Would you make a good viking bride?

Modern Viking weddings are trending, along with Viking wedding clothes, wedding feasts and more, but when you look at Viking wedding traditions historically, I have to ask: Could you be a Viking Bride? Before you answer that, let’s take a closer look at what they went through.

Viking brides didn’t plan the wedding

Could you stand back and let others plan your wedding without you? The Viking bride’s wedding coordinators and planners were family. She didn’t have any real say in it, not even for the actual marriage ceremony. And as for that ceremony, if you aren’t one for rituals, you wouldn’t cut it as a Viking bride, because in the Viking tradition, each marriage ritual was deemed necessary. Why? Because they were essential to earn the blessings of the gods. This was vital, even down to the day of the week chosen for the wedding. Viking marriages were performed on Fridays because in the Norse religion that was a sacred day to the goddess of marriage.

Viking Marriage – A Union of Families not Just Couples

For Viking brides, the wedding and the preparation leading to it was a long process. While that's still the case for many weddings today, the Viking wedding wasn’t just about the union of a man and woman--it was about the union of families with long-lasting legal consequences. So if you are an independent sort that likes to keep your private life private, you wouldn’t make a good Viking bride because this meant numerous negotiations to determine the “terms” of the marriage which were formally agreed to through legal delegates. This included details like the bride’s dowry, and the groom’s financial holdings and properties. So instead of the bride really having a say, the groom’s family and their delegates were the ones who carried proposals with beneficial terms for the marriage to the bride’s family. On top of this, sometimes, when the dowry was paid, an animal sacrifice was necessary. So if you're an animal lover, probably not a candidate for being a Viking bride. The animals used were associated with gods related to fertility.

• For the god Thor (associated with fertility): a goat
• For the god Freyr (associated with virility and prosperity): a boar or horse
• For the goddess Freyja (along with war, death she was associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, and gold): a sow

Bathhouse Ritual for the Viking Bride

Before the wedding, Viking brides and grooms were separated so they could get rid of their former “selves” before coming together as husband and wife. For the bride, this required a ritual involving her “maidenhood.” The bride’s mother, married sisters and other married female relatives and friends were involved in this ritual which included removing everything that symbolized her “maiden” standing. For instance, the circlet worn in the hair of Scandinavian girls that symbolized their virginity was removed (and stored for the bride’s future daughter).

The bride's long hair expressed her sexual allure

No Special Wedding Gown

Viking brides didn’t wear an ornate or special dress. Instead the emphasis was on her hair and the wedding crown. What’s interesting is why the hair was the focus. It turns out that in the Viking culture, the hair expressed the bride’s sexual allure and the longer her hair, the better. So if you have short hair or even shoulder length hair, what message would you be sending as a Viking bride? I guess there’s always hair extensions. As for the bridal crown, it was most often a family heirloom crafted of silver.

So could you be a Viking bride? Not able to plan your wedding, forced to hammer out financial terms as two families rather than two individuals, living totally separate and not seeing each other as you got rid of your “old self” and on top of all that, no wedding dress but rather wearing long hair to express your sexual allure! I do like the idea of modern Viking-themed weddings but as for the rituals from the past? That’s where they belong. 

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Photo credits: Amazon, Johannes Gehrts, Wikimedia