| Summary: | Blood symbolism is a phenomenon that is commonly processed in literature, especially within the fantasy genre. Siri Pettersen’s fantasy novel Kraften (2016) does not make an exception from this tradition. In this essay I present the different levels of blood symbolism and textual aesthetics within Kraften while focusing on four perspectives: violence, sexual acts, bodily functions and rituals. As a result, I find that blood symbolism has a profound connection to Pettersen’s characters and fantasy universe as a whole; that the particular force affecting the earth can represent the Norse giant Ymir’s symbolic blood. I also find that the contemporary view of blood – menstrual or other – is impacted by ancient cultural traditions and beliefs among the very first humans walking the earth. And finally, that blood symbolism operates very much like the first law of thermodynamics in fantasy literature: it cannot disappear or be destroyed, only be recreated into new forms.
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