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Author: Judith Jesch
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 0851153607
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
Through runic inscriptions and behind the veil of myth, Jesch discovers the true story of viking women.
Author: Judith Jesch
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 0851153607
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
Through runic inscriptions and behind the veil of myth, Jesch discovers the true story of viking women.
Author: Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350137103
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332
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Book Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE Valkyries: the female supernatural beings that choose who dies and who lives on the battlefield. They protect some, but guide spears, arrows and sword blades into the bodies of others. Viking myths about valkyries attempt to elevate the banality of war – to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies of young men, glorious and worthwhile. Rather than their death being futile, it is their destiny and good fortune, determined by divine beings. The women in these stories take full part in the power struggles and upheavals in their communities, for better or worse. Drawing on the latest historical and archaeological evidence, Valkyrie introduces readers to the dramatic and fascinating texts recorded in medieval Iceland, a culture able to imagine women in all kinds of roles carrying power, not just in this world, but pulling the strings in the other-world, too. In the process, this fascinating book uncovers the reality behind the myths and legends to reveal the dynamic, diverse lives of Viking women.
Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250200830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
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 “Once again, Brown brings Viking history to vivid, unexpected life—and in the process, turns what we thought we knew about Norse culture on its head. Superb.” —Scott Weidensaul, author of New York Times bestselling A World on the Wing "Magnificent. It captured me from the very first page." —Pat Shipman, author of The Invaders 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. Nancy Marie 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.
Author: Lena Elisabeth Norrman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244
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Book Description
At first glance, several literary portrayals of Viking Age women represent them as kings, as warriors, and as inciters of violence, which seems to contradict the image of the passive, housebound female figure. However, those images need to be read and re-interpreted with a measured critical suspicion. For example, several scholars have argued that those images tell little about the real history of Scandinavian and European women but instead represent fantasies expressed by later male authors. In contrast to the literary portrayals, Viking Age women and European women in the Middle Ages stayed at home and were not allowed to let their voices be heard publicly. In this groundbreaking study by Scandinavian scholar, Lena Norrman, this book posits that women had ways to communicate their lore through visual representations such as weavings and embroideries. The Overhogdal tapestries were found in the northern part of Sweden and dated to circa 1000 AD. Woven with locally-dyed wool and linen, these tapestries and weavings have received relatively little scholarly attention. According to the author, the Overhogdal tapestries tell the story of Siguror the Dragon Slayer, a depiction that comes more than 200 years earlier than the oldest manuscript of this well-known legend, which was disseminated through different parts of Northern Europe as well in Iceland and Greenland. Equally important, these textile representations are told from a female perspective where the focus is on love, passion, honor and revenge instead of finding the gold, magical weapons and depictions of the killing of the dragon. Using a refreshing perspective, the author's reading of these textiles is based on theories of oral tradition. She contextualizes these tapestries as narratives in circulation, and more specifically, argues that they allow us to "see" or read women's stories despite the fact that women's voices were silent. Such untraditional outlets as weavings and miracle writings contradict the view of women as silent, passive participants in the events that shaped history. With respect to the Viking Age, this book shows that women had ways to communicate their lore through visual representations such as weavings and embroideries, which are a crucial object of this study. This is a critical reference for scholars in Scandinavian studies and Women's studies."
Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156033978
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324
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Book Description
"Brown's enthusiasm is infectious as she re-teaches us our history."--The Boston Globe Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed off the edge of the known world. She landed in the New World and lived there for three years, giving birth to a baby before sailing home. Or so the Icelandic sagas say. Even after archaeologists found a Viking longhouse in Newfoundland, no one believed that the details of Gudrid's story were true. Then, in 2001, a team of scientists discovered what may have been this pioneering woman's last house, buried under a hay field in Iceland, just where the sagas suggested it could be. Joining scientists experimenting with cutting-edge technology and the latest archaeological techniques, and tracing Gudrid's steps on land and in the sagas, Nancy Marie Brown reconstructs a life that spanned--and expanded--the bounds of the then-known world. She also sheds new light on the society that gave rise to a woman even more extraordinary than legend has painted her and illuminates the reasons for its collapse. "Brown rightly leaves scholarly work to scholars. Instead, her account presents an enthusiastic appreciation of her education in how fieldwork and literature offer insights into the past."--The Seattle Times "[Brown has] a lovely ear for storytelling."--Los Angeles Times Book Review NANCY MARIE BROWN is the author of A Good Horse Has No Color and Mendel in the Kitchen. She lives in Vermont with her husband, the writer Charles Fergus.
