I have done my best to show that she acts as a Norse saga woman actually would. The example with Turid Olavsdottir is not the only one in Norse sagas where a woman does not prioritize her child(ren) above everything else. Upholding personal and clan honor took the first seat in many cases. And Arna isn't abandoning the child to a life in misery; Freidis lives at her large home farm with a wet-nurse who cares for her and a father who's honor bound to take good care of her.
The Norse custom of fostering should be mentioned in this respect - it was common for small children, even infants, to be sent off to be fostered away from its parents, with solid and well-reputed (and rich) foster-parents. If such people agreed to foster a child it was considered an honor. This custom served to tie clans together and meant that many women had their children growing up far from their own home. So the prospect of having her one child growing up with foster-parents and well away from her would not have been alien to Arna even if she lived in a very blissful marriage.
And Arna isn't abandoning the child to a life in misery; Freidis lives at her large home farm with a wet-nurse who cares for her and a father who's honor bound to take good care of her.
The Norse custom of fostering should be mentioned in this respect - it was common for small children, even infants, to be sent off to be fostered away from its parents, with solid and well-reputed (and rich) foster-parents. If such people agreed to foster a child it was considered an honor. This custom served to tie clans together and meant that many women had their children growing up far from their own home. So the prospect of having her one child growing up with foster-parents and well away from her would not have been alien to Arna even if she lived in a very blissful marriage.
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