The real Valkyrie : the hidden history of Viking warrior women / Nancy Marie Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Nancy Marie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women, Viking--History.

Women, Viking.

Women--Scandinavia--History--To 1500.

Women.

Vikings--History.

Vikings.

Civilization, Viking.

History.

Scandinavia.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 320 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2021.

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.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Hervor's Song

2. Gunnhild Mother-Of-Kings

3. The Town Beneath the Shining Hall

4. Little "Hel-Skins"

5. Queen Asa's Revenge

6. The Winter Nights Feast

7. The Valkyries' Task

8. The Feud

9. The Queen of Orkney

10. The Tragedy of Brynhild

11. Shield-Maids

12. The Red Girl

13. Slave Girls

14. The Slave Route to Birka

15. Red Earth

16. A Birka Warrior

17. The Kaftan

18. The East Way

19. At Linda's Stone

20. "Gerzkr" Caps

21. Queen Olga's Revenge

22. Death of A Valkyrie.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781250200846

1250200849

OCLC:

1184235216