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bride kidnapping

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Also known as marriage by abduction, marriage by capture, bridenapping

practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry

Wikidata facts

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Mauricio rugendas - el malon.jpg
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Commons category
Bride kidnapping
opposite of
groom kidnapping
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Encyclopedic overview

A depiction of Vikings kidnapping a woman. Viking men would often kidnap foreign women for marriage or concubinage from lands that they had pillaged. Illustrated by French painter Évariste Vital Luminais in the 19th century. Benjaminites seize wives from Shiloh in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld. There were not enough women available for marriage after the high losses in the Battle at Gibeah.

Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a man or boy abducts the woman or girl he wishes to marry.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “bride kidnapping” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.