Viking-inspired wedding themes are growing in popularity. Some couples choose a Viking décor based on ancient Norse and Celtic history that include things like drinking mead from traditional drinking horns and tying the knot by handfasting. But for those who want to take their wedding beyond the usual accoutrements, incorporating one or more of the following long-forgotten ancient Viking wedding traditions may add that unique flare you’re looking for.

Get Married on a Friday

This first Viking wedding tradition isn’t something you see, but something to be experienced Set the wedding date for a Friday. Since Friday was considered sacred to Figg (Frigga), the wife of Odin, the highest ranking of the Aesir goddesses, Viking weddings were held on Fridays.

Exchange Swords and Rings

The Viking groom presented his bride with the family’s ancestral sword along with the wedding ring on its hilt. The bride then presented the groom with her family’s ancestral sword with his ring on the hilt. Where did the groom’s family sword come from? Before the wedding, the groom broke into the grave of an ancestor to retrieve the sword. As he entered the grave and emerged with the sword, it symbolized his death as a boy and his new life as a man.

Grooms had to enter grave and emerge with ancestoral sword.

Escorting the Bride

Another custom involving the family sword deals with who escorted the bride. Instead of the father walking the bride down the “aisle,’ a younger male family member escorted the bride. This young male carried the sword to be presented to the groom.

Sounding of the Horn

This tradition works well for couples getting married at a lakeside venue. Historically the Viking groom went out on the lake in a boat with ten of his friends before the wedding. When the hunting horn sounded, they came back to shore to take part in the wedding. For a little added authenticity, you can look for a Viking boat to rent for the occasion but they are hard to find.

While most people don’t reenact ancient wedding traditions exactly, it can be fun to modernized them for today. Getting married on a Friday is the easiest wedding custom on this list, and finding a young man of the family to escort the bride won’t take much work, but no one is going to rob a grave for a sword, so including the sword ceremony will require buying swords and rings (unless you have an ancestral family sword).

The fun part for people who do introduce the sword ceremony into their wedding is that they will have a family sword to pass on to their children. And as for the boat arrival of a groom, this one takes the most work and requires a lakeside wedding venue, a hunting horn to blow, and the availability of a boat. Any boat can work, but if you really want a Viking replica, the Karvi, with 13 rowing benches is about the right size. These wooden boats have a shallow draft hull designed for speed that can make beach landings and can navigate waters only a meter deep. The problem is that Viking boats for rent are hard to find in the States, but you can find Viking boats for hire in the UK. If you know of other places to find Viking boats for hire, please let me know in the comments.

For more ideas for Viking traditions to include for your wedding, check out ancient-origins.net.

Vintage Handmade Ceremonial Viking Mead Drinking HornSet Of 4

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Photo credits: wikimedia, pixabay, maxpixel, J Cunningham

When you think of Vikings, the first thing to come to mind often is the brutality associated with their raping, pillaging, and conquering lifestyle. Yet, unlike the Spartans, Vikings honored several wedding traditions and marriage was the center of the family structure in the Viking culture and quite involved. For instance, planning the wedding required the families of the bride and groom to discuss and settle on inheritances, property transfers and dowries before the wedding could take place. These customs were considered critical for the marriage to be blessed by their deities and weren’t the only thing that took time. While most weddings took place within a year, at times planning could take as much as three years.

Viking wedding customs

Once all these customs were settled, a public wedding ceremony and feast took place. This included many elements common in celebrating marriage today and included vows, a banquet, and of course much partying. However, these nuptials usually went on for at least three days and could easily last a week.

As for the religious aspect of the ceremony, their Old Norse polytheistic religion included many gods and goddesses. Weddings were always held on Friday (Friggas-day) to honor the goddess of marriage. A Norse goddess linked to oaths and pledges was believed to witness the bride and groom reciting their vows, and petitions for blessings may have also been requested from Thor, who was one of their most popular gods. Petitions to the fertility deity Freyr and his goddess sister Freyja, a deity of love, beauty, war and death were also made. These gods were believed to express human emotions and in some cases were married with a family.

When the wedding could be held was dictated by other things like the weather. For instance, guests would have a hard time traveling in the wither months, and just like today, plans included making arrangements for appropriate accommodations for guests, and making sure there was enough food and drink for everyone for the duration of the festivities. This also included the bridal ale. It was a legal restriction that the bride and groom drink bridal ale, which meant honey had to be available to make enough of mead for the month following the wedding.

Gifts and rings

The Viking groom presented his bride with the sword of his ancestors which she was to hold in trust for her son. In turn, the bride gave her husband her father's sword. This exchange of gifts of the ancestral swords formed a sacred bond of union which was consecrated by mystic rites under the favor of the presiding deities of wedlock. The bride's gift of her father’s sword, signified the transfer of the father’s guardianship and protection of his daughter as the responsibility was handed over to her new husband. This rite signified the traditions of the family and the continuation of the bloodline. The exchange of rings followed the exchange of swords. The groom offered the bride a ring on the hilt of his new sword, and the bride offered the groom’s wedding ring in the same way on the sword she had received.

Viking marriage heart of family structure

Each tradition and wedding ritual was believed essential to earn the blessings of the gods, as an important steppingstone to becoming a parent, and continuing the Viking bloodline. Marriage was the heart of family structure in Viking culture, but divorce was freely available.

The ideal bride was expected to be chaste before marriage and a faithful wife, but a clear double standard existed when it came to the man. Viking reasons for chastity weren’t religious but financial. While Vikings could marry for love and not for familial advantage, an unwed maid was a marketable commodity and could bring wealth to her family with a higher bride-price. On the other hand, illegitimate children could actually bring about financial hardship for the woman’s family. The woman’s “value” could also help shape a favorable alliance with other families when she married. However, the only restriction placed on a man's sexual activity was to penalize him with a small fine if he slept with a woman not his wife. However, he could purchase a slave woman to have as a “bed-slave” with no penalty.

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