The Viking Women
Women and their rights in the pre-Christian Norse (viking) era
The young girl Gyda refuses to marry Harald Hårfagre until he has succeeded in uniting Norway into one kingdom
(Harald Hårfagre's Saga, Werenskiold)
The Translation:
This article is a translation of a Norwegian text about Vikingwomen.
The text was written as an attempt to help students who wanted to delve into the fascinating history of the Viking era, particularly the position and status of the female part of the Viking population.
We often meet female characters in the text from the period, and it is essential to know a bit about their background to understand how they can act the way they do.
This text is a humble effort to give at least some information about that.
As the translator is not a native speaker of English, there might be some grammatical and syntactical irregularities in the text.
Please, report such irregularities by using the 'kontaktskjema' (contact form) mentioned below.
The text refers to some sources written in Norwegian. Use Google Translator or else to translate these texts to your desired language.
At the bottom of the article the link 'Kontaktinfo' will be found. By using that link it will be possible to report mistakes as well as comments on the text in general.
VGSkole.no does also have another article about the Vikings which concentrates on Old-Norse society and literature. If you would like to have this article translated into English, please, send a message by using the link to 'Kontaktinfo' above.
Pronunciation of Norse and Norwegian letters
| Norse |
Norwegian |
| ð = Voiced - As in English 'the' |
æ = Voiced - As in 'bad' |
| þ = Unvoiced - As in English 'thin' |
ø = Voiced - As in 'burn' |
| |
å = Voiced - As in 'born' |
Introduction:
Our female ancestors in the Viking Age had far more rights and greater power and prestige than their Christian sisters further south in Europe.
They lived in a complete patriarchal society with a strict social stratification. Still, they had quite a lot to say.
Living conditions and religion in Scandinavia created perfect conditions for women to be able to assert themselves much more powerfully than the social norms of the time could be expected to allow.
In this article you will learn about the rights women had in the Viking era and how important women were considered to be.
You will find that they could have their own property, divorce, and manage their house and home. According to the law, their husbands were the masters of the family, but their wives could divorce if their husbands were violent or did not function in the marital bed. The husband represented the family at the 'Ting' (the legislative and judicial assembly), but if he was absent, the wife could stand in his place.
The man engaged in warfare, fishing, hunting and trading, and he was away from the farm a lot. Then the wife had all the power, and she was responsible for the important work of running the farm.
All the social rights and the great responsibility created free, strong and proud women who had a great influence both on daily life and on important events, also when the husband was at home.
A skilled wife usually got it the way she wanted!
If the man got mean and beat her, she had the right to demand a divorce.
If he injured or killed her, it was considered a shameful crime, and he lost all his respect and honor, which was a terrible destiny for a Viking.
Women were thus highly respected and well protected in the Viking society.
The drawing above clearly shows the status of the women and the confidence she could show in the meeting with male suitors, even the most powerful ones.
(Harald Hårfagre was a powerful Norwegian king)
Info:
The Viking era is usually considered to start with the Viking attack of June 8th 793 AD on the monastery on Lindisfarne.
It ended in 1066 AD with the defeat of the Norwegian King Harold Hardrada at Stamford Bridge.
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The Viking Women
The Norse society in pre-Christian middle ages was
hierarchically structured.
This division into social strata was primarily based on rank, not gender.
Who you and your ancestors were, your wealth and power, generally speaking your social status, determined what position you and your family had in society.
Your duties and rights in society were more determined by social rank than by gender.
Within this Norse ranking system, gender played a smaller role than it would do in the medieval Christian society which succeeded the Viking era.
Compared to women's position in the countries south of Scandinavia, our Norse women had greater freedom and far more rights.
"The view of women in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times was decidedly more modern than what is found in many cultures with roots in today's Middle East"
Source: (Professor Gro Steinsland in Aftenposten 15 Nov. 2005) (Norwegian)
In the sagas, mostly women of high social status are described. Ordinary women and slave women rarely appear in the texts.
This is reflected in most upper secondary school textbooks. Usually, only queens and housewives on large farms are mentioned
In the list of links below you will find Maiko Yusada's master's thesis in Norwegian. It provides a thorough introduction to the conditions for women in Norse times, and also information about slave women, etc. (try Google translator or similar!)
If you are working on a thesis about women in the Viking Age, you should definitely check out this link!
Some of the gender differences in Norse times are also mentioned in the article on saga literature.
In the following bulleted list you will find central examples of important female religious functions in addition to central aspects of the pattern of sex roles.
The content of the bulleted list is partly taken from the various texts the in the link collection at the bottom.
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Women in Norse mythology
The belief in the gods was important for the Vikings.
Like Roman and Greek mythology, Norse mythology was polytheistic, too, which means it had more than one god (monotheistic)
Many central divine and supernatural figures of great power and influence were female.
Below there are some examples of female deities who had great power in Norse mythology:
- Frigg was Odin's wife and the goddess of mariage and homely activities. She shared her husband's ability to 'see' future events. Frigg was a 'volve'.
- Frøya (Freya) was the goddess of fertility, sexuality and eroticism
- Hel, the goddess of death, is the ruler of Nivlheim (Hel), a cold and foggy place (the underworld) where many of the dead dwell. Only brave warriers who were killed in battle avoided the sinister existence in Nivlheim. They ended up in Valhall in Åsgård instead.
- Idun had life-giving apples and kept the warriors healthy and strong toward Ragnarok
- The Valkyries decided which of those who fell in battle were brave enough to end up in Valhall (where the Valkyries also served beer to the warriors)
- The Norns determined the course of life and the fate of each individual human being (see next section)
The Norns can be a good example of how female beings determined very basic aspects of life.
