Jul 24, 2025 07:46 AM
https://www.sciencenorway.no/viking-age-...en/2533760
EXCERPTS: Helgi Harðbeinsson has just killed the husband of the pregnant Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir.
He drags his bloody spear over Guðrún's clothes and across her belly and says, 'I believe that beneath this garment rests my own death.' And sure enough, he turns out to be right – the foetus in the womb grows up and avenges his father.
The story from the Saga of the People of Laxardal is one of the few tales about pregnant women in the Viking Age that Marianne Hem Eriksen has managed to uncover.
[...] Among thousands of depictions of people in Viking art, they found just one possible image of a pregnant woman...
[...] Pregnant women are largely invisible in saga literature too, according to the study. They occasionally appear in the background, but rarely as central figures.
The language used to describe them leans towards the negative. A pregnant woman is portrayed as sick, incomplete, unwell, and heavy.
The story of Guðrún is interesting because it reveals underlying social structures, according to the archaeologist.
"In this case, the foetus is already considered a social being before birth. The unborn child is part of alliances and blood feuds, politics and revenge, while still in the womb," says Eriksen.
But when it comes to an enslaved woman, the foetus is seen as a defect in a body that's up for sale, according to legal texts... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Helgi Harðbeinsson has just killed the husband of the pregnant Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir.
He drags his bloody spear over Guðrún's clothes and across her belly and says, 'I believe that beneath this garment rests my own death.' And sure enough, he turns out to be right – the foetus in the womb grows up and avenges his father.
The story from the Saga of the People of Laxardal is one of the few tales about pregnant women in the Viking Age that Marianne Hem Eriksen has managed to uncover.
[...] Among thousands of depictions of people in Viking art, they found just one possible image of a pregnant woman...
[...] Pregnant women are largely invisible in saga literature too, according to the study. They occasionally appear in the background, but rarely as central figures.
The language used to describe them leans towards the negative. A pregnant woman is portrayed as sick, incomplete, unwell, and heavy.
The story of Guðrún is interesting because it reveals underlying social structures, according to the archaeologist.
"In this case, the foetus is already considered a social being before birth. The unborn child is part of alliances and blood feuds, politics and revenge, while still in the womb," says Eriksen.
But when it comes to an enslaved woman, the foetus is seen as a defect in a body that's up for sale, according to legal texts... (MORE - missing details)