The Viking Age was a time during the Middle Ages when Norsemen commenced large-scale raids that culminated in trading but also conquest and colonization efforts across Europe and North America.
Several things drove the expansion, including possible overpopulation and insufficient good farmland.
Political strife may have stoked the flames as well, while the fact that towns and monasteries overseas were becoming wealthier definitely drew their attention as well.
Some historians believe that the aggression of the Carolingian Empire and the brutal Saxon Wars could have been a factor as well.
Over the last few years, the Vikings have become increasingly popular in the mainstream as a result of their depictions in movies and TV series, as well as the revival of music genres like Nordic folk.
As a result, people are increasingly interested in how the Vikings actually lived as well, what they ate, the clothes they wore, what they did for entertainment, and so on.
One of the most interesting parts is, without a doubt, their customs and beliefs since they are so different from those of today.
Courtship and marriage are two of the areas that attract the most attention, so if you’ve been thinking about making your own special day reminiscent of those taking place during the time of these fierce explorers, here are a few things you should know about.
Love and courtship
Viking marriages were arranged between families, so love in the sense that we understand it today would only seldom be part of the arrangement.
Norse poems and Sagas are nonetheless filled to the brim with depictions of passionate love stories, proof that people have enjoyed more or less the same genres throughout history as far as storytelling is concerned.
Marriage in the Viking age was a tool used to strengthen ties and alliances, as well as bring practical benefits, either political or economic, to the families.
While the laws didn’t explicitly require the woman’s consent, the sagas indicate that fathers would nonetheless talk to their daughters beforehand, so forced marriages would definitely have been very unusual.
The clothing
If you’re looking to get a modern festive dress there are so many different options to choose from.
However, if you want something inspired by the Norsemen, you will need to put in a little more effort.
Myth, propaganda created by those whose territories the Vikings would invade, and modern historical fiction have diluted the perception as to what these people actually looked like and the type of clothing they would have worn.
Clothes would have been made at home, with the most common materials being linen and wool.
Women wore strap dresses with an undergarment underneath them.
The strap dress would have been fastened at the front with brooches, with strings of beads connecting the two together.
There was an element of fashion when it came to the undergarments, as research shows that Danish women preferred plain ones while Swedish women liked pleated ones instead.
Most women would have also worn cloaks over their shoulders, decorated with fur or woven hemlines.
Belts and small leather purses were common accessories, prized not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for their practicality.
Male clothing typically included trousers, a tunic, and a cloak.
There is no evidence that the newlyweds would have worn special garments for the occasion, but they would have most definitely been wearing finer clothing than those they would have worn on a daily basis. Brides would wear a bridal crown, a family heirloom.
The rituals
Not much is known about wedding ceremonies and rituals during the Viking Age, but what we do know is very interesting.
While stories dating from those times mention the negotiations that would occur in order to secure the marriage alliance and the laws pertaining to the marriage contracts, the wedding feasts the Norsemen had have largely remained a mystery.
The first thing was setting a wedding date. In the North Friday was the traditional day for the ceremonies as it is the sacred day of the goddess Frigg, associated with marriage, motherhood, and prophecy.
Celebrations were a week-long affair, so a lot of food and drink had to be provided.
It was ideal to hold the wedding during times with milder weather, as travel would have been impossible during the winter for most guests and witnesses.
The bride would have most likely been sequestered with her attendants (who would all be women, of course) right before the wedding, with a goði (a religious leader responsible for feasts) supervising the preparations.
The future bride’s hair would be untied and her kransen (a head accessory similar to a headband) would be removed and set aside for safekeeping until the birth of a future daughter.
Next, she would be taken to the bathhouse, where she’d be washed in wooden tubs, and then she would relax in a steam room.
During this part, the attendants would also provide the bride with advice on her duties as a wife, with parts of these teachings coming from well-known Norse texts such as Sigrdrífumál, a section of the Poetic Edda.
After the steam bath, the bride would be plunged into cold water that would have herbs, oils, and flowers added to it both for their pleasant scent and their supposedly positive effects on fertility.
Lastly, she’d be dressed and get her bridal crown.
But what about the groom? His attendants would be his father and other married men, including his brothers, who had already been wed.
To declare their status as bachelors, grooms had to obtain the ancestral sword of a forebear, and sagas show that it was tradition to break grave mounds in order to retrieve these swords.
Going into the grave was regarded as the man’s symbolic death and rebirth. If no barrow was available, the relatives would create a mock tumulus.
The groom would be confronted by a man who is costumed as the ghost (aptrgangr or draugr) of his ancestor, who would tell the young man about his lineage and his duty to continue the bloodline.
He’d be taken to a bathhouse as well to purify himself for the ceremony.
He’d get instructions on how to live with a woman from the Hávamál, a poem from the Codex Regius, be dressed, and bear the sword he had just acquired as well as an axe or hammer that would act as a token of Thorr to symbolize his role as the master in the marriage and act as a fertility token.
The wedding
Once all preparations were completed, the ceremony proceeded. Viking weddings were held outdoors, on grounds considered sacred. Sometimes, a goat, boar, horse, or sow would have been sacrificed for the gods.
The groom would present the bride with the ancestral sword, after which they’d exchange rings, which would have been offered on the hilt of the man’s new sword.
The feast would include the ceremonial drinking of bridal ale, the symbolic stepping over the threshold for the bride, signifying her transition from maiden to wife, dancing, wrestling, flyting, songs, and lygisogur would be part of the merriment.
Many things have changed since the days of the Vikings, which is why people are so interested in what they were doing in the first place.
Although not much information remains from those times, what we have displays the complexity of Viking society and their love for rituals and ceremony.