In the world of the Norse sagas, family was about much more than blood. Alliances, loyalty, friendship, marriage, and obligation could all create powerful bonds between people. One of the most fascinating of these relationships was fosterage, the practice of sending a child to be raised by another household.
Known in Old Norse as fóstr, fosterage appears repeatedly in the Icelandic sagas. It could strengthen alliances between families, provide protection, increase a child's social connections, and sometimes help settle disputes. A foster child could become almost as important to a foster family as a biological son or daughter. The sagas even describe foster-brothers whose loyalty to one another becomes stronger than ordinary friendship.
What Was Norse Fosterage?
Fosterage meant that a child was raised, either for part of childhood or for a longer period, by someone other than their biological parents. This did not normally mean that the biological parents lost their rights over the child. Instead, the child acquired a second family and another network of obligations.
Fosterage could take place between households of different social positions. In many cases, a child from a more prominent family was sent to a household of lower status. The arrangement could be beneficial to both sides: the foster family gained prestige and stronger connections, while the child's family gained an important ally.
The practice also occurred within the child's wider family network. A trusted friend, relative, chieftain, or important ally might take responsibility for raising a child.
This helps explain why the sagas frequently describe relationships between foster parents and foster children using language normally associated with kinship.
Fosterage was About Politics and Alliances
The Norse world was built around personal relationships. Iceland in particular lacked a centralized monarchy during the Commonwealth period, meaning that political influence depended heavily on networks of family, friendship, followers, and alliances. Fosterage could therefore function almost like a political contract.
A powerful man who raised another family's child could establish a lasting relationship with that family. When the child grew up, he or she carried those connections into adulthood.
The fosterage could also be used to repair damaged relationships. If two families had become enemies, accepting a child into one's household could create a new bond between them. One striking example occurs in Njáls saga.
Höskuldr in Njáls saga
One of the best-known examples is Höskuldr Þráinsson. Höskuldr was the son of Þráinn Sigfússon. After Þráinn was killed, Njáll Þorgeirsson—despite the complicated circumstances surrounding the death—took responsibility for the boy. Njáll fostered Höskuldr and helped raise and educate him. Eventually Höskuldr became an important man in his own right.
This is much more than a story about childcare. Njáll's decision helped transform a relationship marked by violence into one based on obligation and reconciliation. Fosterage effectively became part of a settlement between families.
The saga demonstrates an important characteristic of Norse society: honor could sometimes be restored not simply through compensation, but through the creation of new relationships.
Kjartan and Bolli: Foster-Brothers in Laxdæla saga
Perhaps the most famous example of fosterage in the Icelandic sagas is the relationship between Kjartan Óláfsson and Bolli Þorleiksson in Laxdæla saga.
Kjartan and Bolli were cousins as well as foster-brothers. They were raised together and became exceptionally close. The saga describes them as exceptionally talented young men, with Bolli coming immediately after Kjartan in ability and prowess. Their affection for one another is emphasized repeatedly.
Yet their relationship eventually collapses. The arrival of Guðrún Ósvífsdóttir changes the balance between them. Kjartan leaves Iceland for Norway, while Bolli remains behind. Guðrún and Bolli eventually marry, and when Kjartan returns, jealousy and resentment grow.
What makes the tragedy particularly powerful is that these are not simply two rivals. They had been raised together as foster-brothers.
Their eventual conflict demonstrates the extraordinary dramatic potential of fosterage in saga literature: the closer the relationship, the greater the tragedy when loyalty turns into hostility.
Foster-Brothers and Extraordinary Loyalty
Fosterage could create relationships that were considered comparable to blood kinship.
The term fóstrbróðir, meaning foster-brother or sworn brother, appears in Old Norse literature. Foster-brothers could be expected to support, advise, protect, and even avenge one another. The Medieval Scandinavian Motif Database records numerous saga traditions involving faithful foster-brothers and foster-brothers avenging one another.
There was also a related institution known as fóstbræðralag, or foster-brotherhood. This could describe a deliberately established bond between men who were not biological brothers. Such relationships could create obligations resembling those of kinship.
It is important, however, not to confuse every use of fóstr with this formal relationship. A child being fostered and two adult men becoming sworn foster-brothers were related but distinct practices.
Egil's Saga and the Foster Network
Egils saga provides another valuable illustration of how extensive these relationships could become.
The saga contains numerous foster relationships. Thorir Hróaldsson, for example, is connected to Kveld-Úlfr through fosterage, while King Eiríkr Bloodaxe is associated with Thorir as a fosterling. Egil himself is also associated with his foster-mother Þorgerðr Brák. Modern analysis of the saga identifies numerous foster relationships extending across several generations.
Another fascinating case concerns Ásgerðr Bjarnardóttir, who was fostered in Skallagrímr's household alongside his children. The foster relationship was connected to the complicated political and marital disputes surrounding her family.
This demonstrates how fosterage could extend beyond a simple parent-child relationship. It could become part of a large network connecting families, political allies, and future leaders.
Why Would Parents Send Their Children Away?
There was no single reason. Fosterage could provide a child with:
- Protection and security
- Access to a powerful household
- Education and training
- Social connections
- A future alliance
- Higher status or prestige
- A relationship with an influential chieftain
For the foster family, raising a child could create obligations and friendships that lasted for decades.
Fosterage could also be an expression of trust. Giving one's child to another household was potentially a powerful demonstration of confidence in that family.
At the same time, the sagas reveal that fosterage was not always entirely voluntary or romantic. In some circumstances, powerful men could effectively compel weaker farmers to accept foster children. Sturlu saga, for example, preserves a case in which Sturla forces another man to foster his son.
Fosterage and Norse Ideas of Family
Perhaps the most important lesson from the sagas is that Norse kinship was flexible.
Modern readers often imagine family primarily in terms of biological relationships. The saga writers present something more complicated. A person could be connected to another through blood, marriage, fosterage, friendship, oath, or political loyalty, and these relationships often overlapped.
A foster-father could become a child's protector. A foster-brother could become an ally. A foster relationship could connect two rival families. And, as the tragic story of Kjartan and Bolli demonstrates, breaking such a bond could have devastating consequences.
Fosterage therefore provides an important window into Viking-Age and medieval Scandinavian society. It shows that children were not simply passive members of households. Their placement could help create alliances, settle conflicts, expand networks, and shape the political future of entire families.
The Norse sagas are filled with feuds, battles, marriages, and revenge. Yet behind many of these dramatic events lies a quieter social institution: the practice of giving a child to another household and turning strangers—or distant relatives—into family.
In the saga world, family was something you could inherit, marry into, swear into, and, remarkably, sometimes grow into through fosterage.
Bibliographical References
Jesse L. Byock, Viking Age Iceland. Penguin Books, 2001. ISBN 978-0140295435.
Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, trans., Laxdæla Saga. Penguin Classics, 1969. ISBN 978-0140442184.
Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, trans., Njal's Saga. Penguin Classics, revised edition. ISBN 978-0140447695.
