Chapter III Family and social structure

Relationships in family were very important for the Vikings. They were proud of their ancestors; also they remembered every member of their family and had a strong sense of moral duty to them. The family (including uncles, aunts and cousins) was a united group and everyone fought for each other in different situations. They had a strong sense of honor: the insult of one of them was the insult of all family. The shame, which was brought by a coward, a traitor who made a shameful crime, also touched the whole family.

Moreover, there was overall responsibility: if someone was unfairly murdered by another one, then murderer and whole his family had to pay the fine. The family should stroke aggressive kinsman down before he did something wrong.

3.1 The relationships between the wife and the husband

Women had a high social and political status. They were allowed to own the land and manage their property. They had a strong authority in household and they had to manage a farm, while their husbands were absent. Women were not allowed to judge, but some stories say that they were very vindictive at litigations.

The lawful wife was different from concubines: the husband paid a ransom for her, also he was to give the present to her the day after the wedding, after that the young wife were gifted by her father. The first and the third of these gifts were her property, and, if there was a divorce, then the husband had to pay the whole dowry. Moreover, there was a ceremonial drinking of the “wedding ale” on a formal wedding. But a young wife saved her name and patronymic, also she never severed the connection with her family. If there was a conflict between her family and her husband, she might take the side of any of them.

3.2 Children

The main feature of inheritance law was “odal” – the law about inheritance of the land. The law said that the ownership of the whole land was due to all family. When father died, the ownership was given to the eldest son, but he had to pay the compensating to his brothers for their parts of heritage. As a result, the youngest sons had to find new lands by following the plow or going across the sea. But this system was not so hard as a primogeniture.

Primogeniture was heritage of family’s land (as a rule, by the eldest son or other first-degree relative) without a selling right.

Other parts of land, livestock and silver could be divided between first-degree relatives, and there were detailed rules in the lawbook, which decided the inheritance order and the way of division.

There were many illegal children because most men had female slaves and concubines. According to the Norwegian law, the son of concubine was the slave if he was not gifted freedom by laws.

Children were usually brought up at home, but the son often spent part of his childhood as the adopted son of a friend’s house, but not because of poverty: according to this way there was budding relationships between two families. In the case of blood feud or other difficult situations the boy might wait help from both of two families and was very close to his non native family.

There was not education in those times, even later there was a lack of Christian schools and they were small. The children learned to farm and others crafts just by helping the adults to household and trained by fighting to each others. The child, which was talented in something special craft, perhaps, was sent to another family, if his native family was not good at it enough.