The Real Valkyrie

by Nancy Marie Brown

  When I met Price in 2016, at the Society for American Archaeology’s conference in Orlando, Florida, I told him I planned to write a book on the concept of the valkyrie in the Viking Age, and I was looking for a warrior burial to study in depth. From the 2013 survey by Price’s former student, Leszek Gardeła, “‘Warrior-Women’ in Viking Age Scandinavia?,” I knew of a handful of graves that would suffice for my purposes. The questions I wanted to answer were, I thought, simple: How do we know a buried warrior was male or female? What stories influence our perception?

  I asked Price if he could refer me to an archaeologist, preferably a woman, who was an expert on a Viking Age weapons grave, preferably the burial of a woman.

  He looked at me funny. “I can’t talk about that—yet.”

  He suggested, very casually, that I meet Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, who was also attending the conference in Florida. I listened to her paper, on a topic I wasn’t then interested in, and didn’t make the connection—until September 2017, when “A Female Viking Warrior Confirmed by Genomics” was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, with Hedenstierna-Jonson as first author.

  I am extremely grateful to Price for that early warning and to Hedenstierna-Jonson, senior curator at the Swedish History Museum, for graciously agreeing to be interviewed twice, once in Stockholm and once during her lecture tour of the United States after the team’s second paper on the Bj581 burial was published in 2019. Without their work, I would have no story to tell. Hedenstierna-Jonson, particularly, paints an entirely new picture of Viking life in her 2006 doctoral thesis, The Birka Warrior, and the many articles she has published since then. Her vision, more than anyone else’s, has shaped this book. I have endeavored to remain true to her and her colleagues’ scientific conclusions, though I may have taken my interpretations further than they believe the data warrant. In our correspondence, Price wrote, “On balance of probability—and our own subjective impressions—we all feel that the most likely reading of the burial is that this was a warrior woman, but there are many reasonable alternatives, both as to gender and role.” He warned me against ruling out those alternatives. I’m afraid I didn’t comply. He added that “this question of whether it is even possible to read the lives of the dead from the things that accompany them in the grave is a massive one in archaeology.” I side with those archaeologists who assume it is possible. All speculations are my own.

  I was equally inspired by Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life (Little, Brown, 2010). Writes Schiff, “The holes in the record present one hazard, what we have constructed around them another.” She sees it as the biographer’s job, and I agree, to “peel away the encrusted myth and the hoary propaganda.” Yet myths die hard, as Ulrich Raulff notes in Farewell to the Horse (Liveright, 2018): “History is written in the indicative mood, but lived and remembered in the optative—the grammatical mood of wishful thinking. This is why historical myths are so tenacious. It’s as though the truth, even when it’s there for everyone to see, is powerless—it can’t lay a finger on the all-powerful myth.” The Real Valkyrie is my attempt to lay a powerful myth to rest: The myth that Viking women stayed at home, keys on their belts, while Viking men, carrying swords, raided and traded from North America to Byzantium, Baghdad, and beyond.

  Many other scholars and institutions helped shape this book. The Birka Portal on the website of the Swedish History Museum (http://historiska.se/birka/) is an extraordinary research tool; I’m indebted to the scholars who created it and grateful for their generosity in sharing both information and images. Thanks also to the University of Oslo’s Viking Ship Museum; the National Museum of Denmark; the Jamtli Museum in Östersund, Sweden; the UK Portable Antiquities Scheme; and the British Museum for digitizing their Viking Age holdings and sharing their databases. Researching the Viking world from the United States, especially during a pandemic, would not have been possible without these online resources.

  Both when they agreed with me and when they challenged my views, I enjoyed discussing the questions in this book with Guðný Zöega (Skagafjörður, Iceland, August 12, 2015), Leszek Gardeła (Reykjavík, Iceland, July 30, 2016), Judith Jesch (Reykjavík, Iceland, August 13, 2018), Marianne Moen (Oslo, Norway, August 20, 2018, and by correspondence), and Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir (York, England, February 23, 2019). They are in no way responsible for my assumptions and interpretations.

  Bill Short and his colleagues at Hurstwic Viking Combat Training Center in Southborough, Massachusetts, allowed me to handle Viking weapons at a training session on March 12, 2019, and shared their experiences and experiments with me (for details, see the Hurstwic Facebook page). Thanks to Bill also for his correspondence. Kudos to Barbara Wechter of Wechter Arms, for living the life of a Viking warrior woman.

