The Real Valkyrie

by Nancy Marie Brown

The sources listed under “Further Reading” are here referenced by author’s last name and date of publication. Other sources, if cited more than once per chapter, are listed by author’s last name and a short title. Names are given here in the authors’ original spellings. Although modern Icelanders prefer to be called by their first names, for the sake of consistency I use their last names on second reference, following English practice. Translations from Old Norse / Icelandic sources are my own, unless otherwise noted here. I used the following editions:

  Edda, by Snorri Sturluson, ed. Anthony Faulkes, 2nd ed. (Viking Society for Northern Research, 2005), vols. 1–2.

  Eddukvæði (The Poetic Edda), ed. Gísli Sigurðsson (Íslensku bókaklúbbarnir, 2001), containing the poems Atlamál in grænlensku, Fáfnismál, Hávamál, Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, Helreið Brynhildar, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Sigurdrífumál, Sigurðarkviða in skamma, Völundarkviða, and Þrymskviða.

  Egils saga, ed. Sigurður Nordal (Íslenzkt fornrit II. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933).

  Eiríks saga rauða, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson (Íslenzkt fornrit IV. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1935).

  Eyrbyggja saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson (Íslenzkt fornrit IV. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1935).

  Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, vols. 1–3, ed. Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson (Reykjavík, 1943–44), containing Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana, and Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar.

  Gísla saga Súrssonar, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson, in Vestfirðinga Sögur (Íslenzkt fornrit VI. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1958).

  Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, ed. Guðni Jónsson (Íslenzkt fornrit VII. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1936).

  Grottasöngr, ed. Clive Tolley (Viking Society for Northern Research, 2008).

  Harðar saga ok Hólmverja, ed. Þórleifr Jónsson (Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1908).

  Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson, vol. 1, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (Íslenzkt fornrit XXVI. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1941), containing Prologus (Prologue), Ynglinga saga, Hálfdana saga svarta (Saga of Halfdan the Black), Haralds saga hárfagra (Saga of Harald Fairhair), Hákonar saga góða (Saga of Hakon the Good), Haralds saga gráfeldar (Saga of Harald Graycloak), and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar (Saga of Olaf Tryggvason).

  Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson, vol. 2, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (Íslenzkt fornrit XXVII. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1945), containing Óláfs saga helga.

  Hervararkviða (The Waking of Angantyr), ed. E. V. Gordon, in Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford University Press, 1927; rpt., 1980), 142–47.

  Hervarar saga: Saga Heiðreks Konungs ins Vitra: The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise, ed. and trans. Christopher Tolkien (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1960).

  Jómsvikinga saga: The Saga of the Jomsvikings, ed. N. F. Blake (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1962).

  Kormáks saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson (Íslenzkt fornrit VIII. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1939).

  Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), ed. Jakob Benediktsson (Íslenzkt fornrit I. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1968).

  Laxdæla saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson (Íslenzkt fornrit V. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1934).

  Njáls saga: Brennu-Njáls saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson (Íslenzkt fornrit XII. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1954), containing the poem Darraðarljóð.

  Nóregs konunga tal in Ágrip Fagrskinna, ed. Bjarni Einarsson (Íslenzkt fornrit XXIX. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1985).

  Orkneyinga saga, ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson (Íslenzkt fornrit XXXIV. Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1965).

  Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas, vol. 1, From Mythical Times to c. 1035, ed. Diana Whaley (Brepols, 2012), containing the poems Eiríksmál and Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál).

  Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas, vol. 2, From c. 1035 to c. 1300, ed. Kari Ellen Gade (Brepols, 2009), containing the Poem About Haraldr harðraði by Valgarðr á Velli.

  Völsunga saga, ed. R. G. Finch (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965).

  Örvar-Odds saga, ed. R. C. Boer (E. J. Brill, 1888).

