The Words of Women: A Lost and Found Art

The words of women are powerful indeed. In my opinion, the ability of women to exert control in society by our inborn powers of intuition and speech has been for centuries, a sadly lost art. It would take a lifetime to compose a history of how the simple, plainspoken words of women have changed the course of history. Even in the postmodern age, I am often saddened by the sight of so many of my fellow female brethren who don't exert this power fully, who live unfulfilled in unsatisfactory lives, careers, and relationships, simple because it is still the status quo. Of course we can't deny how much women's rights have improved over the past century and the myriad instances of women across the globe who are finding their voice again and changing this world for the better. But there is still a long way to go and in my experience, living in rural America, the form of oppression may have changed, but the essence of control has not.

Now before I get going I would like to say that this post is no way an attack on men WHATSOEVER. Just as one might right volumes on the oppression of women, I might as well write another on the oppression of men. Centuries of dogmatic living in western culture have skewed our view and expectations of each other and ourselves in a way that it often take years for us to break free from it, if we ever succeed in fully doing so. I in particular would lend my support to the cause of the average male just as fast as the average female. I was raised by a man devoted to his five daughters and subsequently their children, myself included. I would not go into his character, but suffice to say that simply knowing him has made me utterly unable to discount men as a whole, because I have seen the best in them. My partner now is perhaps the most compassionate and loving man I have ever met, and has only reminded me again in my life that good men are not as rare as we have been led to believe.

But onward...I, like many others, was utterly astounded a few weeks ago when the video of Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard was released, in which she unleashed an amazingly logical and righteously angry tirade against the misogyny of one the leaders of the Opposition party Tony Abbott. It was absolutely one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever heard in my life. I was struck even more by watching the face of those in the room around her as she spoke. A horde of men looking as uncomfortable as I had ever seen, some even looking as if they would give anything to run away. And behind her several women looking stern and nodding stoically as she made her points about the hypocritical sexism she and other female members of both the government and the people in general had faced. Abbott himself morphed from a sardonic smirk in the beginning, to looking actually physically ill as Gillard went one with example after example of his acts of sexism.

It reminded me of something, those few women and men as well nodding in the background while Gillard roared on. It reminded me of the myriad times in the old tales and sagas where we find instances of women using their powers of speech and perception to goad men into action, not by delicacy or daintiness, but by the raw anger and scorn of a woman alone.

It often amazes me how little this phenomena is ignored by scholars and followers of the Old Norse path. The instances of such interactions between men and women in these tales is large in number, yet rarely is it spoken of. The duties of women are often delegated to Frigga, as an embodiment of the perfect wife and mother. Dutiful, loyal, and all knowing yet never speaking. At times I wonder how much Frigga's image was molded in these tales by Christian idealism, but that is for another post.


The following comes from Hurstwic.orgs page The Role of Viking Women


One common role of women in the sagas is as an inciter. The goading scene is a classic in the saga literature. Women frequently goaded men to act, to take revenge, when the men might otherwise have been content to do nothing. The women are much harder than the men, even more eager to protect the family's honor. Perhaps this is due to the woman's passive role, which prevented her from acting herself.

In chapter 116 of Brennu-Njáls saga, Hildigunnur incited her uncle Flosi to avenge the killing of her husband Höskuldr by flinging her husband's bloody cloak onto Flosi's shoulders. Clotted blood from the cloak rained down on Flosi. He responded, "Cold are the counsels of women." Flosi later took revenge for Höskuldr's death by burning Njáll and his family in their home.

In chapter 48 of Laxdæla saga, Guðrún, the wife of Bolli, incited her husband and her brothers to take revenge on Kjartan, Bolli's beloved foster-brother. For Bolli to kill his foster-brother would be a despicable act, but Guðrún pulled out all the stops, saying to the men:

"With your temperament, you'd have made some farmer a good group of daughters, fit to do no one any good or any harm. After all the abuse and shame Kjartan has heaped upon you, you don't let it disturb your sleep while he goes riding by under your very noses, with only one other man to accompany him. Such men have no better memory than a pig. There's not much chance you'll ever dare to make a move against Kjartan at home if you won't even stand up to him now, when he only has one or two others to back him up. The lot of you just sit here at home, making much of yourselves, and one could only wish there were fewer of you."

A woman might use the threat of divorce as a means to goad her husband into action. Divorce was relatively easy and could result in severe financial burdens on the husband.

This is not single instance in the sagas, but rather a regular occurrence. These women should serve as an example to us, even now.

We so often here negative connotations in the modern age about the "nagging wife" or the "crazy baby mamma." What's sad about this is that it portrays women who are strong and don't mince words as somehow undesirable or unwomanly. Is the ability to put up with acres of shit in silence supposed to be our duty as a woman, a wife, a mother? NO.

In the simplest way of saying so, such stereotypes only serve to negate a woman's natural ability to articulate intelligently and honestly into something to be ashamed of. It is fueled only by the desires of patriarchy to allow men to run society into the ground for the sake of there own ass.

Words are a woman's power to bring change into the world. Their was little more feared by the old heathen menfolk than the wrath of a woman, and worse yet, the possibility of humiliation. The most powerful figures of the Norse lore were not the shrinking maidens, but rather the empowered woman unafraid of speaking the truth regardless of the cost.

Can we bring a little bit of that back into the world? I'm not advocating women go about humiliating and verbally abusing men. What I am advocating is a for is a vision of womanhood which embodies not only our beauty and our vulnerability, but our capacity to communicate honestly and claim the respect we rightfully deserve. Most of all I just wish women would stop settling for less than honesty with themselves and their partners.



In Frith Cena