Everybody's life and fate were recorded and determined by the Norns at birth. That is to say that for the individual human being everything was predetermined.
If it was recorded that you were going to die in battle, one might as well be brave and careless and die an honorable death. You were going to die anyway!
It was far better to be killed by an arrow in your breast rather than by an arrow in your back (killed when attacking vs. retreating)
Did you fight like a berserk and were killed in a brave battle, the valkyries would make sure you ended up in Valhalla, the preferred place to be in the afterlife.
There the warriors could fight and kill each other every single day and then be revived to spend the evenings in the big hall drinking mead (beer) and eating pork with the other warriors.
Definitely the perfect Viking life :)
Female gods and supernatural beings thus had a decisive impact on everybody's life.
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Volves and shield maidens
Volves
are female figures who have divination powers.
The Edda poem Voluspå is a volve's prediction about the creation of the world and the fate of gods and men.
With volves, the line between the supernatural and the mundane was vague.
The art of divination the volves practiced was called
seid and was strongly associated with femininity as it was usually only women, volves, who practiced it.
In the Ynglingesaga it is mentioned that gydjer, who were female cult leaders, also practiced the art of seid.
There were also seidmen, men who engaged in seid, and they were accused of being ergi ('unmanly').
Seid was strongly characterized by femininity and therefore something that did not belong to the normative gender role of men
Ergi implies "unmanliness". It was particularly bad if a man allowed himself to be used as a woman in homosexual activity.
The Norse word for 'gay' was 'ragr'
Being accused of ergi ('unmanliness') could easily be linked to 'ragr' which was very shameful and defamatory for men in the Viking era.
The seidman was probably linked to ergi because seid was perceived as a female activity.
Odin, however, the most important Norse god, had learned seid from the goddess Freya.
It seems paradoxical that Odin exercised seid. He was very much a strong, powerful and highly respected male god.
This shows that Odin was a deity who broke all boundaries, even the strictest social norms. It also proves that the female art of seid had a very important function in Norse society.
(Partial source: Yasuda Maiko pp. 29/30)
Special words used in the text:
Norse 'seiðr' = 'seid'
Norse 'seiðmaðr' = seidman = Male performer of 'seid'
Norse 'seiðkona' = seidkvinne = Female performer of 'seid'
Norse 'ergi' = A man's feminine and indecent behavior, homosexuality
Norse 'ragr' = gay, queer, homosexual
Shield Maidens
In the legendary sagas, i.e. sagas which blend remote history, set on the Continent before the settlement of Iceland, with myth or legend, we meet several shield maidens. They were women who dressed in armor, carried weapons, and fought in wars. Brynhild in the Volsungesaga is an example.
The shield maidens in the sagas are described as half human and half supernatural and are sometimes mistaken for valkyries.
Nevertheless, there are archaeological reports that can probably be related to the shield maidens. Excavations show women's graves containing weapons and other male equipment."
(Source: Yasuda Maiko pp. 30/31)
Women could therefore move into the man's sphere of activity also with regard to something as masculine as the warrior function.
Men also had the opportunity to cross boundaries of the established gender role pattern, for example by learning the 'seid' art of Volves.
For men, however, this was considered degrading, and as mentioned above, seidemen were considered to be feminine and unmanly ("ergy")
Due to traditional gender perceptions, graves equipped with jewelry, useful household implements, and so on, were previously thought to be women's graves, and graves with weapons and warrior-oriented objects were men's graves.
However, it has been proved that the remains in previously assumed male graves belonged to women. This shows that it has been more common for women to have engaged in typical male activities and social functions than previously thought.
An example of such a 'misinterpretation' is a grave found in the Swedish Viking town of Birka in 1878
The deceased was buried together with battle axes, shields, horses, and so on. Everything indicated that this had been an important warrior who had held an important social position, i.e. a man!
However, modern DNA analyses have subsequently established that this is the grave of a woman.
It is predominantly probable that this woman has had central male functions in society.
This grave excavation shows that the Viking women had the opportunity to cross the boundaries of the male domain to a much greater extent than previously thought.
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Vertical social mobility
The Norse society was strictly
hierarchical (layered)
At the top were the earls and chiefs.
This was the undisputed upper class of the country, and their fortresses, castles, and farms were the centers of power.
The vast majority of storytelling and fairy tales depict members of this relatively small upper class.
The level below in the hierarchy were the farmers.
The farmers were free people who mostly owned their own farms.
They and their farms formed the basis of the social structure.
At the bottom of this social stratification were the thralls (slaves).
The thralls were unfree and propertyless. They were considered to be a kind of livestock and property and could be used as the owner wished.
The owner was free to kill (if he paid a fine), sell, exploit, punish, and sexually abuse the thralls without any consequences.
Where human sacrifices took place, thralls were preferably used.
In connection with funerals of people of status, it was not uncommon to send one or more of the deceased's thralls to the underworld together with their master/mistress.
Sacrificed thralls have been found in both men's and women's graves.
Moving up and down the social classes in a stratified society (hierarchy) is what we call 'vertical social mobility'.
In some societies, e.g. the Hindu caste system in India, it could (can) be very difficult to move vertically.< br />
The Norse class society did not have such sharp divisions between the classes. It was possible to move both up and down the social ladder.
In Viking society, there was consequently a certain degree of vertical social mobility.
One could lose power and honor, go financially bankrupt, become an outlaw, etc. and thus lose social prestige and status.