  Two lectures presented by musician Einar Selvik at the 2018 Midgardsblot in Borre, Norway, were more inspiring than I could have imagined: Long parts of this book were composed with Wardruna on infinite loop. What Selvik said about Viking music and magic applies also to the rest of Viking culture: “What it is, how it was done, the gritty details: We don’t know any of that. We can only hypothesize or assume.” And we must not underestimate the difficulty of our task: “Their way of thinking is a more complex way than ours.”

  Thanks, too, to fantasy novelist Sofia Samatar for letting me live inside the mind of a warrior woman. Her novel The Winged Histories (Small Beer Press, 2016) was one of the highlights of my reading year. In the words of her sword-maiden, Tavis, “At times we were seized by a sudden and absolute happiness. It happened most often when we were beating back an attack and then we howled and dismembered the bodies, choking with joy.”

  For practical assistance, Gísli Pálsson of the University of Iceland came through as always, supplying me with a flat while I made use of Iceland’s extraordinary National Library in Reykjavík. For their hospitality, I also thank Melanie Saunders and William Fergus in Boston, Bill Short in Massachusetts, Kristín Vogfjörð and Guðbjörg Sigurðardóttir in Reykjavík, and Trina Andersen in Tønsberg.

  Elise Skalwold opened my eyes to the richness of Vestfold, Katrín Driscoll was a superb tour guide to Viking Dublin, Kristrún Heimisdóttir’s sensitive intervention was much appreciated at the Saga Conference in Reykholt, Lance Lazar was a fine host at Assumption College, and Alice Klingener came through with a tricky translation from Swedish. As my research assistant in Norway, Gabriel Dunsmith’s dependability and poetic eye added much to my first experience of a Viking Metal festival. In notes he shared with me, he wrote: “The energy at the shows is almost pensive—we are waiting for something to happen. We are waiting to be transformed. The music, when it comes, has a spiritual force because it relates to the land and our bodies. You can feel the throat-singing in your own body; it stirs up an emotional response. The sweetness of the mead, the raucous atmosphere of the place—it all creates an inner state that allows you to see the world differently, and perhaps with more clarity.”

  Thanks to Claire Van Vliet for urging me to think differently about art and illustrations, for enhancing the photographs I finally chose, and for providing the maps of the valkyries’ world. Thanks to my agent, Michelle Tessler, for encouraging me to jump on the Bj581 idea before I knew where the story would take me. And thanks to my editor, Elisabeth Dyssegaard, for challenging me to let that story take me as far as it could.

  Finally, thanks to my husband, Charles Fergus, for keeping my spirits up while hard at work on his own books, and to Sigrún Brynjarsdóttir for getting me back on the horse.

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Here: A three-dimensional Viking warrior, just over an inch tall, from Hårby, Denmark. Photos by John Lee, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, CC-BY-SA, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/asset/12785 and https://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/asset/12787.

  Here: Birka grave Bj581, as it may have looked when the burial was closed. Illustration by artist Þórhallur Þráinsson, based on archaeologists’ interpretations. From Hedenstie
rna-Jonson et al. (2017), used by permission.

  Here: Map of the North Lands, c. 950, with an inset showing Vestfold. © 2020 Claire Van Vliet.

  Here: Viking warriors in gilded silver, less than an inch tall, from Tissø, Denmark. Photo by Roberto Fortuna and Kira Ursem (detail), National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, CC-BY-SA, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/asset/4661.

  Here: A silver Borre-style pendant, about an inch wide, found in Birka, Sweden, grave Bj965. Photo by Gabriel Hildebrand, Swedish History Museum, Stockholm, CC-BY, https://historiska.se/upptack-historien/object/611402-hange-av-silver/.

  Here: Battle scene carved on the side of the wagon buried with the Oseberg queens. Photo by Ove Holst, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway, CC-BY-SA 4.0, https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/exhibitions/oseberg/oseberg-cart/.

  Here: Reconstruction of the procession shown in the Oseberg tapestries, based on the work of Mary Storm (1939). Photo by Mårten Teigen, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway, CC-BY-SA 4.0, http://www.unimus.no/foto/#/search?q=Oseberg%20tekstil*&museum=KHM.

  Here: Vikings in long gowns, including a cup bearer, each less than an inch tall, in the collection of the Swedish History Museum, Stockholm. Photo by a staff photographer, CC-BY 2.5 SE, http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/bild.asp?uid=22806.

