Viking Marriage
Page 1 of 19
Courtship, Love and Marriage in Viking Scandinavia
Part I -- Forward and Introduction
Forward
Some time ago, some friends of mine came to me and asked me to tell them how a Viking wedding was conducted.
Although I write a column entitled"The Viking Answer Lady" for my local SCA newsletter, I hadn 't a clue as to the answer. When I turned to the sagas, they didn 't tell me, either. Thus began the start of a massive research project that has produced the work you are about to read. The study is still not over... I am still discovering new information as the number of scholars in the fields of Viking history and Scandinavian womens ' studies increases. Whenever I discover new information, I either correct or augment my work, so it …show more content…
The Saga Time has passed away, and like the Golden Age of Homer, may only be recovered in bits and potsherds, in romanticized remembrances and distant echoes. In order to re-create the society of the Vikings within recreationist organizations such as the
S.C.A., or to resurrect the religious beliefs and tenets of the pagan Scandinavians as do the Asatruar, we frequently blend together a mix of historical fact, period fiction, and the creativity of our own imaginations in order to create a new reality which we hope is not too far from the truth of history. With this in mind, we can let the information contained in these pages teach us what the Viking marriage was, or at least, might have been.
Part II: The Function of Marriage in Viking Scandinavia
The starting point for any discussion of marriage in a culture should be the reasons and function of marriage in …show more content…
Since the ideal man was supposed to be able to extemporize poetry, it may have been easier for them to proclaim their emotions. Saxo Grammaticus records the moving last speech of a man about to be hanged, as he speaks of his beloved:
There shall be one end for us both; one bond after our vows; nor shall our first love aimlessly perish.
Happy am I to have won the joy of such a consort; I shall not go down basely in loneliness to the gods of
Tartarus. So let the encircling bonds grip my throat in the midst; the final anguish shall bring with it pleasure only, since the certain hope remains of renewed love, and death shall prove to have its own delights. Each world holds joy, and in the twin regions shall the repose of our united souls win fame, our equal faithfulness in love (Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum. cited in Hilda R. Ellis-Davidson. The Road to Hel. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1943. pp. 53-54).
Skalds also made mansongr, "maiden-songs" or love poems, composed despite laws ordaining outlawry or death for the skald who dared to make them:
Well considered, the woman 's worth the whole of Iceland...
Heavy though my heart... of Hunland, and of Denmark;
Not for all of England 's earth and kingdoms would
Courtship, Love and Marriage in Viking Scandinavia
Part I -- Forward and Introduction
Forward
Some time ago, some friends of mine came to me and asked me to tell them how a Viking wedding was conducted.
Although I write a column entitled"The Viking Answer Lady" for my local SCA newsletter, I hadn 't a clue as to the answer. When I turned to the sagas, they didn 't tell me, either. Thus began the start of a massive research project that has produced the work you are about to read. The study is still not over... I am still discovering new information as the number of scholars in the fields of Viking history and Scandinavian womens ' studies increases. Whenever I discover new information, I either correct or augment my work, so it …show more content…
The Saga Time has passed away, and like the Golden Age of Homer, may only be recovered in bits and potsherds, in romanticized remembrances and distant echoes. In order to re-create the society of the Vikings within recreationist organizations such as the
S.C.A., or to resurrect the religious beliefs and tenets of the pagan Scandinavians as do the Asatruar, we frequently blend together a mix of historical fact, period fiction, and the creativity of our own imaginations in order to create a new reality which we hope is not too far from the truth of history. With this in mind, we can let the information contained in these pages teach us what the Viking marriage was, or at least, might have been.
Part II: The Function of Marriage in Viking Scandinavia
The starting point for any discussion of marriage in a culture should be the reasons and function of marriage in …show more content…
Since the ideal man was supposed to be able to extemporize poetry, it may have been easier for them to proclaim their emotions. Saxo Grammaticus records the moving last speech of a man about to be hanged, as he speaks of his beloved:
There shall be one end for us both; one bond after our vows; nor shall our first love aimlessly perish.
Happy am I to have won the joy of such a consort; I shall not go down basely in loneliness to the gods of
Tartarus. So let the encircling bonds grip my throat in the midst; the final anguish shall bring with it pleasure only, since the certain hope remains of renewed love, and death shall prove to have its own delights. Each world holds joy, and in the twin regions shall the repose of our united souls win fame, our equal faithfulness in love (Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum. cited in Hilda R. Ellis-Davidson. The Road to Hel. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1943. pp. 53-54).
Skalds also made mansongr, "maiden-songs" or love poems, composed despite laws ordaining outlawry or death for the skald who dared to make them:
Well considered, the woman 's worth the whole of Iceland...
Heavy though my heart... of Hunland, and of Denmark;
Not for all of England 's earth and kingdoms would