Sex, Drugs and Violence in Viking Ireland

Posted on: 17 November 2015

Sex, drugs and violence in Viking Ireland was among one of the fascinating topics explored at a conference exploring the hidden world of women in medieval Ireland in Trinity College Dublin on Friday 13 November and Saturday 14 November, 2015.

At the event experts from the fields of history, archaeology, manuscript studies, art history and digital humanities revealed the ways in which medieval women colluded, subverted, and survived in the face of their societies' prejudices.

In her presentation, entitled Sex, drugs and violence: magic and burial in Viking Ireland, Christina Wade, PhD candidate in medieval history, Trinity, explored the ways in which women might have acquired power in Viking Ireland by examining Viking burial practices in Dublin, with particular focus on Viking graves in Kilmainham.

"The rich belief systems of the Norse included a complex ritualistic magic practice called sei?r. It was said that its users could seek wisdom and communion with the gods by imbibing alcohol or taking cannabis; and some scholars have argued that its practice involved the use of complicated sexual rituals. These practitioners, it was written, could decimate your crops, destroy your home, and even kill your enemies. Two grave goods found in Kilmainham, a staff and a whalebone plaque have ties to sei?r, and their inclusion in burial rite lead me to conclude that this practice was a pathway women could take to gain power in Viking society.”

Other highlights of the conference included a presentation on ‘Katherine of Desmond and her legend: incest, murder, and misogyny in late-medieval Ireland’ by Peter Crooks, Lecturer in Medieval History at Trinity. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Professor, Department of History in the School of Humanities of NUI Galway spoke on 'Women in the wall’: women scholars of early Irish history in the early 20th century and Roman Bleier, PhD candidate in Digital Humanities, Trinity gave a presentation on ‘Converts, widows and virgins of Christ: women in St Patrick’s epistles’.

The event was hosted by the School of Histories and Humanities and has been supported by the Centre for Gender and Women Studies, the Medieval History Research Centre and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity.