Role Of Anglo Saxon Women

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The role of women. Anglo-Saxon society was decidedly patriarchal, but women were in some ways better off than they would be in later times. A woman could own property in her own right. She could and did rule a kingdom if her husband died. She could not be married without her consent and any personal goods, including lands, that she brought into a marriage remained her own property. If she were injured or abused in her marriage her relatives were expected to look after her interests.What did an Anglo-Saxon woman do all day? This would naturally depend greatly on her social class as well as regional and period differences. The word wif 'wife, woman' might be connected with weaving, which implies that cloth-making was associated with women. In wills, the male line was called wnedhealf 'weapon half' or sperehealf 'spear half' and the female line was wifhealf 'wife half' or spinelhealf 'spindle half'. It would then seem that men were traditionally warriors or hunters, while women were cloth-makers and embroiderers.This view is also supported by other literature from that time and by grave findings. Furthermore, the feminine occupational suffix -stere was used to form words such as seamster, spinster and Webster, nowadays a surname - all connected with cloth-making. From wills we know that a wealthy Anglo-Saxon household contained a variety of soft furnishings: bed-clothes, table-linen, seat-covers, wall-hangings, etc., so women would have had plenty of work in this field. In the Anglo-Saxon household, food was prepared by male slaves alone or men and women equally, but preparing and serving drink was women's job. This is confirmed by surnames such as Brewster, Malster and Tapster, and by heroic poetry, where the lady is always the one to serve the drinks. Female cup-bearers (birele) are also mentioned in Æthelbert's laws: "14. If a man lie with an eorl's birele, let him make bot with twelve shillings. ... 16. If a man lie with a ceorl's bir...