The location of Vinland remains as mysterious as the events that happened on Vinland shores. Freydis’s tale would have been repeated orally by the Viking storytellers, called skalds, for centuries on end before it was actually recorded in writing. The skalds were like news reporters – the television talk-show hosts of their day – who retold stories of blood feuds and Viking expeditions, who kept track of the battles that were won and lost, and who shared the real-life dramas of the Norse. I am almost certain that their gender biases and clan loyalties would have influenced the way they described Freydis and the events that transpired. As such, the Vinland Sagas likely provide only partial truths.
What follows is the history. There are two versions of Freydis Eiriksdöttir’s voyage in the Vinland Sagas. In the Saga of the Greenlanders, Freydis proposes to make the journey across the northern sea with two Icelanders, Helgi and Finnbogi. Before she departs from Greenland, she asks her brother, Leif, to use the longhouses that he had built during his first expedition to Vinland. He tells her that he would gladly lend the houses but not give them to her outright. She also asks the brothers to give her half of any trading profits made during the expedition. They agree, but Freydis doesn’t trust the Icelanders. In fact, she breaks a pre-established agreement and instead of taking thirty fighting men with her on board their longboats, she takes thirty-five.
Once in Leifsbidur, Freydis has a disagreement with the Icelanders about who will stay in her brother’s longhouse. A fight ensues and she is labelled as a woman of “ill-will” who is responsible for instigating conflict between the Icelanders and the Greenlanders. The group of settlers split in two, and Finnbogi and Helgi’s men build themselves another longhouse farther from the sea on the bank of a lake.
In the spring, Freydis sneaks out of bed and wanders across the dew-covered grass in bare feet to go in search of Finnbogi, who has announced an intention to stay in Vinland. She asks to exchange ships with him so that she can return to Greenland in a larger and safer longboat. When she rejoins her husband, Thorvard of Gardar, she accuses Helgi and Finnbogi of striking and dishonouring her. She is indignant when she threatens to divorce Thorvard if he will not avenge her.
Thorvard then takes his men and goes to the brothers’ longhouse and enters while they are still asleep. He has Helgi and Finnbogi and their crews tied up and led outside, where Freydis kills them all. She even attacks and kills five women.
After performing her wicked deeds, Freydis swears her men to secrecy before she takes Finnbogi’s longboat full of trading goods and returns to her farm in Greenland. According to the sagas, Freydis rewards her companions for concealing her misdeeds, but her brother, Leif, forces the truth out of three men under torture. The saga ends when Leif predicts that Freydis’s descendants will not get along well in the world.
In Eirik the Red’s Saga, Freydis is described as the illegitimate daughter of Eirik the Red who marries Thorvard of Gardar and sails to Vinland, where she encounters members of a Beothuk tribe who strike fear into the hearts of the Norsemen in her company. As her men are running away, Freydis chastises them for being cowards. After that, she is alienated.
In another passage, Freydis comes across a slain man whose sword lies beside him. Snatching up his weapon, she prepares to do battle against the Beothuk, but before she does, she exposes her breast and slaps it with her sword to announce her female status. This behavior on the part of a woman is considered to be so strange that the Beothuk retreat in fear and confusion.
In both versions of the Vinland Sagas, Freydis is depicted as a nefarious woman – a woman who is a liar, a murderess, and a thief. In the Greenland version, she is a rule-breaker, a troublemaker, and a sly and devious master manipulator. In the Eirik the Red version, Freydis shames her male kinsmen while acting in an aggressive and threatening manner, using her gender to instill fear. One can see why I was drawn to her and why I was motivated to shatter the wicked reputation that has ghosted her through the centuries.
While Freydis’s character depiction provided the perfect threads for this revisionist retelling, the role of women in Old Norse culture also was a source of intrigue. In 1000 AD, Norsewomen could be tasked with managing the family finances, they oversaw the lands in their husband’s absence, and they became landowners when they were widowed. Still, there were many gender inequalities.
