, which she does not take on voluntarily, but because she lacks choice in the face of her increasingly fragile power. Her suitor Livorius ultimately succeeds neither by trickery, military power, nor a courtly approach, but by employing structures Nitioa is excluded from due to her sex. Spared physical violence, she nonetheless suffers structural violence coercing her into a norm-appropriate role and erasing her kingship.