  INTRODUCTION: THE VALKYRIE’S GRAVE

  Bj581: Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. (2017). Price et al. (2019) (“very surprised”); they list a dozen scholars who label Bj581 a warrior’s grave. “Bj” stands for Björkø, the island on which the town of Birka lies. The contents of the grave are curated by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm; see http://historiska.se/upptack-historien/context/786-grav-kammargrav-bj-581/. Hjalmar Stolpe’s notebooks and field drawings from 1878 are online at http://historiska.se/birka/digitala-resurser/. Bertil Almgren, The Viking (Tre Tryckare, Cagner, 1966), 44 (“position”). The coin is dated 913–33; 980 is the latest assumed date of the destruction of Birka. Dawn Hadley (“unquestionably masculine”), quoted by Shane McLeod, “Warriors and Women,” Early Medieval Europe 19 (2011): 339.

  pirates: Price (2020), 357–58. Magnus Magnusson, Vikings! (Elsevier-Dutton, 1980), 61 (“fury,” “Bitter”). Nirmal Dass, Viking Attacks on Paris (Peeters, 2007), 39 (“ransacked”). Anne Stalsberg and Oddmunn Farbbregd, “Why So Many Viking Age Swords in Norway?” Studia Universitas Cibiniensis (2011): 47–52. Robert Wernick, The Vikings (Time-Life Books, 1979), 6 (“brawny”).

  “sexing by metal”: Neil Price, interviewed April 8, 2016, credits the term to Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, who traced the practice to 1837 and reveals the uncertainty surrounding robustness and pelvic structure; see Back Danielsson (2007), 26, 60–67. On Viking graves with female-looking bones, see Leszek Gardeła, “Warriors, Warlocks, Widows,” Medievalists.net (December 2019). Martin Rundkvist, “Shield Maidens!” Aardvarchaeology blog, July 29, 2019 (“noise”). In 2019, for a television special, National Geographic reconstructed the face of a warrior woman buried with her weapons in Nordre Kjølen, Solør, Norway. Identified as a female weapons burial when it was discovered in 1900, the grave came to new prominence after Birka grave Bj581 was confirmed to be female; DNA studies have been launched to learn about her “diet, age, disease history, possible injuries, genetic sex determination, and more,” according to a November 18, 2019, press release from the University of Oslo.

  elite burials: Moen (2019), 236–38, 260–63.

  know the Vikings: Friðriksdóttir (2020) argues the opposing view, that Bj581 requires no rethinking of our understanding of the Viking world, 58–64; she warns, “We can’t simply equate chromosomes with social gender.” See also Price (2020) on the debate surrounding Bj581, 177–78, 328–29.

  Harby: The National Museum of Denmark catalogues the figurine as “Valkyriefigur fra Tjørnehøj, Hårby”; see https://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/asset/12789. On other images, see Gardeła (2018), 402–4.

  dismissed as a “valkyrie”: Snorri Sturluson describes valkyries in his Edda, 1:30; on Snorri being untrustworthy, see my biography of him, Song of the Vikings (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Judith Jesch, “Valkyries Revisited,” Norse and Viking Ramblings blog, July 29, 2013 (“mythological,” “warriors were men”). Friðriksdóttir (2020), 67 (“firmly supernatural”). Price (2019), 274 (“semi-human”). Christopher Abram, Myths of the Pagan North (Continuum, 2011), 68 (“perfectly ordinary”). Neil Price, “The Way of the Warrior,” in G. Williams, P. Pentz, and M. Wemhoff, eds., Viking (National Museum of Denmark, 2013), 116.

  gender lines: I discuss the household duties of Viking women in The Far Traveler (Harcourt, 2007), chs. 6 and 9, and Ivory Vikings (St. Martin’s Press, 2015), ch. 3. Ben Raffield, Neil Price, and Mark Collard, “Polygyny, Concubinage, and the Social Lives of Women in Viking-Age Scandinavia,” Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 13 (2017): 187 (“dominant role”). Preben M. Sørensen, The Unmanly Man (Odense University Press, 1983), 20 (“decisions”). Price (2020), 155–58.

  keys: Jenny Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society (Cornell University Press, 1995), 132. Anne-Sofie Gräslund, “The Position of Iron Age Scandinavian Women,” in B. Arnold and N. L. Wicker
, eds., Gender and the Archaeology of Death (Altamira Press, 2001), 84 (“for honor”). The bawdy Þrymskviða is the mythological poem “most often mentioned” as having been composed after Iceland’s conversion to Christianity; see John Lindow, Norse Mythology (Oxford University Press, 2001), 14.