Author: Leszek Gardela
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1789256666
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 536
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Book Description
The Viking Age (c. 750–1050 AD) is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and when Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of slaves, silver, and exotic commodities. Until relatively recently, archaeologists and textual scholars had the tendency to weave a largely male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians - for instance in craftsmanship, exploration, cross-cultural trade, warfare and other spheres of life - would not have been possible without the active involvement of women. Extant textual sources as well as the perpetually expanding corpus of archaeological evidence thus demonstrate unequivocally that both within the walls of the household and in the wider public arena women’s voices were heard, respected and followed. This pioneering and lavishly illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The multifarious motivations and circumstances that led women to engage in armed conflict or other activities whereby weapons served as potent symbols of prestige and empowerment are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from Scandinavia and the wider Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields - lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.
Author: Jenny Jochens
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801455952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Jenny Jochens captures in fascinating detail the lives of women in pagan and early Christian Iceland and Norway—their work, sexual behavior, marriage customs, reproductive practices, familial relations, leisure activities, religious practices, and legal constraints and protections. Women in Old Norse Society places particular emphasis on changing sexual mores and the impact of Christianity as imposed by the clergy and Norwegian kings. It also demonstrates the vital role women played in economic production.
Author: Heather Graham
Publisher: Dell
ISBN: 0440206707
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482
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Book Description
Her wild spirit made him crave her . . . Her firebrand—hair blazed as glorious as a sunrise. Her long limbs promised the sweet mysteries of the night. Rhiannon, King Alfred’s favorite niece, was enraged when her uncle sealed an alliance of war by pledging her to Eric, the towering golden-haired prince whose blue eyes penetrated her with a glacial stare. But the more she fought the marriage . . . the man . . . the more she became inflamed by the fire that lay beneath his Viking ice. His passion pierced her heart . . . His broad shoulders as hard as the steel of his sword, Eric bowed to no man. The only battle he feared losing was with Rhiannon. For she had reached into the savage recesses of his heart. No campaign on the field, no treason from within, would he fight as fiercely—or with such desire . . . as the war he waged to possess what was his.
Author: J. Friðriksdóttir
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137118067
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
Old Norse texts offer different ideas about what it is to be female, presenting women in diverse social and economic positions. This book analyzes female characters in medieval Icelandic saga literature, and demonstrates how they engaged with some of the most contested values of the period, revealing the anxieties of both the authors and audiences.
Author: David Mullaly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 227
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Book Description
Asa was a young woman who avenged a personal assault, was forced to become a warrior and leader during her family's travels, and ultimately became responsible for defending Birka, one of the great Viking trade centers. This actual Norse woman made her mark during a violent time. A Viking burial found on the Swedish island of Birka, identified as Bj.581, contained what was recently identified as the remains of a woman warrior and leader. What was found there confirmed that she was female and presented herself as such. Testing also suggested that she traveled extensively when she was young. What we cannot know for sure is how she grew into the role which typically was filled by men in the Norse culture. This story is a riveting but plausible reconstruction of her life during a turbulent time in European and human history. David Mullaly provides a realistic context based on our limited knowledge of the period, and creates a sequence of events which could have led to her becoming the extraordinary woman that she surely came to be. Fans of the fiction of Bernard Cornwell, Robert Low, and James L. Nelson will appreciate this historical novel. Mullaly's first two novels deal with a later period of Viking history.
