Property and Virginity; The Christianization of Marriage in Medieval Iceland 1200-1600, Agnes S. Arnorsdottir (Aarhus University Press, Denmark, 2010) 533pp., hardback, £50.00, ISBN 978 8 7934 513 3

This is a groundbreaking special study.  Christianity changed the culture of society in Iceland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as it did in Northern Europe generally.  One of the important changes was the introduction of the new rules on the legal requirements for marriage.

Here Agnes Arnorsdottir examines Icelandic law codes, marriage contracts and other documents relating to court proceedings.  She has examined documents never previously investigated to explore the very gradual Christianization of marriage in Iceland over hundreds of years and the consequences.  As canon law began to change the ritual of betrothal, the virginal state of brides acquired a new importance but marriage remained a source of property between families.  Women gained a new status, the fathers of brides were less important.

This substantial book has twelve chapters and a bibliography of close on thirty pages listing primary and secondary sources, printed and unprinted, theses and papers from English and Scandinavian universities.  Appendices give analyses of marriage contracts and list bishops of the relevant period.  There are indices of persons and places and most interestingly thirty three figures including Christian III's document from 1545 giving priests permission to marry and a bridal bench used for the marriage ceremony inscribed ‘God have Mercy upon me' (!)  It is a readable, scholarly study.