  Women with weapons: Gardeła (2018) names eighteen in histories, sagas, and myths. Friðriksdóttir (2013) adds four saga women. Price (2019) names fifty-one valkyries and adds one historical woman, 275, 280. I add three giant women mentioned in poems. On the laws, see Carol Clover, “Regardless of Sex,” Speculum 68 (1993): 363–87.

  Victorian society: Moen (2010 [2011]), 29–30; (2019), 11, 14, 72, 74–77, 87–88, 106. Elizabeth Arwill-Nordbladh, “The Swedish Image of Viking Age Women,” and Liv Helga Dommasnes, “Women, Kinship, and the Basis of Power in the Norwegian Viking Age,” in R. Samson, ed., Social Approaches to Viking Studies (Cruithne Press, 1991), 53–58, 65–73.

  Calling keys the symbol: Heidi Lund Berg, “‘Truth’ and Reproduction of Knowledge,” in Eriksen et al. (2015), 124–43. Pernille Pantmann, “The Symbolism of Keys in Female Graves on Zealand During the Viking Age,” in L. Boye, ed., The Iron Age on Zealand (Royal Society of Northern Antiquities, 2011), 75 (“misinterpretation,” “mistake,” “myth”).

  martial society: Hedenstierna-Jonson (2006), 26; (2015), 83. Hjardar and Vike (2016), 31, 180. Moen (2019), 282. Judith Jesch, “Constructing the Warrior Ideal in the Late Viking Age,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 73 (“fled not”). Clover, “Regardless of Sex,” 367 (“any more decisive”), 368 (“like a son”), 370 (drengr). Tom Shippey, Laughing Shall I Die (Reaktion Books, 2018), 230 (“led by a leader”). John Gillingham, “Women, Children, and the Profits of War,” in J. L. Nelson, S. Reynolds, and S. M. Johns, eds., Gender and Historiography (Institute of Historical Research, 2012), 68 (manna). Saxo Grammaticus, trans. P. Fisher, The History of the Danes, Books I–IX (D. S. Brewer, 1970–80; rpt., 2008), 280 (spelled Lathgertha, “battle in the forefront”). The valkyrie names are trans. Price (2019), 280. Grottasöngr, st. 15 (“As heroes”). Hervarar saga, ch. 4 (“kvennmann”).

  bones can be eloquent: Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. (2017); Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, interviewed June 14, 2018 (on the skull). Holck (2009), 45–46 (“splintery,” average height). Holck (2006) notes that bodies in modern Norwegian graveyards disintegrate in fifteen to twenty-five years, 190. Anna Kjellström, “People in Transition,” in V. Turner, ed., Shetland and the Viking World (Shetland Amenity Trust, 2016), 198 (loose teeth).

  surrounded by weapons: Price et al. (2019). Hedenstierna-Jonson (2006), 55–57; “Women at War?” SAA Archaeological Record 18 (May 2018): 28–31; “Traces of Contacts,” in B. Tobias, ed., Die Archäologie der Frühen Ungarn (Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 2012), 29–48; and “Close Encounters with the Byzantine Border Zones,” in O. Minaeva and L. Holmquist, eds., Scandinavia and the Balkans (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), 139–52. Fedir Androshchuk (2013), 222; “Vikings and Farmers,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 93–104. Holmquist (2016). Short (2014), 14 (61 percent).

