Magdalena Andersdotter (1590–1650) was a Norwegian

shipowner A shipowner, ship owner or ship-owner is the owner of a ship. They can be merchant vessels involved in the shipping industry or non commercially owned. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, us ...

. Alongside

Beinta Broberg Bente Christine Broberg, known as Beinta Broberg, (1667 – 15 February 1752), is perhaps the best-known woman from the history of the Faroe Islands. She has been the inspiration for novels and a film. Biography Beinta was born in Tórshavn, t ...

, she is one of the two best-known women in the pre-19th century history of the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

Life

Andersdotter was first married to the Norwegian merchant Niels Joenssøn of

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, and managed his business as a shipowner as a widow. She remarried the wealthy farmer and official Mikkjal Joensson (1566–1648) on the Faroe Islands in 1616. Andersdotter became known for her many lawsuits and feuds against her husband. After her second marriage, she moved to the Faroe Islands, where she did not adjust well. The lawsuits focused around her husband's attempts to take control over her business as well as slander cases. She was also involved in feuds with her step-sons, who she refused to sit at the main table in her house hold. In 1633, she was banned from leaving the islands, but in 1634 she violated the ban and left for Bergen, and in 1635 she put her cause before the

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

. She returned to the islands in 1638 and was put on trial, but returned to the monarch in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in 1639. It is unknown how the case was settled.

In history

The lawsuits of Andersdotter has played a part in the history of the Faroe Islands and has been interpreted in various ways by the historians during the centuries. In the 1850s, she was made a symbol of the Faroeic resistance in protecting her rights toward the oppressors, in the 1890s as a bad example, and during the 20th century the portrait of her has been subject of physiological interpretations.

References

Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon - Magdalena Andersdotter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andersdotter, Magdalena 1590 births 1650 deaths Faroese people of Norwegian descent 17th-century Faroese people 17th-century Norwegian businesspeople 17th-century Norwegian businesswomen Ship owners