37 Myrdal 2008, p. 67; on the discussion about women’s right to property see Korpiola & Trolle Önnerfors 2018. 38 1330SDHK3694; 1331 SDHK3792; 1332SDHK3886 (the one without a cow). 39 Myrdal 2019, p. 23. 40 Myrdal 2003b, p. 22. janken myrdal The donors were 41 clerics, 13 women, and 14 laymen (all lay people were from the nobility). Again we can see a pattern where women had more access to cows. A testatrix gave in average nearly four cows each, and the men less than three. If we instead look at oxen, men gave about one each, and women half of that. Women got cows, as these belonged to her work sphere, while oxen belonged to the male sphere; also highstatus women had more access to cows. Women’s right to personal property was addressed in the regional law codes, and a wife was entitled to bedding, her garments, jewellery, and one third of property acquired during the marriage. Interestingly we have one statute (from Gotland) that specifies that a widow on an ordinary farm could inherit up to five heads of cattle, “up to the fifth band in the cowshed” (i.e., cattle tethered with a neck-band in the cowshed).37 Women from the nobility producing wills had access to more cattle than that. About one third of the women receiving livestock were servants, mostly female housekeepers. Several of these worked for clerics, and some of them seem to have had a close relationship to the priest and even children with him. Other female servants worked for women in the nobility. A few times it is stated that a cow should be given to a poor woman, and even specified that it should be someone who did not even have one cow.38 Other sources help elucidate these gifts. A Danish miracle story from the late 13th century tells of a woman whose cow was sick, and if her only cow died she would not be able to feed her children.39 A parable in the revelations of Saint Birgitta tells about a woman being so poor that she only had a hen or a goose.40 Testaments contribute to an insight into lives of poor women. 373
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