Abstract
Women in the Icelandic sagas are often depicted as the instigators of blood retribution acts in the feuds. One can claim that the scholarly opinion on these basally ritualized provocations - in Icelandic called frýja or hvọt - is dual.
In my article I analyze three of the untold goading scenes of the Sturlunga compilation and draw a double conclusion. To begin with, it is impossible to view these female protagonists as the primus motor force in the feuding process, since the text reveals that their kinsmen had initiated and orchestrated the revenge act long before their goading words.
Then by introducing Wayne C. Booth's concept of the "implied author" it is possible to say that the female provocateurs of the contemporary sagas are depicted as markedly negative and obsolete agents.