  location: Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, interviewed June 14, 2018. See also the online Supporting Information for Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. (2017) and the online Supplementary Material for Price et al. (2019).

  game pieces: Gavin K. E. Davies, From Rules to Experience (doctoral thesis, Swansea University, 2015), 26, 43–61 (luck). Mads Ravn, “The Use of Symbols in Burials in Migration Age Europe,” in D. S. Olausson and H. Vandkilde, eds., Form, Function & Context (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000), 289 (“strategic thinking”). Helene Whittaker, “Game Boards and Gaming Pieces in Funerary Contexts in the Northern European Iron Age,” Nordlit Tidskrift for Kultur og Litteratur 20 (2006): 107 (“success in warfare”).

  date their finds: Aina Margrethe Heen-Pettersen, “The Earliest Wave of Viking Activity?” European Journal of Archaeology 22 (2019): 523–41.

  1: HERVOR’S SONG

  Hervor’s Song: Hervararkviða, also known as The Waking of Angantyr, is contained in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, literally, Hervor’s Saga and Heidrek’s. In his edition, Christopher Tolkien changed the name of the saga to The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise, giving all agency to Hervor’s son. I’ve taken the opposite approach, and refer to it as Hervarar saga, or the Saga of Hervor.

  translated into English: Heather O’Donoghue, From Asgard to Valhalla (I. B. Tauris, 2007), 109.

  Gothic novel: Anthony Faulkes, “The Viking Mind, or In Pursuit of the Viking,” Saga-Book 31 (2007): 59.

  composed around 1120: Maria Mundt, “Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks Konungs Revisited,” in T. Paroli, ed., Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages (Spoleto Centro Italiano de Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1988), 263–74. Tolkien, Saga of King Heidrek, vii (“historical authenticity”), in G. Turville-Petre, ed., Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (VSNR, 1956), xi–xx (“ruthless rewriting,” “remote antiquity”). Back Danielsson (2007), 59 (“sorting frenzy”).

  poems: Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla Prologus (“still know,” “mockery”); Separate Saga of St Olaf, quoted by Guðrún Nordal, Skaldic Versifying and Social Discrimination in Medieval Iceland (VSNR, 2003), 12 (“composed correctly”).

  hnefatafl: Hervarar saga, ch. 9 (“what women”). Gavin K. E. Davies, From Rules to Experience (doctoral thesis, Swansea University, 2015), 26, 33–40, 43–61 (luck). Elisabeth Piltz, “Byzantium and He taktike episteme as a Cognitive Reference for Varangian Military Tactics,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 152. Hjardar and Vike (2016), 24, 93–94. Elsa Roesdahl, quoted in Kristian Sjøgren, “What Made the Vikings So Superior in Warfare?” Science Nordic (December 20, 2017).

  Battle of the Goths: Hervarar saga, ch. 10. Tolkien, Saga of King Heidrek, viii (“oldest of all”).

  “not like other people”: Hervararkviða (The Waking of Angantyr), line 94 in Gordon’s edition; the line does not appear in all manuscripts of the poem. Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, Old Norse Women’s Poetry (D. S. Brewer, 2011), 65 (“hardly human”).

  Viking band: Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, “A Brotherhood of Feasting and Campaigning,” in E. Regner et al., eds., From Ephesos to Dalecarlia (Stockholm Museum of National Antiquities, 2009), 43–53. Ben Raffield, Claire Greenlow, Neil Price, and Mark Collard, “Ingroup Identification, Identity Fusion, and the Formation of Viking War Bands,” World Archaeology 48 (2016): 35–50. Ashot Margaryan et al., “Population Genomics of the Viking World,” Nature 585 (September 17, 2020): 390–96.

  amulets: Shane McLeod, “The Acculturation of Scandinavians in England,” Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association 9 (2013): 83. Peter Pentz, “Viking Art, Snorri Sturluson, and Some Recent Metal Detector Finds,” Fornvännen 113 (2018): 17–33. Williams (2019), 27, 29. Pamela D. Toler, Women Warriors (Beacon, 2019), 35n (challenge coins).

