Baugrygr or Ringkvinna was the term referred to an unmarried

woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

who had inherited the position of head of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

, usually from her father or brother, with all the tasks and rights associated with the position. The position existed in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

and into the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Ringkvinna is primarily mentioned in the

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic Grágás and the Norwegian

Frostating Frostating () was one of the four ancient popular assemblies or things () of medieval Norway. Historically, it was the site of court and assembly for Trøndelag, Nordmøre, and Hålogaland. The assembly had its seat at Tinghaugen in what is n ...

laws and

Gulating Gulating () was one of the four ancient popular assemblies or things (') of medieval Norway. Historically, it was the site of court and assembly for most of Western Norway, and assembled at Gulen. It functioned as a judicial and legislative bo ...

laws, in which it is phrased in much the same way. Unmarried women in general, referred to as ''maer'' and ''mey'', were secure in their rights of independence: at the age of 20, a woman reached the right of legal majority and had the right to decide about her own place of residence and stand by herself in all juridical senses before the law. These same rights applied to widows.Borgström Eva : Makalösa kvinnor: könsöverskridare i myt och verklighet (Marvelous women: genderbenders in myth and reality) Alfabeta/Anamma, Stockholm 2002. (inb.). Libris 8707902. The one exception to her independence was the right to choose a marriage partner, which was a matter for the whole family. In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried woman with no son could inherit the position as head of the family from a deceased father or brother. Women with such status were referred to as ringkvinna. She exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a family clan until she married at which time her rights were transferred to her husband. The right to inherit in itself applied to both the paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter of the deceased, who were all named as ''odalkvinna'', but the right to inherit the position of head of the family was a right which could only be inherited by the daughter or the sister of a dead man. The ringkvinna had the specific support of the law to perform all the tasks normally performed by a head of the family, such as, the right to demand and receive fines for the slaughter of a family member. If she married, however, these rights were passed on to her spouse. These rights gradually disappeared after

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

, and they are no longer mentioned in any law texts after the late 13th century.

References

Sources

* Borgström Eva (2002) ''Makalösa kvinnor: könsöverskridare i myt och verklighet'' (Stockholm: Alfabeta/Anamma) * Ohlander, Ann-Sofie & Strömberg, Ulla-Britt ( 2008) ''Tusen svenska kvinnoår: svensk kvinnohistoria från vikingatid till nutid'' (Stockholm: Norstedts Akademiska Förlag) {{in lang, sv Women's rights Feminism and history Women's social titles *

See also

References

Sources