Abstract
The aim of this paper is the interpretation of female activities attested in medieval Icelandic legal documents. The analysis is based on material from the Diplomatarium islandicum, a complete corpus of diplomas until 1400 will be taken into account (approximately 1600 documents).
The position of women in the Old Norse society has been in the centre of socio-historical discussion for a long time. However, the research has been based mainly on the laws or semi-fictional Icelandic sagas.
The laws, being normative sources, and the Icelandic sagas, realistic yet still fictional narratives, should nevertheless be considered in the context of diplomatic evidence. It is the official documents that can supply us with first-hand information.
In order to interpret the gender roles in the Icelandic family sagas and in the contemporary sagas, the non-fictional evidence is needed, and the laws can provide us only with the frame of officially set rules, not with the practical course of action.