Female Ideals and Their Roles in Icelandic Society Essay -- Iceland Wo

Female Ideals and Their Roles in Icelandic Society Female ideals in medieval Icelandic society revolved around a woman's behavior and actions in her marriage, work, and family domains. The historical background of Icelandic women, women’s general function in society, and the roles of female characters in the Icelandic sagas provide hints towards the common attitude towards women of the time, that is, how women were expected to act, what they were expected to do, and essentially, what the ideal woman was. To examine what an ideal Icelandic woman would have been like, it is first necessary to look at some background information on the life of women in the period. While women were nowhere near the status of men in terms of the amount of power they had, they did enjoy a lot more rights than other women in medieval Europe (Simpson 129). A woman could own her own property (Simpson 128). Being able to manage her own property and refuse a second marriage, widows enjoyed the most independence (Simpson 129). At the same time, there were many things a woman could not do. For example, a woman could not vote at the Thing, be a judge, or conduct her own lawsuit. The approval of a father, husband, or other male guardian was needed for a woman to buy or sell anything above a low value (Simpson 128). While a woman did not have power over other people, especially men, she did have power in her own domestic sphere to make decisions in the household (Dommasnes 71). In her essay "Women, Kinship, and the Basis of Power" Liv Helga Dommasnes states, "As managers of all kinds of farm products, such as food, textiles, and hides, it was in the hands of the wife to see to it that the often quite big household of many generations, serva... ...sible to get a very clear picture of women in Icelandic society through the sagas alone, the coupling of historic background with the sagas provides a clearer image of the ideal woman - strong, confident, married or widowed, loyal to her family, concerned with her family's honor, and an extremely hard worker. 12 Works Cited Dammasnes, Liv Helga. "Women, Kinship, and the Basis of Power." Social Approaches to Viking Studies. Ed. Ross Samson. Glasgow: Cruithne Press, 1991. Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995. Simpson, Jacqueline. The Viking World. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1980. The Sagas of Icelanders. Ed. Thorsson, Ornolfur. New York: Penguin Group, 2000. Sawyer, Birgit and Peter. Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800-1500. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.