The Real Valkyrie

by Nancy Marie Brown

  dyeing: Penelope Walton Rogers, Textile Production at 16–22 Coppergate (Council for British Archaeology, 1997), 1766, 1768–70. Thor Ewing, Viking Clothing (History Press, 2012), 154–57. Ester S. B. Ferreira et al., “The Natural Constituents of Historical Textile Dyes,” Chemical Society Reviews 33 (2004): 329–36.

  loom: Marta Hoffman, The Warp-Weighted Loom (Oslo Universitetsforlaget, 1974), 5–6, 39. Ewing, Viking Clothing, 137–39. I discuss the making of wool cloth in The Far Traveler (Harcourt, 2007), ch. 9.

  Valkyries’ Song: Darraðarljóð, in Njáls saga, ch. 157. Most translators apply “naked” to the horses, not to the swords. Stirrups, as found in Bj581, were invented to improve the force of a sword or spear thrust from horseback. Having these valkyries ride bareback is another instance of the tendency to read Viking warrior women as myths. Nora Kershaw dates the poem to 919; see Russell Poole, Viking Poems on War and Peace (University of Toronto Press, 1991), 120–22. Chihiro Tsukamoto, “What Did They Sound Like? Reconstructing the Music of the Viking Age” (master’s thesis, University of Iceland, 2017), 36 (working songs).

  tapestries: Rogers, Textile Production, 1757–60. David J. Bernstein, The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry (University of Chicago Press, 1987), 14, 78–79. The Overhogdal tapestries are described on the website of the Nationalmuseum Jamtli, Östersund, Sweden (“learned the trick”). Normann (2008), 124–26, 130–75 (Brynhild). Eva-Marie Göransson, “Människor i rum av tid,” Fornvännen 90.3 (1995): 129–38 (“androgyny”). Gardeła (2013), 301–4 (“gender boundaries”); (2018), 402–8.

  settling down: Hervarar saga, ch. 3–4 (Hervor). Grettis saga, ch. 3 and 8 (Onund). Egils saga, ch. 1 (Ulf).

  York’s throne: Clare Downham, “The Chronology of the Last Scandinavian Kings of York, AD 937–954,” Northern History 40 (2003): 25–51.

  11: SHIELD-MAIDS

  Jorvik: Richard Hall, The Viking Dig (Bodley Head, 1984), 49–52, 78, 94–97. Anthony Burton, The Yorkshire Dales and York: Landranger Guidebook (UK Ordnance Survey, 1989), 8–26. Jelmer Dijkstra, Rulers of Jorvik (master’s thesis, University of Utrecht, 2013), 1, 101, 125. Egils saga, ch. 59–61 (“taut bowstrings,” “King Eirik that way”), ch. 78 (“king reigned”). Njáls saga, ch. 152, and Grettis saga, ch. 82 (“bare is back”). Fáfnismál, st. 30 (“courage bests”).

  shield: Hedenstierna-Jonson (2006), 28, 32; interviewed March 12, 2019. Short (2014), 34, 38–41, 133, 139; interviewed March 12, 2019. Williams (2019), 29, 35, 42, 47, 53. S. Sinnett et al., “Grunting’s Competitive Advantage,” PLoS One 13.2 (2018): e0192939. Roger of Howden (“tenaciously”), quoted by Hedenstierna-Jonson (2006), 61. Libby Liburd (“accepting the pain”), quoted by Lyndsey Winship, “Female Boxers’ Battle Stories,” The Guardian (April 23, 2019). Ariel Levy (“open, inquisitive”), describing boxer Claressa Shields in “A Ring of One’s Own,” New Yorker (May 7, 2012).

  family affair: Megan McLaughlin, “The Woman Warrior,” Women’s Studies 17 (1990): 201–2. Hedenstierna-Jonson (2015), 77. Price (2020), 352–58.

  Aethelflaed: Tom Shippey, Laughing Shall I Die (Reaktion Books, 2018), 170. Pauline Stafford, “The Annals of Aethelflaed,” in J. Barrow and A. Wareham, eds., Myth, Rulership, Church, and Charters (Ashgate, 2008), 101–16. The Fragmentary Annals (“large army,” “slaughtered”), quoted by Kim Klimek, “Aethelflaed: History and Legend,” n.d., posted on her Academia.edu page. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, quoted by Betty Bandel, “The English Chroniclers’ Attitude Toward Women,” Journal of the History of Ideas 16 (1955): 115 (“got into her power”).

  Church’s new focus: Else Mundal, “The Double Impact of Christianization for Women in Old Norse Culture,” in K. E. Børresen et al., eds., Gender and Religion (Carocci, 2001), 249 (“unclean,” “against nature”). R. I. Moore, Formation of a Persecuting Society (Blackwell, 2007), 4, 8–9, 12, 86, 95 (“transformation”).

  warrior women: McLaughlin, “The Woman Warrior,” 199 (Richilde). Saxo Grammaticus, trans. P. Fisher, The History of the Danes, Books I–IX (D. S. Brewer, 1970–80; rpt., 2008), 212 (“women in Denmark”); 238–44 (Battle of Bravellir); 280–84 (Lathgertha). Pamela D. Toler, Women Warriors (Beacon, 2019), 20–21 (“counterhistorical”); see also 7–9, 61, 81n, 208–9. Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons (Princeton University Press, 2014), 11, 29, 64, 82, 196. Birgit Strand, “Women in Gesta Danorum,” in K. Friis-Jensen, ed., Saxo Grammaticus: A Medieval Author Between Norse and Latin Culture (Museum Tusculanum Press, 1981), 149 (“mirror”).

  “later history of England”: Shippey, Laughing Shall I Die, 95, 106.