  Here: Map of the West Way, c. 950. © 2020 Claire Van Vliet.

  Here: Detail from a reconstruction of the Overhogdal tapestries, now in the collection of the Jamtli Museum, Östersund, Sweden. From Agnes Branting and Andreas Lindblom, Medeltida vävnader och broderier i Sverige (Svenska arbeter, 1928), Color Plate 4.

  Here: Left, a Viking warrior, about an inch and a half tall, from Galgebakken, Denmark. Photo by John Lee, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, CC-BY-SA, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/asset/8253.

  Right, a very similar Viking warrior of the same size from Wickham Market, Suffolk, England. CC-BY Suffolk County Council, https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/35959.

  Here: Image of a Viking woman from Tissø, Denmark. Photo by Roberto Fortuna and Kira Ursem (detail), National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, CC-BY-SA 2.0, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/asset/4661.

  Here: Map of the East Way, c. 950, with an inset showing the town of Birka. © 2020 Claire Van Vliet.

  Here: The weapons from Birka grave Bj581: sword, scramasax, axe, two shields, two spears, and twenty-five arrows. Photo by Christer Åhlin, Swedish History Museum, Stockholm. Reproduced by permission from Price et al. (2019).

  Here: A key, sword-chape, and brooch displaying the falcon symbol, found in Birka, Sweden. Photo by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson. Reproduced by permission from Hedenstierna-Jonson (2015).

  Here: The warrior in Birka grave Bj581, as imagined by artist Tancredi Valeri, based on archaeologists’ interpretations. From Price et al. (2019). Used by permission of “The Viking Phenomenon” project, Uppsala University.

  Here: Silver coin found in a grave north of the Warriors’ Hall, Birka, Sweden. Photo by Christer Åhlin, Swedish History Museum, Stockholm, CC-BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hedeby_coins_from_grave_in_Birka.jpg.

  Here: The filigreed silver cone found next to the skull in Birka grave Bj581. Photo by a staff photographer, Swedish History Museum, Stockholm, CC-BY 2.5 SE, https://historiska.se/upptack-historien/object/106830-mossprydnad-av-silver/.

  Here: The 1889 drawing of Birka grave Bj581 by Evald Hansen, based on Hjalmar Stolpe’s site plans. Reproduced from Price et al. (2019). In the public domain.

  FURTHER READING

  The books, articles, and dissertations that influenced me the most are listed here; in the notes they are referenced by author’s last name and date. Medieval texts appear only in the notes.

  Androshchuk, Fedir. Vikings in the East: Essays on Contacts Along the Road to Byzantium (800–1100). Uppsala University, 2013.

  Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie. Masking Moments: The Transitions of Bodies and Beings in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. Doctoral thesis. Stockholm University, 2007.

  Brink, Stefan, and Neil Price, eds. The Viking World. Routledge, 2008.

  Callmer, John, Ingrid Gustin, and Mats Roslund, eds. Identity Formation and Diversity in the Early Medieval Baltic and Beyond. Brill, 2017.

  Clarke, Howard B., Sheila Dooley, and Ruth Johnson. Dublin and the Viking World. O’Brien Press, 2018.

  Downham, Clare. Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014. Dunedin Academic Press, 2007.

  Duczko, Wladyslaw. Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe. Brill, 2004.

  Eriksen, Marianne Hem, U. Pedersen, B. Rundberget, I. Axelsen, and H. Berg, eds. Viking Worlds: Things, Spaces and Movement. Oxbow Books, 2015 (especially the chapters by Heidi Lund Berg, Lydia Carstens, and Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson).

  Friðriksdóttir, Jóhanna Katrín. Women in Old Norse Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

  Friðriksdóttir, Jóhanna Katrín. Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

  Gardeła, Leszek. “‘Warrior-Women’ in Viking Age Scandinavia?” Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia 8 (2013): 273–340.

  Gardeła, Leszek. “Amazons of the North?” In Hvanndalir: Festschrift für Wilhelm Heizmann, pp. 391–428. Ed. A. Bauer and A. Pesch. De Gruyter, 2018.

  Griffiths, David. Vikings of the Irish Sea: Conflict and Assimilation, AD 790–1050. History Press, 2010; rpt., 2012.

  Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte. The Birka Warrior. Doctoral thesis. Stockholm University, 2006.

  Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte. “To Own and Be Owned: The Warriors of Birka’s Garrison.” In Own and Be Owned: Archaeological Approaches to the Concept of Possession, pp. 73–91. Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 62. Ed. Alison Klevnäs and C. Hedenstierna-Jonson. Stockholm University, 2015.

  Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte. “Foreigner and Local: Identities and Cultural Expression Among the Urban People of Birka—A Matter of Identity.” In Shetland and the Viking World: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Viking Congress, pp. 189–96. Ed. V. E. Turner, O. A. Owen, and D. J. Waugh. Shetland Heritage Publications, 2016.

  Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte, and Anna Kjellström. “The Urban Woman: On the Role and Identity of Women in Birka.” In Kvinner i Vikingtid, pp. 183–204. Ed. N. L. Coleman and N. Løkka. Makadam förlag, 2015.

  Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte, Anna Kjellström, Torun Zachrisson, Maja Krzewinska, Veronica Sobrado, Neil Price, Torsten Günther, Mattias Jakobsson, Anders Götherström, and Jan Storå. “A Female Viking Warrior Confirmed by Genomics.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2017): 1–8.

  Hjardar, Kim, and Vegard Vike. Vikings at War. Casemate, 2016.

  Holck, Per. “The Oseberg Ship Burial, Norway: New Thoughts on the Skeletons from the Grave Mound.” European Journal of Archaeology 9 (2006): 185–210.

  Holck, Per. “The Skeleton from the Gokstad Ship: New Evaluation of an Old Find.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 42.1 (2009): 40–49.

  Holmquist, Lena. “Birka’s Defence Works and Harbour.” In New Aspects on Viking-Age Urbanism, pp. 35–46. Ed. L. Holmquist, S. Kalmring, and C. Hedenstierna-Jonson. Stockholm University Archaeological Research Laboratory, 2016.

  Hraundal, Þórir Jónsson. The Rus in Arabic Sources: Cultural Contacts and Identity.Doctoral thesis. University of Bergen, 2013.

  Larsson, Gunilla. Ship and Society: Maritime Ideology in Late Iron Age Sweden.Doctoral thesis. Uppsala University, 2007.

  Larsson, Gunilla. “Early Contacts Between Scandinavia and the Orient.” The Silk Road 9 (2011): 122–42.

  Mägi, Marika. In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication Across the Baltic Sea. Brill, 2018.

  Moen, Marianne. The Gendered Landscape. Master’s thesis. University of Oslo, 2010, published with different pagination as BAR International Series 2207 (2011).

  Moen, Marianne. Challenging Gender: A Reconsideration of Gender in the Viking Age
Using the Mortuary Landscape. Doctoral thesis. University of Oslo, 2019.

  Normann, Lena. Viking Women: The Narrative Voice in Woven Tapestries. Cambria Press, 2008.

  Olausson, Lena Holmquist, and Michael Olausson, eds. The Martial Society: Aspects of Warriors, Fortifications, and Social Change in Scandinavia. Archaeological Research Laboratory Stockholm University, 2009 (especially the chapters by Fedir Androshchuk; Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson; Eva Hjärthner-Holdar; Judith Jesch; Anna Kjellström; Fredrik Lundström, Hedenstierna-Jonson, and Lena Holmquist Olausson; and Elisabeth Piltz).

  Price, Neil. The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. 2nd ed. Oxbow Books, 2019.

  Price, Neil. Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. Basic Books, 2020.

  Price, Neil, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Torun Zachrisson, Anna Kjellström, Jan Storå, Maja Krzewinska, Torsten Günther, Veronica Sobrado, Mattias Jakobsson, and Anders Götherström. “Viking Warrior Women? Reassessing Birka Chamber Grave Bj.581.” Antiquity 93 (2019): 181–98.

  Short, William R. Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques. Westholme Publishing, 2014.

  Skre, Dagfinn, ed. Kaupang in Skiringssal. Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, vol. 1. Aarhus University Press, 2007.

  Skre, Dagfinn, ed. Means of Exchange. Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, vol. 2. Aarhus University Press, 2008.

  Skre, Dagfinn, ed. Things from the Town. Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, vol. 3. Aarhus University Press, 2011.

  Skre, Dagfinn, and Frans-Arne Stylegar. Kaupang, the Viking Town: The Kaupang Exhibition at UKM, Oslo, 2004–2005. University of Oslo, 2004.

  Vedeler, Marianne. Silk for the Vikings. Ancient Textiles Series, vol. 15. Oxbow Books, 2014.

  Williams, Gareth. Weapons of the Viking Warrior. Osprey Publishing, 2019.

  NOTES