The Important Key Found, Suggesting The Power of Viking Women
Many decorated keys were found in female graves along with many other personal items. Keys made of bronze and ornated with ravish craftsmanship were seen as a status symbol for the Viking women. Those keys could even become the small work of art that the Viking woman wore around their belt.
The Viking women must master many household skills
On Heggum farm in Røyken in the Oslofjord, archaeologists found out a very special key. It is 9.5 centimetres long and decorated with animal figures. It was found in a burial dating back to the Viking Age and it may have belonged to a housewife of wealth and nobility. The day that woman got marries, she must have been given the key to the farm doors and the treasure as the symbol sign of her new position and power.
Female Duties In Viking Age
There was a very clear gender role in the Viking society. While the Viking women would have to work within their house, the Viking men were supposed to work outside their house. Obviously, we can see that this society is a male-dominated one. The Viking men would have to go out and work on the farm or go to the jungle to hunt animals. The Viking men's task revolved around the outside work while the Viking women's task was kind of within the threshold. We might think the task of men was much harder than the woman. But the duty of the women wasn't easy.
Lagertha Viking woman in Vikings TV Series
Since they were still little girls, they had to follow their mothers to master many household skills. They must know how to cook, clean the house, make and preserve food, etc. They spent a great amount of time in pregnancy, raising their kids, and running the family. If their husbands were absent from home, the women would take over the responsibilities of their husbands as well. The Viking women need to know about the herbs so that she could create the medicine for the sick.
Right to divorce
If the husband and/or wife couldn't build up a happy marriage, they could part with each other. In Norse mythology, the seafaring god Njord and the giantess of skiing Skadi were the golden examples. They quickly split up when the pair couldn't tolerate each other.
The Viking woman could demand a divorce if her husband was to settle down in a new country. Or if the husband hadn't gone to bed with the wife for three years, she could divorce. The most common reasons that the couple split in the Viking age was because the husband couldn't supply enough for the family or the husband was violent and rude.