In the same way, wise and courageous actions, good financial dispositions, favorable marriages, and so on could make you improve your position in the social stratification.
Even the thralls had opportunities. They could, for example, be released by the owner and thus be able to significantly improve their social status.
Read more about the Viking thralls in Wikipedia.
The women were no exception with regard to social mobility.
Marriage and sexual availability were the main factors that could change their social position.
In the sagas, we read about a few slave women who increased their social prestige by marrying powerful men.
What several of these have in common is that they were originally women of high status (before being enslaved) who had been abducted by Vikings and sold as slaves.
Yasuda Maiko mentions examples of such on pages 32/33 in his master's thesis (Norw.)
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Female and Male Thralls
It is estimated that slaves made up around 10% of the population. A large number were imported from areas in Europe that the Vikings ravaged.
Ireland and England are particularly mentioned as the main targets of Viking attacks. However, their activities took place all over Europe, even as far away from Scandinavia as the Middle East.
The last Norwegian Viking king, Harald Hardråde, even married the daughter of Jaroslav of Kyev, Jelisaveta Jaroslavna (born 1025 - dead ab. 1067), who then became Queen Ellisiv of Norway.
The import of slaves/thralls reached a peak in the 11th century. The slaves were sold in Norway as well as exported to slave markets abroad.
From the 12th century onwards the import of slaves was significantly reduced due to major changes that gradually took place both in Norway and in the countries which had traditionally been exposed to the ravages of the Vikings.
The introduction of Christianity combined with the development of stronger political institutions and the improvement of infrastructure and defense capabilities in the European states made it more difficult for the Vikings to continue their raids.
Female slaves were primarily used for all kinds of domestic work. As mentioned below, the reduced import of foreign slaves after the end of the Viking era made it profitable to use young female slaves as 'breeders' to produce new slaves.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge (near York in the northeastern part of England) in 1066, where the Norwegian king Harald Hardråde fell, is a good symbol of the end of the Viking Age. The English king, Harold Godwinson, now had the sufficient military power to defeat the Vikings. The strengthened military in the Western European countries significantly increased defense capabilities. Thus the Vikings' ability to import new slaves from abroad also disappeared.
Slavery was gradually nationalized. New slaves were acquired through domestic kidnapping, indebtedness, etc. and especially through self-production by breeding. The children the slave women gave birth to became the slaves of the slave mother's owner.
Gradually, this form of 'thralldom' was also reduced when the church forbade farmers to have Christian slaves.
Source: Iversen, Tore, The Thralldom'. Norwegian slavery in the Middle Ages (Norw.), Bergen, 1994
See: 8.2.3. Declining imports of slaves page 296 (Norw.)
In the sagas, we mostly meet women from the upper class, and they are the women we know most about. We do not learn too much about female slaves.
How did these women live and what opportunities did they have?
As mentioned, the slaves formed the social bottom layer of society. They were considered property that their owners could dispose of as they wished.
The tasks they were assigned to perform were generally the heaviest and most degrading on the farm.
In his book "The Slave Society" Tore Iversen "gives a convincing mental picture of slavery, where the slave in the sagas and other sources is assigned a set of negative, unsympathetic, and strongly defamatory characteristics".
(Norw. source).
In the story of Håkon Jarl's death, we see an example of how unreliable, calculating, and greedy slaves are depicted in the sagas.
The slave in this story was called Tormod Kark. He was Håkon Jarl's slave and escaped with him from Olav Trygvasson, who had promised a reward to whoever killed the earl.
It ended with Kark killing Håkon Jarl and running to Olav Trygvasson to get the reward.
The reward he got was that he was killed too.
It was socially unacceptable for a slave to kill his master.
There is reason to assume that this lowest social layer was again divided into an 'a' and 'b' layer, with the slave women in the latter.
As slaves, they did the heaviest work, they could be bought and sold, and they had virtually no rights.
In the patriarchal society, they were also subordinate to the male slaves, in addition to being sexually exploited by their owners.
Generally speaking, life as a slave woman was probably a life of misery and lack of freedom.
Nevertheless, there were exceptions where the slave women experienced increased social prestige. This indicates that there was also the possibility of social mobility for slave women, even if the chance was small.
The women could take on extra work after the compulsory work had been completed. They could then use the income from such work to buy their freedom.
Women with special skills (for example as midwives, the ability to heal, magic cunning, etc.) were valuable and received a higher status.
In rare cases, the child of a slave woman could be 'kneed' by the master. To 'knee' meant that the father/man took a child on his lap and adopted it.
If the husband was married, the housewife would hardly appreciate something like that!
In Egil's saga, we find an example of how slave women could be treated without any consequences.
Torgerd Bråk was a slave owned by Skallagrim Kveldulfson in Iceland. She raised Egil, Skallagrim's son.
While playing with Egil, Skallagrim gets angry and behaves his son badly.
Torgerd becomes anxious and defends Egil, which irritates Skallagrim immensely.
This conflict ends with his killing her.
This he was fully entitled to do. After all, she was only his property.
Read about the incident in this excerpt from Egil's Saga!
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Equality
In contrast to Christianity, Norse mythology allows free men and women to be equal from the outset. The first two people, Ask and Embla, are created from two trees on the beach.
Read more about this in "Norse Mythology for Smart People"
Professor Gro Steinsland writes:
"We find a strong degree of equality between a free man and a free woman. The married woman was not the man's property. She was not a commodity. The woman had the right to dispose of her property, and the right to divorce was equal for woman and man."