By law, Norsewomen were under the authority and power of their husband or their father. They were neither allowed to participate in the local governmental assembly known as the ‘Althing’ nor were they allowed to seek divorce without obtaining endorsements from men who would be willing to speak up in their defence. Even then, divorce would only be granted under certain conditions such as when a man slapped his spouse on at least three occasions that were witnessed or when a husband inflicted large, life-threatening wounds which penetrated his wife’s brain, body cavity, or marrow. In these situations, the woman could divorce and claim back her dowry and any inheritances she received, but the husband took back the bride-price and morning gift and two-thirds of the couple’s common land holdings and possessions. The divorce declaration also had to list the reasons for divorce and be publicly announced in front of witnesses on three occasions: namely, in her bedroom, in front of the house, and before a public assembly.
I can’t imagine being married to a narcissistic abuser and suffering secondary traumatization living in a society with these laws and stipulations. While Thorvard of Gardar’s characterization is completely fictional, he represents the quintessential perpetrator of spousal abuse. He is a violator, a harasser, and a victimizer in a position of power who is physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive. Struggling to hide his own sexual identity, he tries to control Freydis using gaslighting strategies, false promises that foster hope, and intimidation tactics. He isolates her from family and friends and controls every aspect of her environment to make her dependent on him for everything. His violence is hidden behind closed doors, and he dupes his clansmen by presenting an image of himself as being a generous and protective provider.
It is hellish to live with someone who makes you walk on eggshells, who makes you fear almost everything, who leaves you feeling grief-stricken and devasted one minute and filled with rage and anger the next, and who makes you doubt yourself. In this novel, Freydis is the voice of all spousal abuse victims. She has been violated and belittled, hit and spit upon. Her world has been upended. Her life is not her own. When she tries to ask for help, she loses faith and trust in family members who silence her.
Spousal abuse is not time-bound. Family violence likely impacted the Norse in 1000 AD as much as it impacts couples and families today. While I hope that this work of historical fiction was able to normalize and validate the experience of people who are struggling to survive in abusive relationships, I also believe that the #MeToo movement inspires us all to speak out in an effort to protect vulnerable victims.
If you know of someone who is struggling to break ties with a narcissistic abuser, acknowledge and validate their experience and help them to escape.
If you are in an abusive relationship, try to find a safe way to leave. It takes so much courage, but it is possible just like it was for Freydis, who risked travelling into the unknown on a long voyage across the sea.
Thank you for reading…
We hope you enjoyed The Voyage of Freydis!
Do leave a review if so on all your preferred platforms to help spread the word!
And don’t miss The Flight of Anja, the next soul-stirring Viking saga from Tamara Goranson…
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Anja Freydisdöttir must relinquish all to spread her wings…
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Liberation comes from an unexpected source when the estranged mother who raised her finally acts in her favour, aiding in her escape on a Viking longboat bound for Vinland shores.
* * *
Haunted by the ominous shadows of a family history she does not know, Anja must follow a perilous path into an unfamiliar wild
erness that will ultimately allow her to find her future – and herself.
Be sure to follow Tamara Goranson on Instagram @tgvikinggirl and check out her website at www.tamaragoranson.com for all the updates on her latest work.
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Get your copy here!
Happy reading!
Tamara Goranson holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology as well as Adjunct Professor status at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
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She published several academic pieces before she turned to writing short stories, creative non-fiction, and historical fiction, winning 3rd prize in the 2019 Vancouver Island Writers’ Association annual general contest for her non-fiction piece, ‘A Voice in Time’.
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Tamara lives in Victoria with her husband and two daughters. When she is not writing, she enjoys spending time outdoors hiking in the Canadian wilderness.
www.tamaragoranson.com
Also by Tamara Goranson
The Flight of Anja
The Oath of Bjorn
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The Voyage of Freydis Page 30
