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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Guess what ancient Viking brides focused on instead of the dress

In the West, many brides-to-be go on the hunt for the perfect wedding dress for their big day and spare no expense, but this wasn’t the case for ancient Viking brides. When it came to Viking wedding clothes, the focus wasn’t on the wedding gown but on the bride’s hair and the bridal headpiece – a wedding crown.

Viking bridal hairstyles

 

In the Viking culture, women wore long hair. In fact, the longer the hair the better because it represented their sexual appeal. Blonde hair was the most valued and brunette women often chose to bleach their hair using soap which contained lye to give them red or golden blond hair. Before marriage, women wore their hair loose and long or sometimes braided in two braids hanging past their ears and so bridal hairstyles for Viking brides were basic and very simple.

 

Long hair symbolized the bride's sexual appeal -- the longer the better.

 

Viking bridal crown

Before marriage, a medieval Scandinavian woman wore a kransen, a gilt circlet, as a symbol of their virginity. This kransen was removed (but kept for the bride’s future daughter) in preparation for the wedding along with all her clothing and anything that represented she was single as she prepared to enter her life together with her husband.

During the wedding ceremony, a bridal crown replaced the kransen. This Viking bridal crown was most often an heirloom and commonly crafted of silver. The novelist Sigrid Unset, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928, described a Viking wedding crown in her trilogy, Kristin Lavransdatter, as a headpiece crafted of silver with points culminating in crosses and clover leaves by turns. It was decorated with rock-crystal and festooned with red and green silk cords.

Bridal Wedding Crown and Tiara with Crystals

 

Wedding crowns today

Today, some brides still choose to wear a wedding crown in this tradition with something as simple as woven straw decorated with flowers, or for something more elaborate a full crown or bridal tiara can be purchased for a reasonable price through a bridal store. These crowns can be worn in tandem with a veil or by themselves.

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Marriage traditions in ancient Sparta

 

In ancient Greece, the warrior society of Sparta reached its pinnacle from 431-404 B.C. following the defeat of the rival city-state Athens in the Peloponnesian War. The culture was centered on loyalty to the state which pressured people to have male children that would become citizen warriors. For this reason, the importance of marriage was emphasized in the Spartan culture but the wedding was certainly much different than the typical Greek wedding of Ancient Greece.

 

Male role in Sparta

When Spartan boys reached the age of 7, they left home and started a demanding state-sponsored training program that included both military and socialization education. So Spartan men devoted their lives to military service. From age 20, they were full-time soldiers and served on active duty until age 60. They had no other career path options. Their loyalty to the state came before everything else, including one’s family.

Men who put off marriage faced public shaming while men who fathered multiple sons might be rewarded. No pressure there! Once boys left home, they lived communally under harsh conditions. Frequent physical competitions actually endangered their lives and they were fed meager rations. This didn't mean they starved though. It means they learned to survive. Among their survival skills, they were expected to become experts at stealing food. 

 

 

Life as a female Spartan

Spartan women were not conscripted into the military. They didn’t dress like a warrior princess or a super hero either. They were educated and enjoyed more freedom and status than other Greek women. This education was separate from the boys and as girls they were not required to leave home at a young age. 

While they weren’t in the military, they did still engage in athletic competitions. These included sports like javelin throwing and wrestling along with competitions for dance and singing. For the most part, these events were designed to attract a husband. As adult women, Spartans owned and managed property and didn’t have household domestic responsibilities like cooking and cleaning because the Helots took care of these things. (The Helots were fellow Greeks from Laconia and Messenia who were conquered by the Spartans and treated as a slave class who did day-to-day tasks and unskilled labor).

  

Marriage in ancient Sparta

According the state’s customs, it was recommended that men marry at age 30 and women at 20. Because men were required to live in the communal barracks until age 30, couples who married earlier were forced to live separately until the husband turned 30. As for Spartan wedding customs, Spartan women didn’t have to worry about how to wear their hair for their wedding, because unlike Viking brides who wore their hair long, Spartan brides shaved their heads on the night of the "wedding." The bride then dressed in a man's cloak and sandals and was left alone in a dark room. Her husband-to-be visited this room and “captured” her. That’s it. They were married. Later, the groom dropped the bride off at her parents’ house which completed the “ceremony.”

Like I mentioned, following the marriage, men under 30 were still required to live in the communal housing. So once married, these husbands had to sneak out at night if they wanted to see their wives.  Men who delayed marriage were publicly shamed, while those who fathered multiple sons could be rewarded.

With a closer look at Spartan weddings, I think for most people a Spartan wedding theme is a pass don’t you think?

 

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