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Utgard Online Magazine of the Northern Tradition is ©1998-2009 Skergard
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Issue #1 March 1998 Aesir - Vanir by Maridax Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Industriousness, Hospitality, Self Reliance, Perseverance The Nine Noble Virtues may have been given to the men of The North by the Gods to live by, but it was the women of The North that most faithfully extolled these nine virtues. Courage: she lived in a cold cruel world populated by wild beast and wilder men, still she maintained her home and bore her children. Truth: Her word was her bond in all public and private affairs. If her husband mistreated her or her children or her family she could on her word, simply divorce him by declaring to her neighbors at the door and in her bed room that the marriage was over. Honor: The family name and reputation came first and she would do nothing to shame or dishonor her husband or family. Fidelity: Faithful, loyal, accuracy and exactness all of these she used in taking care of her husbands farm and belongs when he was away. She managed the farm or business in the summers when the men went a Viking. The woman carried the keys to all the household larders and kept all of the records. Discipline: Her hand was the one that taught the children right from wrong. And her voice was heard in the councils of the kindred. Hospitality: The men didn't cook all the food nor brew all the ale and mead. The women saw always to the comfort and feeding of her guest. Industriousness: This was the life of the northern women, bearing and tending the children, taking care of the household chores, weaving and making the clothing, and seeing to the affairs of her husband when he was away. Self Reliance: A woman of the north learned early in her life that she had to be able to take care of herself and her children. Her husband was gone part of the year or sometimes for years and even more likely he never returned from the voyage at all. She had to know how to take care of her husband's holdings and how to survive if he never returned. Perseverance: Through all of this she persevered, she managed, she coped, and she kept a family and a way of life alive. She waited for the returning ships and she prayed to Frejya and Odin for the safe return of her man to her or at the very least that he might be in Valhalla with his brothers and that his good name would live on. She persevered! The woman of the north was a free independent individual person. She owned property, managed her own or her families' holdings, had the right to a divorce and had a voice in the councils. There were also those that chose the ways of the warriors and went to war with the men, but theirs is a different saga. She was a liberated women. Only with the advent of Christianity into her cold world did inequality raise its ugly head and strive to make her a second class person with no rights and no holdings of her own. ©1997 maridax@wwisp.com |
