Marriage was an establishment that was on the coronary heart of Viking life, so weddings have been essential occasions that marked the change in social allegiances and standing precipitated by the wedding.
The Vikings additionally had a feasting tradition, and feasts have been essential for solidifying the neighborhood. And a marriage was a very good excuse for a feast!
Not quite a lot of proof survives about Viking weddings, and what particular person weddings would have regarded like would have relied on the place they have been, when within the Viking interval they happened, and likewise the wealth and social standing of the households concerned.
However let’s check out among the issues that we do know concerning the concepts and rituals of Viking weddings, together with issues reminiscent of vows, the alternate of rings, particular dances, and the consuming of numerous mead.
Generalizing About Viking Weddings
Earlier than we leap in, let’s simply elevate a phrase of warning on generalizing about Viking weddings. Whereas some parts of the marriage would have been elementary, reminiscent of hallowing the union in reference to Thor, different parts wouldn’t have been.
While you examine Viking weddings you’ll typically see references to elaborate ritual bathing practices and the alternate of swords. However these particular rituals would have been restricted to the elite. As now we have talked about a number of occasions, most Vikings wouldn’t have been capable of afford a sword as they have been costly each by way of materials and craftsmanship.
However the nature of the historic report is that now we have extra details about the elite than we do concerning the widespread particular person. Individuals wrote about kings and chieftains, and their grand homes and burials have left behind extra proof than the modest homes and burials of the commoner.
So, all the weather of the Viking wedding ceremony that we’re going to take a look at beneath ought to be taken in context. These are issues that might have been accomplished by the elite. Your widespread Viking most likely skipped quite a lot of these rituals or engaged with them on a considerably extra modest scale.
Viking Marriage For Love?
Whereas there are at all times exceptions to the rule, Viking marriages weren’t usually love matches.
Marriage was a approach of bringing collectively two households to boost one another’s standing and wealth, and a approach of controlling replica to safe inheritance.
Whereas the emotions of the younger couple have been most likely not fully discarded, monetary concerns and alliances would have taken precedence.
Viking Ladies, specifically, might have had little say in their very own marriage. Ladies have been largely seen because the property of their fathers, whose “possession” was then transferred to her husband. It’s telling {that a} husband had the fitting to kill each an adulterous spouse and her lover, whereas there was no penalty for males who had relationships outdoors the wedding.
Whereas girls had the fitting to provoke divorce, which was a comparatively easy technique of summoning witnesses and declaring oneself divorced, in actuality, a divorced girl must return to her household house, so it might be tough for her to depart her husband with out the help of her household.
Marriage Negotiations
As a result of marriage was largely a enterprise transaction, it ought to be unsurprising that they required fairly a little bit of negotiation. Marriages had long-lasting authorized implications in relation to property and inheritance.
Usually the groom’s household would meet first to agree on what the monetary belongings of the groom could be, and what the groom’s dad and mom would be capable to present as a marriage present (“mundr”). They might additionally think about what sort of dowry they’d request from the bride’s household, and what they’d be prepared to just accept.
The groom and the essential male members of the groom’s household would then take this proposal to the daddy or guardian of the bride. If the match was kind of favorable, and the phrases kind of acceptable, the 2 households might then iron out the ultimate particulars.
Sources counsel that within the 11th century the minimal bride worth in Iceland was eight ounces of silver, and in Norway was 12 ounces of silver. However once more, who precisely this rule would have utilized to and who would have enforced it’s unclear.
Setting A Date
As soon as the whole lot was agreed upon, the household might then set a date. The marriage would normally occur on Fridays, as this was the day sacred to Frigg, the spouse of Odin and the goddess of wives and wifely duties.
Huge weddings that might have been held by the elite would then have included a number of days of feasting. And much more modest weddings might have run for a number of days if household and buddies traveled a ways to attend and witness, and would subsequently keep for some time.
It might take numerous time to plan a giant wedding ceremony, not least to make sure that there could be sufficient meals and beer for all of the friends. Some sources counsel that weddings may take as much as a yr to plan.
Bachelor Events?
