Showing off an Eligible Bride-to-be
The most common method for locating a suitable bride was at “the Thing”. Fathers would bring their daughters not only to perform the housekeeping and cooking at his booth for his comfort, but also to make the girls and their wifely skills visible to prospective suitors. Other social gatherings such as feasts, ceremonies, markets, fairs and the like were also good places for spotting a prospective wife. The “marriage market” provided by the gathering at the Thing fitted neatly with the basic character of the Viking wedding as a formal contract between families: the law codes show that negotiating a marriage followed the same sort of rules as formation of any other contract or legal agreement, and thus benefitted from being conducted at the Thing, along with other undertakings of a legal nature.
So if you’re a Viking looking for a special person to fill your life, this would be the place to be. If you’re looking to make a suitable match, make sure you bring some important friends along. Men of prestige, power, and wealth should act as a broker or advocate when making the proposal of marriage. Basically, having a powerful friend would inspire a bride’s family to want to align with you and your connections as well. While love might not be in the mix yet… payment sure would be. The bride price consisted of three payments: from the groom would come to the mundr and morgengifu, this was a payment to the father of the bride for control of the guardianship of the bride. The bride’s family provided the heiman fylgia, the dowry. There were additional payments after this that get pretty complicated based on socioeconomic status and location.