# Germanic Marriage • Gifts ○ Husband to wife: Dowry and practical gifts ○ Wife to husband: weapons ○ "In this interchange of gifts they recognize the supreme bond, the holy mysteries, the presiding deities of marriage. A women is reminded that she is coming to share a man's toils and dangers, that she is to be his partner in all his sufferings and adventures, whether in peace of in war. That is the meaning of the team of oxen, of the horse ready for its rider, of the gifts of arms." -Tacitus ○ Late medieval marriages: Man and women would lay their hands on a sword in token of their heroic duty (and perhaps a fertility symbol)