ofsi (pride)

The chapter explores the semantic field of ofsi and its uses in the Old Norse sagas, critically evaluating its customary translations of ‘pride, arrogance, tyranny’. The discussion demonstrates ofsi’s persistently negative connotations and highly subjective nature, drawing attention to the importance of social perception regarding the appropriateness of ofsi in a given context rather than its inherent quality as an emotional state. This appropriateness is explored in relation to gender, comparing the subtle ways in which accusations of ofsi differently affect men and women in the sagas, and to social hierarchy, pointing up the way ofsi functions in dialogue with key social factors. Rather than denoting an interior feeling, the chapter argues that ofsi is instead an interpretation of someone’s behaviour filtered through an external perspective and is used functionally by saga characters in order to rebuke someone they perceive to be acting inappropriately and encourage them to behave within more socially normative parameters. The chapter concludes by examining the range of emotion words with which ofsi is commonly juxtaposed. The contrasting of ofsi and foresight or forethought in several sagas, taken together with the fact that it is often parents who accuse their children of ofsi, suggests the term may carry further nuances of a particularly youthful or immature recklessness and disregard for future consequences.