My favourite viking wedding traditions

If you chose Iceland as your elopement destination, you might be interested in some viking wedding traditions, too. There’s so many of them, it would take ages to list all of them here. This is why I decided to share with you 3 the weirdest, the most interesting, and my favourite ones.

Saying bye-bye to the symbolic virginity

Unmarried girls wore kransen on their heads during special occasions. Before getting married, the bride was separated from the groom, stipped of all the clothes and symbols of virginity. Such as mentioned kransen. Then she, literally, washed away her maidenhood. The bath was hot, full of steam, and finished with going into cold water to close the pores and finish the whole process. They didn’t throw the kransen away, neither sell it. They store it for their future daughter, to pass on.

Mandatory bridal – ale. Lots of it.

There was no wedding without specially brewed bridal ale. They at to have enough of it to drink for the whole month after the wedding. And here is the best part – having the bridal ale was a legal reuirement for a ceremony! Plus, there should be enough food, dink and accomodation for every single guest. Well, we have it in Poland ( and other countries) too, one might say. Yes, thats true, but viking weddings lasted a week, not one night!

Swords first. Rings later.

Groom had to present his ancestral sword to the bride. Bride, on the other hand, was supposed to give her ancestral sword to the groom as a smbol of father’s protection over bride being passed on the groom. All swords were kept for any future sons they might have in the future. But before they put them aside to some safe place, they exchanged wedding rings. They were offering the rings to each other by putting  them on the hilt of their new (old) swords. How cool is that?