Viking Weddings
Barbarians actually followed traditions?
Vikings viewed marriage as a practical arrangement first and foremost. Love did not matter when it came down to a union between a man and a woman. In was the majority of cases Viking’s marriages were for financial security and alliance between two families. Thus, parents were the ones to arrange marriages of their youth. Another important aspect of marriage was producing offspring.
In many ways, this was the most important thing for Northmen because having kids meant survival. During cold winters having extra hands to work on the farm and make clothes for the family was very helpful. Having a lot of kids also meant that a lot of new warriors will be joining the Viking armies.
So how exactly did Vikings go about marriages?
First, it has to be established that Vikings married at an early age. Girls usually were about 12 and boys had a little bit more free time and usually got married at 20. Keep in mind that the life expectancy was around 50 years old, so they had to marry young to have time to ensure having enough kids. Those who did not marry were shamed upon by society and in most cases became outcasts, hence getting married was the most beneficial for everyone.
However, it took a very long time for the actual ceremony to take place after the initial negotiations about the union. Most couples got married within a year after family agreements. However, sometimes it could take up to three years. This was so because the winters were too cold for feasts to take place and since most Viking weddings lasted for an entire week, they required a lot of food and drinks that were scarce in cold months. Vikings also got married only on Fridays “because it was considered the day of the Goddess Frigg, the Goddess of marriage. In the Viking era, Friday, as we know it, was referred to a Frigg’s day.” (Debutify) This too put restraints on choosing the wedding day resulting in a long wait before the youth could call each other husband and wife.
Finally, after a long time of arrangements and preparations, the day of the wedding came. So, what happened then?
Before the ceremony, the bathing ritual would take place. The bride and groom were taken to separate bathrooms by married members of their families. For the bride, those were her mother, any married sisters, and aunts. For the groom, those were his father, married brothers, and uncles. Both took baths while their more experienced family members advised on married life. However, this process is known in more detail when it comes to the bride’s cleansing. She would first bather in warm water to “wash away her maiden life.” (Debutify) After that, she was washed with cold water to close her pores so that a new life could begin for her.
The next day the ceremony was held.
Before describing what happened let me paint the picture for you.
Seems like Vikings did not care much about what they are going to wear to the altar. The bride would wear a dress she inherited from her mother, but it wasn’t significantly looking. However, they did very much care for their hair. Both the bride and the groom had their hair made beautifully often with decorations braided in. The bride also wore an elegant bridal crown or a floral wreath. Those were also decorated with various beads, crystals and carved out runes. Groom’s significant item was a sword he wore. Usually, it was a sword of his ancestors that he took from one of the ancient burials. Many sources disagree on whether the groom actually robbed one of his ancestors’ graves or they made a fake grave just to symbolize the passing on of the power. Yet, it is clear that the sword was the property of the groom’s family.
Now the most interesting part — the ceremony itself.
Two main financial transactions had to happen before the exchange of the vows by future husband and wife. Mundr and Heiman-Fylgia. Mundr was a price paid to the bride’s father by the groom’s family for the years he spent taking care of her. This price was set in the very first negotiations about the marriage between fathers. Next, Heiman-Fylgia or Dowry was a sum of money or other riches the bride’s father gave to her to enter the marriage with. Both were not limited to just money. Some exchanged cattle, precious gemstones and even different agreements on alliance and lands.
The religious ceremony would follow. It began by getting the attention of the gods by prayer or even a sacrifice of an animal. “If a sacrifice was necessary, Vikings used animals associated with gods of fertility — for Thor, a goat; for Freyja, a sow; for Freyr, a boar or horse. The animal’s blood was collected in a bowl and placed on an altar. A bundle of fir twigs was dipped in the blood, which was used to sprinkle the couple, conferring the blessings of the gods.” (Radford)
After summoning the gods, the groom and the bride said their sacred vows exchanging rings and swords. The rings were the finest pieces of jewellery mostly crafted out of iron and silver, and only rarely out of gold. The swords, however, were more important than the rings. The bride got her sword from her family and gifted it to her new husband. He would then thrust that sword into the central pillar of their new house. The further he pushed in the sword the stronger their marriage would be. The groom got his sword from his ancestors’ grave (as mentioned previously). He would gift that sword to his new wife and she would keep it to give to their firstborn son.
After the ceremony, a feast followed that would last a week. During the feast, they ate the most delicious foods and drank the best ale. The newlyweds shared a drinking horn to symbolize their union. They would drink sweet ale made from honey especially for them. They were gifted a month’s worth of that ale which started a tradition of calling the first month of marriage — a honeymoon. Using their huge drinking horn the two would “make a toast to Odin and Freyja to bless their union with fertility.” (Christensen)
This feast would continue for many days, but the first wedding night happened the day of the ceremony.
There were at least six witnesses in the room with newlyweds to ensure that they consummate their marriage. Yes, imagine people watching you having sex for the first time. Well, for the husbands it rarely was the first time. They usually lost their virginity long before getting married. However, for the wives most of the time it was the night they would lose their virginity. That was not because premarital sex was something shamed upon but rather it was because in case an unwanted pregnancy accrued it would have serious consequences. So, if a girl would have a child outside of marriage the further chances of getting married almost came down to zero and raising kids without the protection and support of a man was nearly impossible in those brutal times. Therefore, girls preferred to choose abstinence. While guys did not care that much because even if a woman claimed to be with his child, he had no legal obligation to claim that child and care for it.
Back to the marriage ceremony. The morning after their first night together husband would gift his wife a Morgden-Gifu — a morning wedding gift. There are no specifications on what that gift was supposed to be but it can be guessed that it was something valuable. After that husband would give the wife keys to their family house signifying her new status as the mistress of their household. And that would conclude the main rituals of the Viking wedding.
All and all, there is a lot that goes into a Viking wedding. Starting with choosing a special day and concluding with gifts to the new mistress of the house. Vikings did not marry for love as we do now. They were practical people who viewed marriage as an essential pillar of society and a means of making allies. However, the main goal of marriage always remained to pass on their strong genes by raising many children.
Would you want to attend one of those weddings?
Sources
Debutify. (n.d.). Viking weddings — what were they like? VikingsBrand. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.vikingsbrand.co/blogs/norse-news/viking-wedding-history.
Radford, L. (2016, October 20). Highly symbolic and kind of outlandish viking wedding traditions and rituals. Ranker. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://www.ranker.com/list/viking-wedding-traditions-and-rituals/lyra-radford
Christensen, C. (2021, October 11). This is how the Vikings proposed and got married. Scandinavia Facts. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://scandinaviafacts.com/this-is-how-the-vikings-proposed-and-got-married/
Viking Love: 8 facts about love and love making among the Vikings. HistoryCollection.com. (2021, June 22). Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://historycollection.com/eight-facts-love-marriage-viking-style/5/
