Women In The Viking Age

Icelandic men and women during the Viking Age were clever craftsmen and navigators with strong religious, family, and character values. During the middle ages in Europe, any settlement would require farmers, traders, and craftsmen, to name a few. In Norse society Nordic women upheld those positions, acting more as equals. Norse enemies such as Christian monks saw them only as warriors, heathens, and bloodthirsty, a society of aggressive men with subservient females. This belief can be seen within the works of Christian writers of the Viking Age. Until the 21st century, scholarly focus on brutal warfare and invasion often overshadows Nordic women’s roles in the Viking Age. This particularly affects the scholarship of Iceland because Icelanders
Often women play decisive roles and while their description often includes, or focuses on, their physical appearance they are frequently admired for possessing intelligence, wisdom, common sense, and other non-appearance related qualities. “She was the most attractive of women and one to be reckoned with in all her dealings.” “She was of good family, and Leif realized that she knew a thing or two.” Throughout the sagas, women are presented as beautiful and/or intelligent; both qualities being important. In contrast to many contemporary medieval stories where the beauty, or lack thereof, of women is all that matters, Gudrid, Thorgunna and many other women in the sagas are remembered for traits beyond these such as their skill at crafts, eloquence, capability in managing a farm, being a force to be reckoned with, and being knowledgeable. It is likely that in the wilderness of Iceland women were valued for more than their appearance. Likely pragmatic abilities such as a talent for conserving resources or the production of a handicraft far outweighed looking pretty. At times women are depicted as terrifying in appearance and/or as an instigator of brutal violence from their husbands and/or sons, and the author praises their clever characters. The quintessential question of women in the Sagas and Eddas is: how accurate is the image presented within the Icelandic Sagas? As these stories comprise a record
As no literary parallel in Scandinavia exists, the Icelandic evidence exists as the sole evidence of its kind. Not only is it unsure whether saga women are historical fact or fiction, but there is not even outside literature to compare with in an attempt to discern a difference in the treatment and depiction of women. Instead, we must try to draw conclusions through logical deduction and the study of what material is available until better evidence and source comparisons can be made. Icelandic women in early medieval literature are characterized as independent and vital to the survival of the nation as a whole. Whether or not this belief presents an accurate historical reality, these figures demonstrate the thirteenth century Icelandic memory of female ancestors as strong, important, and influential parts of their society. Early medieval Icelandic identity included an admiration for strong-willed women and an awareness of their power in both conflicts and law, as evidenced by their representations in the sagas. Whether or not their contemporary women remained as influential and active, the Icelandic saga authors recorded the antics of some strong and powerful women both as part of their national heritage and for