"Strangely enough, it seems that the position of women in the pre-Christian Nordic region was stronger overall than what we find in many societies in the Middle East today. If we look at phenomena such as honor murders, the sanctioning of physical punishment of women, as well as the right to divorce, it appears that women's position in several areas was stronger in Norway in the year 900 than in certain immigrant groups in 2005"
Source: Professor Gro Steinsland in Aftenposten 15 Nov. 2005 (Norw.)
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Honor, Shame, Vengeance and Women
The Norse society had only to a small extent established central institutions which could secure people's need for law and justice (for example police/sheriff/etc. - i.e. executive power)
The individual extended families had to maintain their rights and their honor themselves and ensure that shame inflicted on them by people outside the family was avenged (see blood revenge)
"Blood vengeance was closely connected to honor – to the necessity of re-establishing the honor of a man or a family if it had been damaged. Blood vengeance was also closely connected to a certain kind of society, one where the central power or authority of the state was weak and the families had to rely on themselves to protect their lives and property."
Source: "The View of Blood Vengeance in Medieval Norwegian Sources" by Else Mundal (UiB)
"Honour, shame, and revenge are central elements within any clan society. In this sense, one finds clear parallels between Nordic paganism and several of today's pre-modern societies, for example in the Middle East.
But there is a clear difference: If the family had been disgraced in the Nordic countries, honor could not be restored by laying hands on a woman.
The man who injured or killed a woman became a "niding", that is, dishonorable [which was probably the worst any Viking could experience].
If the clan had been dishonored, for example through a woman's sexual promiscuity, aggressive behavior, and the like, honor could only be restored by one armed man taking revenge on another armed man."
Professor Gro Steinsland in Aftenposten 15 Nov. 2005 (Norw.)
In "Gisle Sursson's saga" men kill each other without inhibitions and without hesitation for the slightest insult. On page 40, however, we find a clear example of the reluctance to kill women (Eng.)
The women's role with regard to the code of honor was to rouse the men to action and fight to avenge injustice, murder and lost honor. If the men hesitated to restore the extended family's honor by revenge, there were often very active women behind encouraging and urging their men to revenge and murder.
In this excerpt from the Wikipedia page "Sagalitteratur" (Eng.) you will find some examples of such strong women.
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Housewife and Manager: Duties and Authority
In Viking society, the husband was often away from home. In addition to normal work such as fishing and hunting, he was often abroad on trading and plundering trips, he was at the court (the Ting) or busy with other activities that took him away from the farm. Consequently, the women had to carry out the men's tasks for large parts of the year.
A natural consequence was that the women gained great power and authority.
The women were responsible for running the farm and harvesting the crop and they had to manage the household and look after the family. Certain women probably also participated in acts of war.
"If we go deep into pre-Christian Norwegian society, we find no equality as we practice it in today's Norway. Still, we find a strong equality between the free man and the free woman. The married woman was not the man's property. She was no commodity. The woman had the right to dispose of her property, and the right to divorce was the same for women and men."
Source: Aftenposten (Gro Steinsland and Havor Tjønn - Norw.)
When the husband was at home, he was the leader of the farm (apart from domestic activities which were usually managed and supervised by the housewife)
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Engagement, Marriage and Divorce
Marriage and love in the pre-Christian Norse Middle Ages did not work in the same way as today.
The strong feelings, which surely raged in the hearts of the young people then as now, were not to be shown. The man in particular had to avoid showing his love too openly. Visible love and grief was considered to be an expression of weakness. The man should not appear as being inferior to a woman.
In the Norse extended family/clan society, marriage was something that was of great importance.
Friendship, political relations and alliances, property relations, inheritance, and social status, as well as much else, were very often founded on marriages between men and women.
In short, marriage acted as the glue that bound different families/clans together.
An engagement meant as important a matter for the family as marriage and was therefore usually organized by the girl's father.
Marriageable girls were visited by suitors who were going to propose on behalf of the groom-to-be (who could also take an active part in the proposal activity)
The father decided which suitor was most beneficial to the family. Suitors who did not respect the father's decisions violated the father's, and thus the family's, honor. In serious cases, this could lead to strife and long-lasting hostility.
In addition to choosing a suitor who, from a social point of view, was the daughter's equal, most fathers probably also took their daughters' wishes into account. However, warm feelings were not the most important thing. The love between two young people may not be so ardent at the time of the marriage, but affection and love usually developed after the marriage.
The consequences of a divorce were great. Both the clans/families involved therefore had a mutual interest in the bride and groom getting along as well as possible. The personal chemistry between them was probably considered as important.
After the choice of the groom, the preparations for the wedding began. It could be a long process that primarily described what the bride and groom should bring into the marriage.
The agreement on the basis of the marriage was discussed and decided by the two clans/families involved in the process.
The bride received a dowry which she had the right to dispose of. If the marriage ended in divorce, the dowry was her personal property, and she had full control over it.
The groom's family then organized a gift for the bride that matched the value of the bride's dowry.
The dowry and the groom's gift could be land, money, livestock, various possessions, and other things.
During this preparation period, i.e. the engagement period, the time for the actual wedding was also determined.
The wedding feast symbolized the conclusion of the contract drawn up between the clans/families during the engagement period.
When the marriage agreement had been concluded with a handshake, the agreement could not be broken without punishment and fines. The wedding should be held within a reasonable time, i.e. one year.
The celebration was a big party with guests from both families. It should last at least three days, however, it was common for the wedding guests to party much longer than that.
Before the wedding feast, the woman wore a linen veil. That would prevent her from gaining too much power over her man. After the wedding, she wore a headscarf.
