Women and Weapons in the Viking World

The Viking Age (c. AD 750–1050) is conventionally portrayed as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and when Norse merchants traveled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of slaves, silver and exotic commodities. Until fairly recently, Norse society during this pivotal period in world history has been characterized as male-dominated, with women’s roles dismissed or substantially downplayed.

There is, however, ample textual and archaeological evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians – in craftsmanship, exploration, cross-cultural trade, warfare and other spheres of life – would not have been possible without the active involvement of women, and that both within the walls of the household and in the wider public arena women’s voices were heard, respected and followed.

Lavishly illustrated, this pioneering book explores the stories of the female warrior and women’s links with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age, using literature and archaeological evidence from Scandinavia and the wider Viking world to examine the motivations and circumstances that led women to engage in armed conflict.

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of tables

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: the methodological and theoretical framework

Entering the Viking world…of the dead

Funerary diversity

Cremation graves

Inhumation graves

Lost identities and elusive grave goods

Warriors and warrior ideals

Sex and gender in the Viking Age

Amazons of the North: the scope of the book

2. Historiography

Researching women in the Viking Age

Warrior women in Old Norse studies and Viking archaeology

3. Women and weapons in medieval textual sources

Armed women in Gesta Danorum

Armed women in Old Norse Literature

Women and weapons in the Íslendingasögur

Freydís Eiríksdóttir

Þórdís Súrsdóttir

Auðr and Þuriðr

Þórhildr Vaðlækkja

Not only axes and swords: understanding women’s weapons

Women and weapons in the fornaldarsögur

Hervör Bjarmarsdóttir

Þornbjörg Eiríksdóttir

Other armed women in the fornaldarsögur

Armed women in Old Norse mythology

Valkyrjur, disir, fylgjur

Skaði

Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr

Female Giantesses as grinders of war and bearers of arms

Armed women of the Viking Age in non-Scandinavian medieval sources

Æthelflæd of Mercia

Women and war in the account of John Skylitzes

Women with weapons in medieval literature: more than literary embellishments

4. Women and weapons in Viking archaeology: the burial evidence

Female graves with weapons

Swedish female graves with weapons

Norwegian female graves with weapons

Danish female graves with weapons

5. Interpreting the arsenal of armed women

Women and axes in the Viking Age

Axes in the Viking Age

Axes in Viking Age funerary contexts

Miniature axes

Interpreting axes in Viking Age female graves

Women and axes in textual sources and folklore

Women and axes in the Viking Age: conclusions

Women and swords in the Viking Age

Swords in the Viking Age

Swords in Viking Age funerary contexts

Women and weaving swords

Women and swords in iconography

Miniature swords

Interpreting swords in Viking Age female graves

Women and swords in Old Norse sources

Women and swords in the Viking Age: conclusions

Women and spears in the Viking Age

Spears in the Viking Age

Spears in Viking Age funerary contexts

Women and spears in iconography

Miniature spears

Interpreting spears in Viking Age female graves

Women and spears in Old Norse sources

Women and spears in the Viking Age: conclusions

Women and shields in the Viking Age

Shields in the Viking Age

Shields in Viking Age funerary contexts

Women and shields in iconography

Miniature shields

Interpreting shields in Viking Age female graves

Women and shields in Old Norse sources

Women and shields in the Viking Age: conclusions

Women, bows and arrows in the Viking Age

Bows and arrows in the Viking Age

Bows and arrows in Viking Age funerary contexts

Interpreting bows and arrows in Viking Age female graves

Women, bows and arrows in Old Norse sources

Women, bows and arrows in the Viking Age: conclusions

Women, riding equipment and horses in the Viking Age

Riding equipment in the Viking Age

Riding equipment and horses in Viking Age funerary contexts

Interpreting riding equipment and horses in Viking Age female graves

Women and horses in Old Norse sources

Women, horses and riding equipment in the Viking Age: conclusions

6. Women and weapons in Viking Age iconography

The so-called ‘valkyrie brooches’: distribution and materiality

(Re)interpreting the so-called ‘valkyrie brooches’

Freyja and a warrior woman?

Sigurðr and Brynhildr/Sigrdrífa

Other iconographic representations of armed females in Viking Age Scandinavia and England

7. Women with weapons: a cross-cultural phenomenon

Warrior women in prehistoric times

Female cross-dressers in early modern Europe

The Amazons of Dahomey

Women in the First and Second World Wars

Emerging patterns and conclusions

8. Amazons of the North? Women and weapons in the Viking world

Women and weapons in Viking archaeology

Women and weapons in medieval texts

The way of the warrior: past and present

Appendix

References