Marry a Celt or a Viking?

If you had the choice, who would you prefer?

As we have seen in my blogpost on Celts vs Vikings, you would probably never have been in the situation to chose, as the two of them are 1000 years apart, but still, it is interesting to take a look at how different those two cultures were.

The Viking marriage was – even before the change to Christianity – like the Germanic one a monogamous marriage. Your parents will have had a word to say in your choice of partner, but once you were wed, it was you and your hubby for the rest of your life. Or your partners life, if he/she died first, in which case you probably married again.

The Celts on the other hand, were polygamous. One man could wed more than one wife, as many as he could provide for. But also a woman could have more than one husband in some tribes. Also other forms of partnership were possible, like a trial-marriage for a year and a day. If you then decided you did not like living with that partner, you would seperate with no strings attached (this was a well liked way for farmers to get a helping hand on a farm for a while). Also unwed relationships were common and not despised, as opposed to the Vikings.

This also had great influence on inheritances.

With the Vikings, naturally only the children born within that marriage could inherit. With the Celts, any child that was yours could inherit, no matter if it was born in marriage or not.

With the Celts, ideally both partners would bring the same amount of property into the marriage. Should one of them possess more, any rest that surpasses his partners property remains his own to do with as he/she pleases. Gains of the common property fell to the partner that survived the other.

With the Vikings it was always the man who had the control of the property. With the Celts, if the woman brought more property into the marriage than the man, she became the „head of the family“, the person who also was the one „legal representative“ of the household. (in Celtic times only the „pater familias“ was a subject in front of the law, all the other members of the household were merely „objects“ in front of the law and depending on him to get legal justice)

Celts also knew divorce, as opposed to the Vikings.

We even know about some accepted reasons for divorce:

She sleeps around.

If he hits her so hard that it leaves a blemish.

Bad breath (on either side it seems)

And: Husband too fat to sleep with.

So, would you rather marry a Celt or a Viking?