On the wedding day, the two clans/families sat on opposite sides of a long table, while the bride with bridesmaids sat on a bridal bench.
During the ceremony on the first day, the bride and groom exchanged rings, and when the evening came, they were accompanied by the guests to the wedding bed in the bridal chamber with song and dance She was undressed and sat up in the bridal bed. The groom was then fetched in the same way and set up in bed. The door was closed and then the marriage was concluded by the newlyweds having intercourse.
This ceremony had a legal side. Guests from both families should be able to testify that the couple had gone to bed together.(Norw. source)
Divorce was something you absolutely wanted to avoid. Separating the spouses broke the extensive contract the clans/families had agreed upon during the engagement, and the consequences could be many and serious.
Like the man, the woman had every right to dissolve a marriage that did not work.
If the man was violent and hit her, the woman could demand a divorce. Another acceptable reason for dissolving the marriage was that the man did not satisfy the woman sexually.
In the event of a divorce, the woman was entitled to take with her both her dowry in addition to the gift she had received from his family.
Minor children accompanied their mother.
The Burial was also an important ceremony in Norse society. The rich and powerful were often buried in large burial mounds. They were often accompanied by one or more slaves, who had to give up their lives (involuntarily) to render this last service. Large quantities of valuables and practical and useful items were also part of the grave goods.
In a patriarchal warrior society, one would think that grand funerals belonged only to men. However, it turns out that many of the rich mounds were erected in honor of women.
This means that women had a prominent place in Viking society.
The women's graves could contain very valuable items such as jewelry, furs, and other expensive items.
An example of an exceptionally rich female grave is the burial mound with the Osebergship (Norw) The ship was found in Tønsberg municipality in 1904
The two women who were buried there died in 834, and they took with them to the underworld something that must have been a fortune at that time.
The relatively great equality between the sexes could also result in men and women being buried together. They could then bring the same gifts with them for use in the hereafter.
In the daily work on the farm, men and women had many of the same tasks. It was therefore reasonable that they brought the same equality with them into the realm of the dead.
For more exact information, you are recommended to read this article in Forskning.no (Norw.)
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The Inscrutable Paths of Love
Our Norse ancestors had a more liberal view on sexuality and sexual behavior than the rules and norms which came with Christianity.
Despite apparently strict regulations for the relationship between men and women, there was certainly room for creative solutions.
The website Avaldsnes (Eng.) describes aspects of love that might seem contradictory in many ways:
On one hand writing love poems to a woman could be punishable by death. The reason was that it could damage her reputation.
On the other hand, it was entirely possible for a man to have children with several mistresses (Old Norse: 'friðla' - Norw.: 'frille'), and an unmarried woman could have children without any consequences regarding future marriage.
The children a man got with his mistresses were considered to be his real children. They had the same right to inherit him as the children he had with his spouse.
However, the wife could also have lovers who got her pregnant. The children the wife had with her lovers also became the husband's children.
He was considered to be the father of all the children his wife bore.
If the husband had a child with a thrall woman, the child also became a slave.
The exception was if the man 'kneeled' the slave child, i.e. he confirmed his adoption of the child by taking it on his lap (on his 'knee') thus accepting it as his own.
The child was then brought up in the same way as the man's own children.
'Kneeled' children could not be left in the wilderness to die. That would be murder, and thus punishable.
Even if the Vikings had a bad reputation as killers and rapists all over Europe, the laws against rape were pretty strict back home.
In the Viking world rape of free women was a crime.
If you raped a free virgin, the penalty was death.
Wives being raped by their husbands could demand a divorce.
However, raping your own thrall woman was accepted. She was your property and could be dealt with the way you wanted.
In the pre-Christian Norse society, women had considerably more freedom, definitely regarding love and sexual activities, than they had after the Christianization of Norway gained momentum from the 11th century onwards.
Still, there were many women who happily accepted the new faith.
One of the reasons could be Christianity's prohibition against the father's right to decide whether a newborn child was to live or die. In pre-Christian society, the husband could decide whether a newborn child should live, or be left in the forest to die.
Mothers would do their utmost to protect their children, even if the introduction of Christianity reduced their social rights and status.
Much of the information in this section is taken from the website https://avaldsnes.info/en/ (Eng.)
On their page on 'Love and marriage', you will find more extensive information, and you are strongly advised to read it!
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Free, Strong and Proud Women
As we have seen above, Viking women had both extensive rights and great freedom. This made them strong and proud women with both power and authority.
As an example of this, a short extract has been taken from Avaldsnes.no:
An Arab emissary, At-Tartuschi, who visited Hedeby (Denmark) around 970, is amazed at how much freedom Scandinavian women have. He says that: » The right to divorce belongs to women. They divorce when they feel like it".
An Arab poet Al Ghazal (the emir's envoy to the emperor in Constantinople) writes that he was with a Viking ship that sailed north. They were going to "the king of the heathens on a great island in the ocean". This might have been in Denmark, Norway, or a Norwegian settlement in Ireland. "Splendidly dressed, and in a hall filled with valuables and weapons" the king of the heathen received Al Ghazal.
Al Ghazal says that he was often a guest of the heathen king's wife and had long conversations with her - with the help of an interpreter. Al Ghazal told the queen about the countries far to the south and about Muhammad's people and their history.
As thanks for the guest's stories, she sent him gifts, nice dishes, clothes, and perfumes. The poet mentioned that he was afraid that there would be gossip since the two spent so much time together.
