Bibliograph

The real Valkyrie, the hidden history of Viking warrior women, Nancy Marie Brown

Type

Label

The real Valkyrie, the hidden history of Viking warrior women, Nancy Marie Brown

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-310) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The real Valkyrie

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1264798122

Responsibility statement

Nancy Marie Brown

Sub title

the hidden history of Viking warrior women

Summary

"In the tradition of Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, Brown lays to rest the hoary myth that Viking society was ruled by men and celebrates the dramatic lives of female Viking warriors. In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined. Brown uses science to link the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond. She imagines her life intersecting with larger-than-life but real women, including Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, the Viking leader known as The Red Girl, and Queen Olga of Kyiv. Hervor's short, dramatic life shows that much of what we have taken as truth about women in the Viking Age is based not on data, but on nineteenth-century Victorian biases. Rather than holding the household keys, Viking women in history, law, saga, poetry, and myth carry weapons. These women brag, "As heroes we were widely known-with keen spears we cut blood from bone." In this compelling narrative Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield-maids to vivid life"--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Hervor's song -- Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings -- The Town Beneath the Shining Hall -- Little "Hel-skins" -- Queen Asa's revenge -- The Winter Nights feast -- The Valkyries' task -- The feud -- The Queen of Orkney -- The tragedy of Brynhild -- Shield-maids -- The Red Girl -- Slave girls -- The slave route to Birka -- Red Earth -- A Birka warrior -- The Kaftan -- The East way -- At Linda's stone -- "Gerzkr" caps -- Queen Olga's revenge -- Death of a Valkyrie

Classification