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Viking weddings are the dream of many couples. The Norse traditions were based on a number of customs. But how can they be incorporated into modern life? Here's what we found.
A crucial role is played by the Vikings in Nordic culture. The Viking Age has recently been thrust into the spotlight on a global scale like never before as a result of recent TV series. The growing interest in Norse-inspired weddings should not come as a surprise.
Our knowledge of Viking weddings is largely derived from the Icelandic sagas, as it is with Viking funerals. There are two sources of information to support this: directly from the sagas themselves and indirectly from other descriptive texts and related topics.
The following are some of the traditions we do know about:
Let's explore a few of these in more detail now.
As a result of politics and power, Northmen often arranged marriages. Many couples might not have met before their wedding. Getting the couple ready was just one part of the preparations!
The availability of a venue plays an important role in choosing a wedding date today. There were, however, other considerations in the time of the Northmen.
Frigg's Day or Freya's Day, also known as Friday, was the most common day for weddings. It would have been considered a bad omen to hold a wedding on any other day than that of the Norse goddess of fertility and love.
The seasons were also considered by Viking families in addition to the day of the week. During the winter, people would have difficulty traveling to the ceremony, and food would be scarce.
The wedding could be delayed by years as a result of these considerations. Icelandic Vikings had to wait three years before settling in Iceland, according to Jenny Jochens' book Women in Old Norse Society. Choosing a date was difficult due to frequent trips to Norway.
During the time leading up to the ceremony, the couple would separate and prepare for marriage with members of their own gender. For example, female family members would help cleanse the bride to wash away maidenhood.
For the bride, this meant being stripped of old clothing and any symbols of her unwed status, such as her kransen, a gilt circlet worn by Scandinavian girls.
The bride would also need to remove her kransen—a bracelet worn by Viking girls as a symbol of virginity—so it could be stored and passed on to her future daughter.
It's also believed a Viking groom would have to undergo some sort of ceremony to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood before the wedding itself.
Many Norse sagas tell of a sword ceremony. A would-be groom would break into a grave to retrieve a family sword. This action is said to make the groom enter into death as a boy and emerge into life a man, reborn.
A blood sacrifice was also a common feature in order to thank the Gods for letting the couple find each other. In order to ask Thor for his blessing of the marriage, a goat would often be sacrificed. Its blood would be kept in the temple for use in the ceremony.
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