  sword buried: Fedir Androschchuk, “Vikings and Farmers,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 93–95. Miskawayh, trans. P. Lunde and C. Stone, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness (Penguin, 2012), 151 (“sharpness”). Hervarar saga, ch. 1–3 (Tyrfing). One manuscript contains more detail on the sword’s creation; see Tolkien, Saga of King Heidrek, 68. Grettis saga, ch. 17 (Jokul’s Gift). Egils saga, ch. 61 (Slicer).

  web of friendship: Viðar Pálsson, Power and Political Communication (doctoral thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2010). Hávamál, st. 41 (“Long friendships”), 42 (“be a friend”). Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál), st. 19 (“By their gear”).

  “rule all Norway”: Hervarar saga, ch. 3.

  2: GUNNHILD MOTHER-OF-KINGS

  Shining Hall: Skre (2007), 223–42.

  Snorri: Sigurðar Nordal, Snorri Sturluson (Helgafell, 1920; rpt., 1973), 76. On his character, see my biography of him, Song of the Vikings (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

  Gunnhild: Haralds saga hárfagra, ch. 35–39, ch. 43 (“never seen”). Haralds saga gráfeldar, ch. 1, 3 (“how to rule”). Nóregs konunga tal (“Age of Gunnhild”), 202. M. J. Driscoll, ed., Ágrip af Nóregs
konungasögum (VSNR, 1995), 87–91 (“smear campaign”). Devra Kunin, trans., A History of Norway and the Passion and Miracles of the Blessed Óláfr (VSNR, 2001), 15 (princess). Jóna Guðbjörg Torfadóttir, “Gunnhildur and the Male Whores,” Sagas & Societies Conference (Universität Tübingen, 2002).

  Eirik Bloodaxe: Haralds saga hárfagra, ch. 43 (“blessed”). Egils saga, ch. 78 (“gleamed”).

  Harald Fairhair: Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál), st. 19 (“silver-clad swords”). Egils saga, ch. 4 (“harshest terms”).

  Bjorn, king of Vestfold: Haralds saga hárfagra, ch. 35. On Tunsberg (modern Tønsberg), see Skre (2007), 469.

  Feast halls: Egils saga, ch. 22. Lydia Carstens, “Powerful Space,” in Eriksen et al. (2015), 12–27. Price (2020), 98–99.

  3: THE TOWN BENEATH THE SHINING HALL

  Kaupang: Skre and Stylegar (2004), 26, 29–33, 42–43 (“modesty”). Skre (2007), 223–42, 467–69. Skre and Lars Pilø, “Introduction to the Site,” in Skre (2008), 24. Skre, “Kaupang—‘Skiringssalr,’” in Brink and Price (2008). Skre (2011), 446. Janet Bately and Anton Englert, Ohthere’s Voyages (Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, 2007), 44–47; I use the Old Norse spelling, “Ottar.” Moen (2019), 190 (“burials speak”).

  “strong, healthy”: Laura Maravall Buckwalter and Joerg Baten, “Valkyries,” Economics & Human Biology 34 (August 2019): 181–93. For a contradictory study, see Price (2020), 159.

  stewed: Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg, An Early Meal (ChronoCopia Publishing, 2013), 143, 155, 157.

  Vestfold: Moen (2010 [2011]), 32.

  Hedeby: Michael Müller-Wille, “Hedeby in Ohthere’s Time,” in Bately and Englert, Ohthere’s Voyages, 165. Volker Hilberg, “Hedeby in Wulfstan’s Days,” in A. Englert and A. Trakadas, Wulfstan’s Voyage (Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, 2009), 92.

  Lindisfarne: Gwyn Jones, History of the Vikings (Oxford University Press, 1968), 194 (“from the blue”). Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. Benjamin Thorpe (Longman, Greene, Longman, and Roberts, 1861), 48 (“forewarnings”).