Then she comforted him with a few words about the freedom the Nordic women had. She said, among other things:
- "It is not customary with us to be jealous" and
- "Here, a woman can leave her husband if she doesn't like him anymore"
Source: Avaldsnes, "Love and marriage"
Queen Gunnhild seems to have been such a free, strong, and proud woman herself. She was married to Eirik Blodøx (Bloodaxe), son of Harald Hårfagre, the first king of Norway.
Later writers have described her in a rather unkind way, which is often the case with powerful women.
Read a little more about her in this illustrated article (NRK ) (Norw.)
Survival Guide: How to be the Perfect Viking Woman
Reprinted with permission from Historienet.no
Fashion, infidelity, and decor.
Based on the Norse sagas and archaeological finds it is possible to reconstruct what every young Viking woman had to know about the life that awaited her.
1. Choose the right wedding day
The wedding should take place on a summer day so that guests and family members who have to travel far will be able to join the party.
Only Fridays are relevant as wedding days, because Friday is the day of the love goddess Frøya, and she will give you many children.
During the wedding, the young couple exchange gold rings and bridal swords before a week-long feast of eating and drinking begins.
And just relax - the groom's family pays.
2. This is how you get a man
Forget about love - Love can come later.
When you turn twelve, you are marriageable. Who you will marry is agreed upon by your father and the groom's father.
The suggested bride always comes from the groom's father, who carefully assesses the girls' beauty and their families' fortune.
It is a tradition that the groom's family pays for the bride - and if there are more suitors, the price is of course raised. It is expected that the bride has a dowry.
3. The man decides the fate of the children
Pregnancy is the most dangerous time for a Viking woman.
Before you give birth, you should talk to the other women in the area. This is the only way you can prepare for the pain that awaits.
It is only natural that the older women help during the birth, while the man has to wait outside. After the birth, he checks if the child is healthy and well-formed - if so, it is given to the mother.
Otherwise, the child is put out in the forest or thrown into the sea (if the mother doesn't trick her husband...)
4. Teach your children to do something useful
Children love skating, fencing, and sailing small ships.
Through play, they gain skills they can use as adults, but don't let them waste time.
If the family is to survive in our harsh surroundings, everyone must help.
Remember that it is normal for five-year-old boys to be sent to other families both to serve and to strengthen family ties, while girls stay at home until their wedding day.
5. Tips and trends in the Viking Age
In Europe, the Viking man goes to be a dandy who takes a bath every Saturday. And you should do it even better; a Viking woman should do her utmost to keep herself beautiful.
Your hair must be long so that it can be arranged in elaborate hairstyles or braided with colored ribbons.
You can weave the fabric for your dress in all of Bifrost's colors, but the most common are red or blue. If your man is wealthy, you can show it by weaving shiny gold threads into the fabric of the dress and wearing a shawl made of fur or imported silk.
Vikings like to use eye makeup, which is causing a stir in Europe: "The make-up does not make their beauty disappear. On the contrary, both men and women become more beautiful", writes the Arab al-Tartushi.
Women like to wear jewelry and bracelets, but earrings are out of the question. It's far too Slavic for a Viking.
6. Live better in the Viking Age
To avoid rotting posts and frequent repairs on your house, the Vikings have developed a new, revolutionary construction technique.
Most longhouses are human dwellings and barns in one. Only the richest can afford a separate building for the livestock.
At the beginning of the Viking Age, the house was built with supporting posts that were dug into the ground. But it turned out that the posts rotted quite quickly, and then an extensive repair was needed.
The solution is to place each post on a foundation stone so that the wood does not come into contact with the moist soil. Then they can last for years. Whether the house is made of clay and has a turf roof or wooden walls and roof depends on which materials are common where you live.
7. You live in an open marriage
Don't expect your husband to be faithful.
The Vikings' unwritten laws give him the right to take frills (mistresses) and even let them live under your roof. You have to accept these women, and that their children have the right to inherit your husband.
The exception is the children of slave women with whom your husband sleeps. These children grow up as slaves.
8. Remarry quickly
Your husband lives a hard and dangerous life, so the risk is high that you will become a widow.
If that happens, your children will inherit all his property. Fortunately, this does not mean that you are standing with empty hands. If you have inherited money from your own family, you can keep it - the same applies to the dowry you brought into the marriage.
If your family allows, you can remarry.
But remember that there are many women in the sagas who have managed well without a man!
9. Are you ready for adventure?
The Viking man spends his best years traveling in foreign countries. If you allow yourself to be tempted by adventure, too, you should consider emigrating. Why not let yourself be inspired by Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir.
She was born in Iceland* around 982 AD and emigrated with her father to Greenland, where she married Torstein, son of the well-known Eirik Raude.
Torstein died trying to reach Vinland, so Gudrid married Torfinn Karlsevne and sailed west. The couple stayed in Vinland for three years.
When Torfinn died, Gudrid went on a pilgrimage all the way to Rome.
*Early history of Iceland (Encyclopedia Britannica)
10. Stop violence and harassment
Among Vikings, it is unacceptable to go to bed with a free woman.
You should not tolerate any kind of physical contact or inappropriate jeering. If that happens you should notify your husband or father.
Usually, an indecent touch will trigger blood revenge.
You are also protected against abuse at home because violence against a free woman cannot be excused.
If your husband starts beating you, you can be divorced quickly.
The judges at the courthouse will only require you to describe three cases of violence before you are granted a divorce without any problems.
This right also applies if your husband can no longer support the family, or has emigrated permanently, or if marital intercourse has ceased.
In that case, you are allowed to find yourself a new man.
The woman's status in the local community is not diminished after a divorce.
