THE VIKING AGE. 



CHAPTER I. 



MAEKIAGE. 



High position of women Married women's property Marriage a civil com- 

 pact The suitor Qualities looked for in a suitor The bride's dower 

 Kunaway marriages The marriage settlement The givers away of the 

 bride The betrothal Breaking a betrothal Length of a betrothal - 

 The wedding The trousseau Illegality of marriages without betrothal 

 Guardians of unmarried sisters Marriage against the will of the 

 parents Age of majority Widows Marriage on insufficient means- 

 Laws relating to marriage The wedding feast Valuation of property- 

 Laws on kissing Women's rights. 



IT is particularly striking, in reading the Sagas and the 

 ancient laws which corroborate them, to see the high position 

 women occupied in earlier and later pagan times. 



If we are to judge of the civilisation of a people in their 

 daily life by the position women held with regard to men, we 

 must conclude that in this respect the earlier Norse tribes could 

 compare favourably with the most ancient civilised nations 

 whose history has come down to us. 



A maiden was highly respected, and on becoming a wife she 

 was greatly honoured, and her counsels had great weight ; by 

 marrying she became the companion and not the inferior of 

 her husband. She held property in her own right, whatever 

 she received by inheritance and by marriage being her own ; 

 though there were restrictions put upon her, as well as upon 

 her husband, in regard to the use of her property. 



In a word, a retrograde -movement in regard to the rights 

 and standing of women took place after the extinction of the 

 Asa creed. The high position they had occupied before was 

 lost, and it is only latterly that they have striven, and in some 

 countries with success, to regain the authority that once 

 belonged to them in regard to property and other matters. 



VOL. II, B 



