Shame-stroke

{{short description|Act of removing or stabbing a man's buttocks}}

{{Violence against men}}

Shame-stroke (Old Norse: klámhogg) is the act of cutting off or stabbing a man's buttocks. It symbolizes the anal rape of a man and is designed not only to be debilitating, but also to be sexually humiliating, through the symbolic feminization of the victim (usually a vanquished enemy), by turning him into an ergi. The injury was considered a mortal wound, as such was ranked with brain injury, a marrow injury, and other fatal wounds.{{Cite web|url = http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/gayvik.shtml|title = Homosexuality in Viking Scandinavia|date = November 22, 2015|accessdate = November 22, 2015|website = vikinganswerlady|publisher = |last = Ward|first = Christie}} It was considered symbolic of the loss of power in the Norse society where power and status were important as well as an outward signifier of the physical and social power that the dominator wielded over the dominated.{{Cite book|title=Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland: 800 - 1200|url=https://archive.org/details/slaveswarriorsme00wyat|url-access=limited|last=Wyatt|first=David|date=2009|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004175334|location=Leiden|pages=[https://archive.org/details/slaveswarriorsme00wyat/page/n231 211]}}

The term is Nordic in origin,{{Cite book|title = Bloodtaking and Peacemaking : Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland|last = Miller|first = William|publisher = University of Chicago Press|year = 1997|isbn = 9780226526805|location = Chicago|pages = 43–77}} and equated with castration as "unmanning" the victim, and classed with wounds that cause major penetrations of the body, strongly suggesting that the term refers to rape or forced anal sex.{{Cite web|title = Internet History Sourcebooks Project|url = https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/gayvik.asp|website = legacy.fordham.edu|accessdate = 2015-11-22}} It was considered a legal term, with the shame entailed associated with the shame of ragr.{{Cite book|title=Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland|last=Miller|first=William Ian|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2009|isbn=9780226526829|location=Chicago|pages=63}} The "unmanning" also often came with an insulting cognomen indicating status degradation and once the name stuck, ensured that the shame would not be forgotten.