Pulling the Strings: The Influential Power of Women in Viking Age Iceland

• Main Author: Holcomb, Kendall M.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons@WOU 2015
• Subjects: European History; Iceland
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his/45; https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=his

Icelandic women during the Viking Age managed households, raised their children, tended to the animals, and wove the cloth, along with a host of other duties overlooked by their male counterparts. These women were the unacknowledged strength within their societies. Through an examination of the culture that surrounded female Vikings in pre-Christian Iceland, historians present a more thorough understanding of the roles that these women played. This is especially evident in the study of female influences employed within pre-Christian Icelandic society. The women of Viking Age Iceland exercised power through their management of household and familial interactions, maintaining influence within a publicly male-dominated society.