Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/82

 46 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE to turn to the Icelandic Eddas and German Nibelungenlied, which date in their present extant form from the twelfth century. Although the women had to do manual labor in the fields as well as in the home, their social position was fairly high Position for an uncivilized people. Tacitus says that the of woman girls were of the same vigor and stature as the young men, which suggests that they were neither over- worked nor starved. They dressed with arms and part of the breasts bare without losing the respect of the men. Marriages were not contracted at so early an age as is com- mon among Southern and Oriental peoples, and monogamy prevailed. " Almost alone among barbarian peoples," writes Tacitus, "they are content with one wife each, ex- cept those few who, because of their high rank rather than out of lust, make several marriages. For no one there laughs at vice, nor is corrupting and being corrupted spoken of as the way of the world." In some tribes widows were forbid- den to remarry, and their voluntary death met with the ap- proval of tribal opinion. The women were sometimes at hand to encourage the warriors in battle, and the Germans feared captivity "far more intensely on account of their women than for themselves." Certain women were looked upon with awe as prophetesses. Mothers nursed their own children, who grew up naked and sturdy, ignorant alike of the allurements of Roman _. . ._ amphitheaters and modern automobiles. The The family _ £ f. , . lather had the legal right to reject the newborn babe and leave it to die of exposure, a practice which was all too frequent among the cultured Greeks and Romans, but after he had once taken it to his bosom he could not kill it. Tacitus implies that the children were seldom exposed. When a son married or was allowed by the father to receive his arms from any other man in the popular assembly, and when a daughter married, the paternal authority over them ceased. The husband's power over the wife was not quite so great as that of the father over the children. In early days the wife was either stolen from another tribe or peacefully