Revisiting the Lady with the Mead Cup

Oral Performance and Ritual

Bibliographic Data

ID7203459
AuthorsFrida Antonia Weise (corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume21
Issue1
Pages225-251
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueViking and Medieval Scandinavia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1782-7183 • E-ISSN: 2030-9902
PublisherBrepols (PUBLISHER • BE)
DOI10.1484/j.vms.5.151259
OpenAlexW7117129843
LanguageEN
References cited12

This paper analyses the reliability of descriptions of drinking rituals in Old Norse sources depicting the Viking Age ( c. ad 800–1050), particularly with regard to the motif of the lady with the mead cup. The poems depict a god or hero receiving a cup of mead from an otherworldly woman in what scholars have interpreted as hieros gamos , a sacred marriage between a ruler and a female deity to legitimize his rule. However, using vernacular texts to analyse pre-Christian rituals and modes of thought is problematic at best. This paper is therefore inspired by Simon Nygaard’s interpretation (2018; 2022; 2023) that Old Norse poetry may contain fragments of ritualized oral performances. It employs the analysis of poetic metrics, potential ritual formulae present in runestones, and the reported roles of female ritual specialists to propose a reconstruction model for the ‘mead’ ceremony

HERO · Interpretation (philosophy · Motif (music · Paganism · Poetry · Ruler · Vernacular · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · Medieval Literature and History

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