Female Warriors and the Viking Age
Last week, I started watching Vikings on Netflix. I was hooked within the first few seconds. It had everything you’d expect from a historical Netflix series on the Viking era: massive ships, horns, fur, lust, power, envy, greed, invasion of territories and ferocious Scandinavians. However, one thing that I was not expecting to see was female warriors.
Watching the women battling side by side with the men, most of them even more intimidating than their male counterparts, has been totally mesmerising. With a shield in one hand and a blood-curdling axe in the other, jet-black paint around their eyes and a total fearlessness when facing the enemy head on. The Vikings were Pagans after all, and did not fear death but embraced it, which is what made them so terrifying.
While it has been widely debated if Viking female warriors actually existed, there is evidence to suggest that they did. DNA found the remains in a grave in Birka (a market town in Sweden founded around 750 AD and a battleground site) to be that of a female. The grave also contained weapons such as a sword, armour-piercing arrows, an axe and a spear indicating that the remains were that of a warrior. Female warriors were also depicted in Viking art and literature including poems, stories, tapestries and engravings, displaying the women fighting alongside the men. They fought with equal measure of bravery and honour regardless of their gender and the patriarchal society in which they lived. Compared to women from other cultures during the same era, Viking women did have more freedom however, they were still seen as inferior to men. But on the battlefield, it appeared that they were equals.
So who really were these female warriors and were they as terrifying as they are depicted in the Netflix series, Vikings?
Shieldmaidens
Shieldmaidens were large groups of women who banded together and marched into battle alongside the men. They were known for their beauty, strength and courage. They existed in both folklore and mythology.
Lagertha
Perhaps, the most well-known and one of the central characters of the Vikings series, is Lagertha. On screen, Lagertha is a beautiful yet fearsome female warrior who wants to fight and gain power and notoriety of her own. According to Sky History, the real-life story of Lagertha differs slightly to the series. She was indeed married to one of the most notorious male Vikings, Ragnar Lodbrock. However, her story starts when Norway is invaded by the king of Sweden who, after slaughtering the king of Norway, puts the late king’s female family members to work in a brothel. As a result, Ragnar called upon an army to fight and take revenge for the murder of his grandfather. Many of those who chose to fight alongside Ragnar were the women who had been abused in the brothels at the order of the king of Sweden. And at the head of these warriors was Lagertha. Many would have been seduced by her beauty and her flowing long blonde hair, yet they would be reminded of her thirst for blood out in the battlefield. No other female warrior could match her bravery or skill which played a fundamental part in winning the battle against Sweden.
Even though Ragnar pursued Lagertha’s heart relentlessly, she seemed a lot less interested in marriage and a lot more interested in gaining territory and battling against the enemy. Though they did eventually marry, they subsequently divorced. But even in divorce, Lagertha continued to support Ragnar by supplying him with 120 ships to support him during the civil war and when it looked like the war was lost for Ragnar, she launched a counterattack which soon turned things around in his favour.
Freydis Eiríksdóttir
The most famous Viking female warrior of all time was, Freydis Eiríksdóttir. According to Fjord tours, what made Freydis so legendary was that she did not rely on a band of shieldmaidens like Lagertha did. When the Vikings arrived on the shores of Vinland (East coast of North America) they soon retreated after an altercation with the unhappy locals. However, Freydis was not deterred. Instead of running back to the ships, she fought on. According to legend, she pulled a sword from a fallen comrade, ripped open her top and challenged the angry natives to battle. Shocked and terrified by this show of strength, resilience and intimidation, the natives retreated allowing Freydis to claim territories in her own right. And perhaps even more shocking was the fact that she was pregnant at the time, suffering with side effects as a result. Power to her!
One thing is for sure, women having to fight their way to the top is nothing new. Whether the fight be physical or mental, we as women, understand what that fight is really all about. It’s about fighting to be heard, to be seen and respected in a world that is largely dominated by men, even today. Watching Vikings and seeing the fearsome nature in the women’s eyes when out on the battlefield has inspired me to keep pushing forwards no matter how challenging life gets and no matter how many times I am told, ‘no it can’t be done.’ And although my challenges may not involve physical sword fights, I know that some days require me to dig deep and find my inner warrior just like my ancestors did and just as many future generations of women may do in the years to come.