In the previous post Mary, mother of God, was introduced in the North. Women could identify with her role as mother. In this post, we’ll explore how Mary took over the roles previously played by Freyja and other Norse Gods and Goddesses.
The young woman cries out in pain. The women gathered around her exchange worried glances. This is turning out to be a difficult birth. When the door opens and an old woman steps in, they breathe a collective sigh of relief. She is an experienced midwife and can surely help.
But after a quick examination of the expectant mother, she turns to the gathered women.
“We can only pray,” she says.
All but the laboring woman fall to their knees, looking to the midwife to lead the prayer. As she begins to recite the familiar, ancient words, a sense of calm spreads through the group. But then—rather than asking God’s mother for help—the old woman utters the name “Freyja.”
Everyone freezes. Even the pained young woman lifts her head and stares at the midwife, who quickly realizes her mistake. As an elder, she remembers a time when mothers in labor would call on Freyja for a safe delivery. But not anymore. When she resumes the prayer, she uses the name that has replaced the old goddess: Mary.
Gradually, the Church forbade the old pagan customs, but when people continued to practice them anyway, the problem was solved by allowing the rituals and simply replacing the old gods with Jesus, Mary, or other saints.
For example, pregnant women used to pray to Freyja for a safe delivery. Under Christianity, the wording of the prayer remained the same, except for the name. Freyja was simply replaced by Mary, as seen in the story above.
The early Nordic version of Mary governed the weather, the harvest, hunting, and fishing. She essentially took over for the gods and goddesses who had previously been responsible for these things, which likely made the transition to Christianity easier than it would have been if their roles had simply been erased.
An argument for how Christianity weakened women’s status in Nordic society is that they were no longer allowed to perform religious rites or be religious leaders. The previously revered—and feared—role of the völva, a woman who could perform sejd, see into the future, and speak with the gods, was banned. Women who continued to engage in magical rituals were persecuted, scorned, and even killed. The Church’s fear of women with supernatural power would later culminate in the witch trials a few centuries down the line.
But Viking Age women could not have known this. The fact that they so openly embraced Christianity suggests that they had significant influence in society and used it to promote the new faith.
Both women and men in the societal elite built churches, likely out of both piety and as a symbol of status and power. The excavations in Varnhem, which I wrote about in a previous post, and which revealed a Christian congregation as early as the 9th century, also uncovered a wooden church built in the 10th century, which was replaced by a larger stone church in the mid-11th century.
In the cemetery next to the church, the graves of those believed to have financed its construction were also found —Kata (above) and her husband Kättil. We know their names from the runes on Kata’s gravestone. The fact that she was buried in the finest grave suggests she had considerable influence in her community.
But it wasn’t just graves of the elite that were found in Varnhem. Hundreds of people were buried there, and many of the skeletons bear signs of strenuous labor and a hard life. This indicates that it wasn’t only the upper social classes that embraced Christianity, but that it also spread among the broader populace.
In the last post of this theme, we’ll se how Christianity eventually spread through out the Nordics, and discuss who benefited from the change in religion, and who didn’t.
Sources:
Axelsson, Tony & Vretemark, Maria. (2013). Varnhem innan munkarna kom. Västergötlands museum.
Gräslund, Anne-Sofie. (1996). Arkeologin och kristnandet. I Bertil Nilsson (Red.) Kristnandet i Sverige – gamla källor och nya perspektiv. Uppsala: Lunne Böcker.
Gräslund, Anne-Sofie. (1996). Kristnandet ur ett kvinnoperspektiv. I Bertil Nilsson (Red.) Kristnandet i Sverige – gamla källor och nya perspektiv. Uppsala: Lunne Böcker.
Lindkvist, Thomas. (1996). Kungamakt, kristnande, statsbildning. I Bertil Nilsson (Red.) Kristnandet i Sverige – gamla källor och nya perspektiv. Uppsala: Lunne Böcker.
Näsström, Britt-Mari. (1996). Från Fröja till Maria. Det förkristna arvet speglat i en folklig föreställningsvärd. I Bertil Nilsson (Red.) Kristnandet i Sverige – gamla källor och nya perspektiv. Uppsala: Lunne Böcker.
Ohlander, Ann-Sofie & Strömberg, Ulla-Britt. (2018). Tusen svenska kvinnoår. Lund: Studentlitteratur.