Slap your Viking Lady Love gently in the face with purple flowers
Yes, you heard me. Gather up some lovely purple flowers, walk up to your love interest, and gently slap him/her in the face with them. Why? To be honest, it’s hard to figure out why this was a Viking courtship tradition. Through history, flowers have carried powerful symbolism for many cultures. Specifically, cowslip, a small yellow flower, is symbolic in the British Isles. It is attributed to Freyja, goddess of love, beauty and fertility in Norse mythology. It’s told that the flowers represent the keys to open the door to her secret hall and the treasure of inner knowledge. For this reason, the flowers are often associated with unlocking secrets. So you would think this would be the Viking flower of choice for love.
But it’s harder finding records or reason for this Viking tradition. Other myths attribute wild Columbine, which is a purple flower, to being one symbolic of Freyja. Columbine is said to symbolize so many different things, it’s hard to pinpoint which one would be the most accurate during the Viking Age. However, the purple Columbine seems to be a good lead on which purple flower they were using, because it is, in fact, native to Britain. But I’m sure that nobody will complain too much about having flowers on their face. So we will just enjoy the imagery this tip invokes.