Right to Life

The concept of killing one’s own flesh and blood in the womb, and thus abortion, was utterly abhorrent in the Viking age and in Norse culture overall. There is in fact not one single documented case of a child being aborted in any text, runestone, reference or oral teaching, and there is no word in Norrœnt mál (Old Norse language) for abortion.

General cultural concepts such as sexuality, marriage, and warriors also clearly express the sacred aspect of procreation, producing sons, and maintaining the blood line, as well as the fact Norse culture was male-centric, with limited consideration for the autonomy of women, including as it related to sexual consent. Indeed, a newborn boy had a higher status immediately upon birth than his own mother or any other woman, therefore excluding both modern concepts that a woman had dominion over own own body, or that a baby was part of her rather than a completely separate human being.

There has, however, always been the aspect of infanticide in Norse culture, specifically through exposure to the elements, and particularly prior to Christianisation, as expressed in various texts, including Íslendingabók from Guðni Jónsson:

“Allir menn skyldi kristnir vera ok skírn taka, þeir er áðr váru óskírðir á landi hér. En of barnaútburð skyldu standa in fornu lög ok of hrossakjötsát.” (All the men should be Christian and take baptism, those who in the land were unbaptized. Yet that the exposure of infants should remain from the ancient law, as well as the consumption of horse meat.)

Notwithstanding the fact the custom was similar to that of Spartans, and generally only involved infants with disabilities, or who had clearly been conceived outside of the tribe, the practice remains completely unrelated to the concept of interrupting a pregnancy, especially in the context of abortion being justified by the alleged rights of women - non-existent in fact - in the Viking age.

Ultimately, the life of one’s own healthy and able-bodied child was sacred in the Viking age and overall in Norse culture. Such child was also accurately seen as a human being completely distinct from his mother, from the first heart beat. This approach, however, did not extend to the progeny of enemies, inherently a threat to the survival of the tribe.