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Norse religion was at no time homogeneous, but was a conglomerate of related customs and beliefs. These could be inherited or borrowed, [2] and although the great geographical distances of Scandinavia led to a variety of cultural differences, people understood each other's customs, poetic traditions and myths. [3]
Most free Viking women were housewives, and a woman's standing in society was linked to that of her husband. [160] Marriage gave a woman a degree of economic security and social standing encapsulated in the title húsfreyja (lady of the house). Norse laws assert the housewife's authority over the 'indoor household'.
Holmgang (Old Norse: holmganga, Icelandic: hólmganga, Danish and Norwegian: holmgang, Swedish: holmgång) is a duel practiced by early medieval Scandinavians. It was a legally recognized way to settle disputes.
The modern English noun Yule descends from Old English ġēol, earlier geoh(h)ol, geh(h)ol, and geóla, sometimes plural. [1] The Old English ġēol or ġēohol and ġēola or ġēoli indicate the 12-day festival of "Yule" (later: "Christmastide"), the latter indicating the month of "Yule", whereby ǣrra ġēola referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and æftera ġēola ...
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period.
Norse clothing. In modern scholarship, Vikings is a common term for attacking Norsemen, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering by Norsemen in the British Isles, but it was not used in this sense at the time. In Old Norse and Old English, the word simply meant 'pirate'. [18] [19] [20]
Old Norse religion has been classed as an ethnic religion, [18] and as a "non-doctrinal community religion". [13] It varied across time, in different regions and locales, and according to social differences. [19] This variation is partly due to its transmission through oral culture rather than codified texts. [20]
The Norse communities were not only in contact with Scandinavia. Two Hiberno-Norse ring pins and a Jewish bracelet identified as being from the Irish Sea region were discovered at Toftanes. The Norse who settled at the Faroe Islands appeared to have maintained the tradition of mercantilism throughout the Atlantic. [15]