Note that your husband can demand a divorce if you do not give him children - or if you engage in adultery (you're unfaithful to him).
11. The family sends you to the Realm of Frøya
We are all going to die.
When your time comes, it will be up to your family and the customs of your place of origin whether you should be buried or cremated.
In any case, it is important that your family ensures that you get your daily necessities and nice jewelry with you on your final journey.
In this way, you can continue to live according to your earthly status in Frøya's realm of death.
It is a widespread misconception that everyone ends up in Valhall – that part of the underworld is reserved for brave men who fall in battle.
Text — Tim Panduro and Torsten Weper
Published on 20/09/2016
Reprinted with permission from Historienet.no
Teksten fortsetter under reklamen!
About Viking Women in Wikipedia
"During the Viking Age, women had a relatively free status in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, illustrated in the Icelandic Grágás and the Norwegian Frostating laws and Gulating laws. The paternal aunt, paternal niece, and paternal granddaughter referred to as odalkvinna, all had the right to inherit property from a deceased man.
In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried woman with no son could, furthermore, inherit not only property but also the position as head of the family from a deceased father or brother.
A woman with such status was referred to as ringkvinna, and she exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a family clan, such as the right to demand and receive fines for the slaughter of a family member, unless she married, by which her rights were transferred to her husband.
After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred to as maer and mey (Norw. 'møy'), reached the legal majority, had the right to decide her place of residence, and was regarded as an independent person before the law.
An exception to her independence was the right to choose a marriage partner, as marriages were normally arranged by the clan.
Widows enjoyed the same independent status as unmarried women.
Women had religious authority and were active as priestesses (gydja) and oracles (sejdkvinna); within art as poets (skalder) and rune masters; and as merchants and medicine women.
They may also have been active within military office: the stories about shieldmaidens are unconfirmed, but some archaeological finds such as the Birka female Viking warrior may indicate that at least some women in military authority existed.
A married woman could divorce her husband and remarry.
It was also socially acceptable for a free woman to cohabit with a man and have children with him without marrying him, even if that man was married; a woman in such a position was called frilla.
There was no distinction made between children born inside or outside of marriage: both had the right to inherit property after their parents, and there were no "legitimate" or "illegitimate" children.
These liberties gradually disappeared after the introduction of Christianity, and from the late 13th century, they are no longer mentioned."
Source: "Women's Rights" (Wikipedia)
The Transition to Christianity
From the end of the 11th century, Christianity gradually took over for the old Norse mythology. The Christian ideology immediately changed the relative equality between the sexes, and then in the favor of men.
The woman was no longer the man's equal partner in the work on the farm, and several functions that had given women social prestige in Norse society were made suspect and often even criminalized.
For the woman, the change of religious ideology meant one clear advantage, but unfortunately numerous disadvantages.
The positive side of the transition to Christianity was the man's loss of the right to decide the fate of his newborn children. The old Norse custom of 'putting out' unwanted children in the forest was banned.
The negative aspects of the transition were many, and they quickly resulted in a significant reduction in women's social status.
The Creation of Woman and Man
As previously mentioned, there is a big difference between the Norse and Christian creation myths (anthropogony)
The first two Norse people, the woman and the man, are created simultaneously from two separate tree trunks on the beach.
Source: "The Creation of the Cosmos"
They are thus equal beings from the outset.
This equality is maintained in the Nordic (Viking) society, to a certain extent.
In Christianity Eve gets a far worse start.
Adam is the Man in Paradise. He's doing pretty well, but the days are getting longer. Our Lord, therefore, wants to cheer him up by giving him some company. He arranges this by removing one of Adam's ribs which he then uses to create the first woman. She is named Eve.
Excerpt from The Old Testament, Genesis:
Then the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man. While he slept, he took a rib and stuffed it with meat.
From the rib the Lord God had taken from the man, he made a woman, and he brought her to the man.
Then the man said:
“Now it is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman,
for by the man she is taken.”
Thus, from the very beginning the woman was a second-class being created from a male body part.
The Religion
Old Norse mythology had many very important female deities and mythical beings.
A natural consequence was that women could have central religious functions.
A Norse priest was called a 'gode' in Iceland. Women who performed priestly acts were called 'gydjer'
As cult leaders, they acted as links between humans and gods, which could give them great power.
The transition to Christianity banned women from the priesthood and other important religious positions.
All the Norse rituals, which were often practiced by women, were criminalized, and the new priestly roles were reserved for men.
It took about 900 years before the first woman was accepted as a Minister in the Church of Norway (Ingrid Bjerkås in 1961)
Man was created in God's image, and woman was only a copy of Man. The woman was consequently further from God and was therefore more sinful.
This negative Christian view of women forbade women from serving in front of the altar.
The subordinate position of women related to men is clearly emphasized in the Bible (Ephesians 5:22-23):
"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."
The Reformation in the 16th century did not lead to changes in the view of women among the new Protestants:
"Women...have but small and narrow chests, and broad hips, to the end that they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children."
"The Devil can so completely assume the human form, when he wants to deceive us, that we may well lie with what seems to be a woman, of real flesh and blood, and yet all the while 'tis only the Devil in the shape of a woman. 'Tis the same with women, who may think that a man is in bed with them, yet 'tis only the Devil; and...the result of this connection is oftentimes an imp of darkness, half mortal, half devil...."
Source: Quotes from Martin Luther
"In 1595 it was announced that women are not human beings; and proof of the matter was demonstrated more than scrupulously: fifty times in succession in one and the same treatise."
