There are actually more instances of that. Lalli counts as a protector, too, and likely occasionally brings food on the table as well, though we haven't seen that happen yet. Then there's Gunnar (though his role in pre-Rash Dalsnes is tied to the boat), and Stigs patience with his parents lasting longer than Ulrikas (but they are his parents, after all).
On the other hand, we have Sigrun being the first and apparently so far only main character to even think of hunting for food, and the y0 Finnish family had only Eino as a proactive male in the first place ... "against" his two sisters, wife, and the "remote competition" of Helmi running a restaurant ...
These are all excellent points! I didn't remember Gunnar and Stig at all, so those are really good additions. I need to think about Lalli more to form a coherent opinion, but that's an interesting way of looking at him.
Ooh, yesyesyes.
I think it could be extended both ways as well: there's Tuuri as the engineer who's driving the big tank, and Sigrun who's first on the front lines and puts her life on the line to protect the people she's with. One thing that just occurred to me is an application to the battle with Leaftroll, where Sigrun put her own body between Reynir and his attacker while Mikkel yanked him backwards out of the way. Without Sigrun and Mikkel's protective/proactive and nurturing/defensive actions, respectively, Reynir probably would have been bitten when Leaftroll went for him. And while Mikkel's role in that is easy to overlook because it wasn't as flashy and he wasn't the one who ended up bleeding, it still made the difference between Reynir getting away with a scratch and them needing to shoot Reynir in the head.
Anyway, this is way outside of my field so I can't be sure whether I'm using the correct lingo, but I think that I'm getting my point across.
This definitely works both ways! I'd thought about Sigrun's role (since it's fairly easy to spot) before and I find it really refreshing that she's the main physical force of the crew (and the most experienced military-wise) while also being a good captain who can take care of her crew (see how Sigrun handled Emil during their first book-salvaging mission) without falling to the stereotype of a "tough woman who's so tough she's as tough as any man and did I mention she can kick any man's ass, she's the toughest". On the other hand, I hadn't thought much about Tuuri since it's more low-key*, but yeah, her areas of expertise are coded masculine (like you said, engineering and driving).
Anyway, your point about Sigrun and Mikkel's actions in the scene is spot-on, too.
*I need to do more research before I can comment on the significance of her academic prowess since that can be portrayed as a masculine or feminine.
Another thing with the protectiveness is Agneta, on the Dalahasten. She seemed to fill kind of a Sigrun/Mikkel role -- stayed relatively calm despite the giant eating her train and the weird children warning her, worked out a good course of action, and (with the help of her train-guard buddies) successfully defended the thing.
There's also the support team -- Trond is kind of sketchy from an ethical standpoint, but he'll pull all of his weird favours to ensure mission success. Siv seems to lose hope early on, too.
Heh, Agneta is yet another character I hadn't remembered and thought of at all.
; Good points!
