Women Beyond the Cross: Power, Myth, and Agency in the Viking World - Medievalists.net

"Beyond the reach of medieval Christendom, Viking-age Scandinavia drew its ideas about gender less from scripture than from myth, law, and the practical demands of life in a raiding and trading world. Luke Daly explores how women could wield real authority-as estate managers, property holders, ritual figures, and, at times, political actors-within a society that was still hierarchical and often violent. Beyond the cathedrals and the long shadow cast by Rome lay societies whose moral and social assumptions were not governed by the cross."

"This article examines the position of women in Viking society, tracing the contours of power, social expectation, and ritual significance, while considering the broader implications for medieval gender norms. By situating Scandinavian practices within their own cosmological, legal, and economic frameworks, it is possible to gain a more nuanced understanding of women's roles in a non-Christian context. Creation, Cosmology, and Gender Parity To appreciate the social position of women in Viking society, one must begin with cosmology."

"Unlike the Christian narrative of Genesis, Norse creation stories did not locate disorder in female transgression, nor did they derive woman from man. Instead, they presented a universe brought into being through balance, interaction, and interdependence. According to the Prose Edda, creation began with the yawning void of Ginnungagap, flanked by the icy realm of Niflheim and the fiery world of Mus"

Norse cosmology framed social expectations through balance, interaction, and interdependence rather than locating disorder in female transgression or deriving woman from man. Women in Viking-age Scandinavia could exercise real authority as estate managers, property holders, ritual specialists, and occasional political actors while operating within hierarchical and often violent social structures. Gender relations were shaped chiefly by myth, custom, law, and practical economic and raiding necessities rather than Christian scripture. Ritual roles and legal property rights enabled tangible agency for women. Situating practices within cosmological, legal, and economic frameworks reveals how non-Christian societies permitted forms of female power unfamiliar to many contemporaneous Christian communities.

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