Sagas and runic inscriptions show that families were formed by monogamous marriages. A man may have had relationships, and children, with several women, but when he died, only one wife was acknowledged.
Fidelity. This belief in fidelity extended far beyond the modern understanding of it, which is to remain monogamous with your life partner. They also applied this belief in fidelity to friends and family as well, which meant that Vikings had to be unequivocally loyal to those that were close to them.
On the other hand, women were respected in Norse society and had great freedom, especially when compared to other European societies of that era. They managed the finances of the family. They ran the farm in their husband's absence. In widowhood, they could be rich and important landowners.
Yes, polygyny was known to happen in the Anglo-Saxon groups and the Vikings, though it wasn't all that common and was mainly for higher status men.
While Vikings rarely married for love, that doesn't mean they didn't have courtship rituals in place to help create tighter bonds between wives and grooms. There were two phases in most Viking courtship rituals, starting with betrothal, when Viking men would woo and get to know their brides.
Some men would have two to three wives, but the Norse sagas say that some princes had limitless numbers. “So raiding was away to build up wealth and power. Men could gain a place in society, and the chance for wives if they took part in raids and proved their masculinity and came back wealthy.
Cnut, the famed Danish king of England from 1016-1035, enacted a grim law that died with him. It stipulated that a woman committing adultery must lose her nose and ears, while men were merely chastised.
Women tended to marry between the ages of 12 and 15, and families negotiated to arrange those marriages, but the woman usually had a say in the arrangement. If a woman wanted a divorce, she had to call witnesses to her home and marriage bed and declare in front of them that she had divorced her husband.
Female Vikings could go to Valhalla. Viking culture and mythos were not free of bias against women, but the gods cared about the method of their dying, not the details of their life. According to the Poetic Edda, Valhalla was reserved only for those who demonstrated their eternal valor by dying in battle.
The noble blood that ran through the veins of these sons would insure the longevity of his royal line. The Seven Wives of Harald Fairhair, First King of All Norway brings to life a superhero of the Viking Age whose story needs to be told.
Fortunately, they often were and many illegitimate sons inherited their father's land and wealth. This even holds true in the royal family, where multiple illegitimate sons have inherited the throne.
We also know that newborn babies were sometimes put out to die. This might happen if the parents could not afford to support the child. After the introduction of Christianity the putting out of children to die was forbidden by law. The practice was still allowed for children with deformities, however.
WOMEN AS VALKYRIES AND SHIELD-MAIDENS
Women that fought were in the Norse literature called vakyries or shield-maidens (skjoldsmøyer). There were several kinds of female warriors. – Some were divine beings, like the valkyries sent by Odin to pick up the warriors that were slain on the battlefield.
Lagertha. Thanks to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, we know of a legendary female Viking known as either Lagertha or Ladgerda. This incredible woman was part of a larger group of female warriors who volunteered to help renowned hero Ragnar Lothbrok avenge his grandfather's death.
The faces of men and women in the Viking Age were more alike than they are today. The women's faces were more masculine than women's today, with prominent brow ridges. On the other hand, the Viking man's appearance was more feminine than that of men today, with a less prominent jaw and brow ridges.
A wife's adultery was a serious matter, and in some areas the husband had the right to kill both her and her lover if they were caught together. There was no penalty for a man if he kept a concubine or had children outside his marriage.
The idea that Vikings commonly shared their wives with their guests is a myth that has been perpetuated by popular culture. In reality, Vikings valued women and treated them with respect. Women of status, such as the wives of chieftains, were highly regarded and would not have been treated as property to be shared.
Historically, Danish and Norwegian patronymic surnames often ended with the suffix -sen for males and -datter for females, while Swedish patronymic surnames were more likely to end with -sson for males and -dotter for females. Scandinavian females did not assume their husband's surname when they married.
Second, although most Viking warriors were men, there is evidence that some women fought alongside their male counterparts in battle. Some even joined raiding parties and served as navigators or ship captains on long voyages!
Evidence suggests that mothers nursed their children until the age of 2 years, which may have dictated the interval between the births of a couple's children. A typical couple probably had 2 or 3 living children at any one time. Few parents lived to see their children marry.
In popular lore, few images are as synonymous with Viking brutality as the “blood eagle,” a practice that allegedly found torturers separating the victim's ribs from their spine, pulling their bones and skin outward to form a set of “wings,” and removing their lungs from their chest cavity.
Many believe that the Viking Age was dominated by men and that they held a stronger social position with more freedom, whilst women were at their mercy in terms of their agency and choice.
Eiginmaður/eiginkona = Husband/wife. Often shortened to maður and kona, and in these short forms even couples that are only dating may sometimes use them.
"The examination of skeletons from different localities in Scandinavia reveals that the average height of the Vikings was a little less than that of today: men were about 5 ft 7-3/4 in. tall and women 5 ft 2-1/2 in.
The skeletons that the archaeologists have found, reveals, that a man was around 172 cm tall (5.6 ft), and a woman had an average height of 158 cm (5,1 ft). People who had access to more or better food in the Viking age were often taller than the average person due to having a better lifestyle.