Authors:
- Alexander Wilson, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester - Academia.edu

- Natalie Jayne Goodison, Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Durham University - Academia.edu

Abstract: »Also focusing on the interpretative possibilities of a particular space, Alexander Wilson and Natalie Jayne Goodison’s chapter, ‘“Sa vesteüre ala saisir, | Par tant la cuide retenir”: Clothing and Coercion in the Bathing Scenes of Medieval Romance’, examines the relationship between bathing and coercion in a variety of European texts, focusing on works associated with the ‘swan maiden’ motif. In these texts, men often coerce women bathing in the woods by taking their clothing or jewellery to forcibly procure a promise of affection. Yet this coercion is complicated in two ways: many of the women are portrayed as supernatural or semi-human beings because of their association with the natural world, and the men’s coercion of them is often rewritten by the women themselves as an act engineered by their own supernatural powers. In this chapter, as in the previous two, the association of sexual negotiations, agency, and pleasure with the more-than-human both complicates and reinforces the coercive discourses these texts present.« (Source: Bonsall, Jane, and Hannah Piercy. »Introduction: Why Reconsider Medieval Consent and Coercion? Why Now?« Reconsidering Consent and Coercion: Power, Vulnerability, and Sexual Violence in Medieval Literature. Edited by Jane Bonsall et al. Turnhout 2025: 32)

Contents:

	Dolopathos: Seizing the Female Body (p. 203)
	Graelent: Rape and Retroactive Consent (p. 205)
	Guingamor: Repenting Coercion (p. 209)
	Friedrich von Schwaben: Love as Coercing Force (p. 210)
	Þiðreks saga af Bern: The Actualisation of Violence (p. 213)
	Conclusion (p. 215)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of France, History of Germany, History of Norway | Literature: Medieval literature | Graelent, Guingamor, Seven Wise Masters, Þiðreks saga | Sex and the law: Sexual violence