Whereas there are not any information of younger Viking grooms being taken to strip golf equipment or brides dressing up in L plates, the Vikings do appear to have had their very own variations of bachelor events. Earlier than the marriage, the bride and groom could be separated, the bride accompanied by feminine members of the family and buddies, and the groom by male members of the family and buddies.
Every social gathering would then have interaction in rituals that might assist the bride and groom throw off their earlier lives as youths and grow to be prepared for his or her lives as a pair.
There are information of younger brides having steam baths to open their pores, after which plunging into chilly baths to shut their pores. Different beautifying rituals to arrange the bride for the massive day would most likely even have taken place.
In the meantime, there are tales that counsel that grooms might have gotten as much as a little bit of mischief, very like modern-day bachelors. One groom is described as breaking right into a household tomb to steal an ancestral sword.
The Wedding ceremony Gown
No proof survives for the bride or groom carrying particular clothes, reminiscent of white attire for the bride, however there do appear to be traditions across the hair of the bride.
A maiden would have worn her hair lengthy and flowing, enhanced by a bridal crown constructed from leaves and flowers. Within the later Scandinavian interval, these have been changed with silver crowns that have been normally heirlooms stored inside the household.
There’s some proof to counsel that not less than some grooms carried an ancestral household sword throughout the wedding ceremony ceremony. Whereas this may not have been true of all Vikings, if the household did have a prestigious weapon to their identify, it could have been carried by the groom as a part of the ceremony.
The Ceremony
The ceremony itself wouldn’t begin till the bride worth and dowry have been formally exchanged, in entrance of witnesses. Solely when enterprise was accomplished might the non secular ceremony start.
A specific elder inside the neighborhood would fulfill the position of officiant. The Vikings didn’t have “skilled clergymen” as is widespread in Christian society. Reasonably, neighborhood leaders took on the position as obligatory.
They might start by summoning the eye of the gods to bless the union with a sacrifice. It was conventional to sacrifice a goat to Thor, a sow to Freya, or a boar or horse to Freyr.
Whichever animal was sacrificed, and later eaten on the feast, the blood was drained right into a bowl and consecrated ultimately. A bunch of fir twigs was then dipped within the blood and used to splatter the couple with the blood, conferring the blessing of the gods.
At this level, the bride and groom might have exchanged keepsakes. There are tales from the later Scandinavian interval of the bride and groom exchanging swords, and even rings.
The Social gathering
After the ceremony, there was, after all, the social gathering, which the household of the bride and groom would host collectively for his or her households and neighborhood. It will be the primary time that the group would come collectively below the phrases of their new social alliance.
There are some tales that the events of the bride and groom needed to race again to the placement of the marriage, and that whoever arrived final needed to serve the opposite social gathering beer for the remainder of the night time. Whereas the specifics of the video games might have diversified, harmless competitions like this have been most likely widespread.
Sooner or later throughout the feast, Thor’s hammer could be known as upon to bless the union and the brand new social association. In some circumstances, a simulacrum of Mjolnir might have been introduced forth for the aim, whereas in others the calling of the hammer would have been purely metaphorical.
However what appears to have been widespread in any respect wedding ceremony feasts was a major quantity of consuming! The household had to supply sufficient bridal brew to maintain everybody on the social gathering in good spirits for a number of days.
Consummation
It was fairly widespread in historic European cultures that the consummation of marriages needed to be witnessed. Precisely what this witnessing entailed is unclear, for instance, whether or not the witnesses have been required to be within the room, or simply close by to concentrate on what was occurring.
In later Scandinavian tradition, it was widespread that six witnesses have been required to verify the wedding. The Vikings might effectively have additionally had this observe.
Can You Get Married Like A Viking Right now?
Many followers of the Asatru faith and simply followers of Viking tradition normally select to get married based on Viking customs at this time. What precisely these weddings appear to be relies upon, as there is no such thing as a strict normal for Viking weddings.
A very powerful ingredient is to name on the Norse gods to witness and bless your union, and to embark on the brand new journey with the Viking spirit in your coronary heart.