Source: The History of Nordic Women's Literature
Hopefully, this was an attempt to be ironic, but the mere idea demonstrates the general idea of women's social status.
Women as healers
Female Norse medicine consisted of a mixture of Norse ritual magic and medical practice based on experiences gained over centuries (empiric)
In practice, this particularly concerned obstetric care and wound care. In the text about the wounded Tormod Kolbrunarskald in the battle at Stiklestad (Norway), we meet a female doctor in work.
The Old Norse text is translated into Norwegian at the bottom of the pages.
If you want to read part 1 of the text first, you will find it here (Old-Norse/Norw.)
The fact that Norse medicine was closely linked to pre-Christian Norse traditions made it illegal in the new Christian society, a situation that deprived women of the right to practice as healers thereby undermining these traditional female roles and deteriorating their social status."
Source: "Kristenrettenes criminalization of traditional women's roles " (Masterbloggen)
Women and Fertility
Strangely enough, women's task of ensuring humanity's continued existence is associated with shame in many cultures. The monthly menstruation as well as the birth itself is considered impure in certain ethnic groups. Some cultures even have special cabins where women can live in isolation while they menstruate.
In Viking society this was unknown. Fertility and everything related to such were considered desirable and admirable. The Christian perception of the body ('flesh') as sinful was unknown in Viking society. Everything associated with fertility was probably perceived as merely positive.
The transition to Christianity changed this fundamentally.
Now "women were seen as impure after giving birth. Only when they were re-admitted into the church by a solemn ceremony where they were led into the church and considered to be pure again.
Women who had children out of wedlock could be denied admission to the church, which was a harsh sentence. Men escaped with a less visible punishment.
If the woman died in childbirth, she was impure, and the practice could then be that she was denied the sacrament of the last oil before she died and was buried with less honor.
If the woman died before the child had been born, she might be buried outside the cemetery because she had an unbaptized child inside her. The reason was that unbaptized children were not supposed to be buried in the consecrated soil of the cemetery.
Considering the frightening images of eternal perdition and the torments of hell that could befall someone who was not buried in consecrated ground, the fear of dying in childbirth, thereby being unclean, must have been a cruel psychological strain. With the high number of childbirths, this was an ever-recurring threat."
Source: "" (Masterbloggen)
Married life
The change of religion led to changes in married life.
Divorce was forbidden.
Women could no longer demand a divorce from abusive husbands as they could in pre-Christian Norse times. This limited the woman's control and freedom over her own life and made her far more subordinate to the man.
The Church prohibited all forms of polygamy.
The man's right to be able to have frills was criminalized, which was very likely an advantage for the wife.
Brief conclusion
"The religious shift led to extensive role changes for women in public and private life.
Women's respected roles in pre-Christian times were taken away from them and could no longer be exercised in legal forms.
Christian law's criminalization of the female gender caused her a loss of status in the work context and thus undermined the basis for women's power.
In the longer term, the criminalization of traditional pre-Christian female roles promoted a negative view of women and created an indirect basis for attitudes that culminated in the witch trials."
Source: "The Christian courts' criminalization of traditional women's roles (Norw.) " (Masterbloggen)
This article has also served as the main source for this section about the change in women's rights and status after the transition to Christianity in Norway.
Homepage: The Masterblog
If you are working on assignments related to historical women's rights issues, you should read this log entry! (use Google Translator
Test yourself!
- What does it mean that the Viking society was organized as a patriarchal hierarchy?
- What kind of women do we generally meet in the sagas?
- What does it mean that Norse mythology was polytheistic?
- Can you name four important divine female figures and explain what tasks they had?
- What does it mean that man's fate was predetermined?
- What was a volve?
- Explain what the Edda poem 'Voluspå' is about.
- What was a shield maiden? Did they exist?
- Which three social levels were Norse society organized into?
- How many were slaves/thralls in Norway in the 11th-12th century?
- Could so-called vertical social mobility happen in Norse society? Explain!
- How could women change their social status?
- Give reasons why the Viking Age ended at the end of the 11th century.
- What was the most important difference between the two first humans in Norse and Christian mythology? (Ask and Embla vs Adam and Eve)
- Violence and murder were central functions to maintain honor in the Viking era. What distinguished women from men in this context?
- Which duties did the 'housewife' have, and how did this develop equality between husband and wife?
- Explain key circumstances in the process that led up to a marriage.
- Name a couple of reasons why the woman could demand a divorce.
- How do the burial rituals show that women could have a very high status in society?
- How were extramarital activities assessed in the pre-Christian Norse society?
- How were the opportunities to get married for an unmarried woman with children?
- What happened to women's rights after the transition to Christianity?
What could be one of the main reasons why the women welcomed this transition?
Some assignments/tasks:
- Present female rights, values, and cultural aspects in the Viking society based on content, form and language in at least two selected Icelandic sagas
- Which position and functions did women have in Norse times? Exemplify with extracts from various saga texts
- Snorre Sturlason is the most important writer of Norse literature. Search various sources, such as books of literary history and online articles, and find out who he was, what texts he wrote, and what role he played in Iceland in the 13th century.
Write an article about this remarkable man, or present Snorre in a lecture/presentation.
- Write a short saga with women as central characters in which you place the action in either the Viking Age or in your own time. You should use the saga style, i.e. you use the typical kind of saga language and build your story on traditional structure and themes.
- Compare women's rights in the Viking Age with the rights of women in 19th-century Norway/Europe. Use text examples to illustrate/exemplify the factual material.
In this article, you will find some examples of Women's (missing) rights in the Victorian era
oppdatert 2023.04.13
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