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

Female Ideals and Their Roles in Icelandic SocietyFemale precedents in medieval Icelandic society revolved around a womans lookand actions in her marriage, work, and family domains. The historical background ofIcelandic women, womens general function in society, and the roles of female charactersin the Icelandic sagas provide hints towards the common attitude towards women of thetime, that is, how women were pass judgment to act, what they were expected to do, andessentially, what the ideal woman was.To examine what an ideal Icelandic woman would have been like, it is firstnecessary to look at some background entropy on the life of women in the period.While women were nowhere near the status of men in terms of the amount of power theyhad, they did enjoy a mint more rights than other women in medieval Europe (Simpson129). A woman could own her own holding (Simpson 128). Being able to manage herown property and refuse a second marriage, widows enjoyed the most independence(Simpso n 129). At the same time, there were legion(predicate) things a woman could not do. Forexample, 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 tobuy or sell anything above a low value (Simpson 128). While a woman did not havepower everyplace other people, especially men, she did have power in her own domestic sphereto make decisions in the household (Dommasnes 71). In her essay Women, Kinship,and the Basis of world power Liv Helga Dommasnes states, As managers of all kinds of farmproducts, such as food, textiles, and hides, it was in the hands of the wife to see to it thatthe often quite big household of many generations, serva... ...sible to get avery clear picture of women in Icelandic society through the sagas alone, the coupling ofhistoric background with the sagas provides a clearer image of the ideal woman - strong,confident, married or widowed, loyal to her family, concerned with her familys honor,and an extremely hard worker.12Works CitedDammasnes, Liv Helga. Women, Kinship, and the Basis of Power. Social Approachesto Viking Studies. Ed. Ross Samson. Glasgow Cruithne Press, 1991.Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Scandinavian Society. Ithaca Cornell University Press, 1995.Simpson, Jacqueline. The Viking World. New York St. Martins Press. 1980.The Sagas of Icelanders. Ed. Thorsson, Ornolfur. New York Penguin Group, 2000.Sawyer, Birgit and Peter. Medieval Scandinavia From Conversion to Reformation, circa800-1500. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1993.