  12: THE RED GIRL

  Eirik’s defeat: Hákonar saga góða, ch. 5. Orkneyinga saga, ch. 8. The Headland of Cats is modern Caithness, the Southlands is Sutherland, the Turning Point is Cape Wrath (from hvarf, “to disappear”), Big Bay is Stornoway on Lewis, and the Southern Isles are the Hebrides.

  coastal sailing: Barbara Crawford, Scandinavian Scotland (Leicester University Press, 1987) 16, 20–26, 135. Benjamin Hudson, Viking Pirates and Christian Princes (Oxford University Press, 2005), 15–17. Griffiths (2012), 16–18, 39.

  Dublin: Griffiths (2012), 64, 120–27. Clarke et al. (2018), 80, 88. Ben Raffield, “The Slave Markets of the Viking World,” Slavery & Abolition 40 (2019): 682–704.

  Saxo Grammaticus: P. Fisher, trans., The History of the Danes, Books I–IX (D. S. Brewer, 1970–80; rpt., 2008), 5 (“copying”), 211 (Alvild), 246 (Rusila); on Rusila’s connection to the Inghen Ruaidh, see Hilda Ellis Davidson, “Introduction to Book Eight,” 236–37 (“misty world”). I explore Saxo’s connection to Bishop Pall and Pall’s attitude toward women in Ivory Vikings (St. Martin’s Press, 2015), ch. 2–3. Saxo considered the Sagas of Ancient Times to be “historical”; see Annette Lassen, “Origines Gentium and the Learned Origin of Fornaldarsögur Nordrlanda,” in A. Lassen, A. Ney, and Á. Jakobsson, eds., The Legendary Sagas (University of Iceland Press, 2012), 46.

  War of the Irish: J. H. Todd, trans., Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867), 39–43.

  “lock held”: Poem About Haraldr harðráði by Valgarðr á Velli, st. 9.

  enslaving: 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), 61. Neil Price, “The Vikings in Spain, North Africa, and the Mediterranean,” in Brink and Price (2008), 466 (“blue men”). Price (2020), 141–54. Griffiths (2012), 100–101. Clarke et al. (2018), 55. Raffield, “Slave Markets.” I use Raffield’s estimate of a cumal. Bronagh Ni Chonaill estimates it as six heifers or three milk cows; see “Child-Centred Law in Medieval Ireland,” in R. Davis and T. Dunne, eds., The Empty Throne (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 7n. Poul Holm, “The Slave Trade of Dublin,” Peritia 5 (1986): 329. Hudson, Viking Pirates, 92. Clare Downham, “The Viking Slave Trade,” History Ireland (May–June 2009): 15–17. Charlene M. Eska, “Women and Slavery in the Early Irish Laws,” Studia Celtica Fennica 8 (2011): 29–39. Janel M. Fontaine, “The Scale of Slave Raiding and the Slave Trade in Britain and Ireland, 7th–11th Centuries,” presented at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK (July 9, 2014). Annals of Ulster, quoted by Griffiths (2012), 41 (“half dead”).

  Cuerdale Hoard: Griffiths (2012), 41, 44, 107. Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald, The Vikings and Their Age (University of Toronto Press, 2013), 27. Clarke et al. (2018), 97.

  silver coin: Christoph Kilger in Skre (2008), 264, 283, 286, 291. Gene W. Heck, “Gold Mining in Arabia and the Rise of the Islamic State,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 42 (1999): 371. Marek Jankowiak, “Dirhams for Slaves,” presented at the Medieval Seminar, All Souls College (February 27, 2012). Maya Shatzmiller, “The Role of Money in the Economic Growth of the Early Islamic Period (650–1000),” in V. Klemm and N. al-Sha’ar, eds., Sources and Approaches Across Disciplines in Near Eastern Studies (Uitgeverig Peeters, 2013), 290.

  “slave hunts”: Gillingham, “Women, Children, and the Prof
its of War,” 67. Hjardar and Vike (2016), 67–69, 230. Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, trans. Todd (1867), 159 (“shouting”), 163 (“swimming”), 79–81 (“soft,” “fit for a slave,” sack of Limerick), 83 (“line of the women”). Saxo Grammaticus, trans. Fisher, History of the Danes, 280 (“abuse”).

  “everyone’s going”: Egils saga, ch. 32.

  13: SLAVE GIRLS

  traces her left foot: In 2009, Hanne Lovise Aannestad of the University of Oslo’s Viking Ship Museum discovered footprints carved into the deckboards of the Gokstad ship. See also Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, “The Sporting Element in Viking Ships,” in G. Sjøgaard, ed., Sailing and Science (University of Copenhagen, 1999), 29. Sven Kalmring, “Of Thieves, Counterfeiters, and Homicides,” Fornvännen 105.4 (2010): 282 (sea chests). Clarke et al. (2018), 31.

  Findan: R. T. Christiansen and K. O’Nolan, “The Life of Saint Findan,” Lochlann: A Review of Celtic Studies 2 (1962): 155–64.

  eunuchs: Ibn Hawqal, trans. P. Lunde and C. Stone, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness (Penguin, 2012), 173 (“Saqaliba”). F. A. Wright, trans., The Works of Liudprand of Cremona (Routledge & Sons, 1930), 208 (“carzimasia”). Al-Jahiz, quoted by Marek Jankowiak, “Dirhams for Slaves,” presented at the Medieval Seminar, All Souls College (February 27, 2012).

  women captured: Ynglinga saga, ch. 28 (Yrsa). Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar, ch. 1–6, 52. Laxdæla saga, ch. 9, 12–13, 16, 20–22 (Melkorka); “headstrong,” trans. Keneva Kunz, The Saga of the People of Laxardal, in Ö. Thorsson, ed., Sagas of Icelanders (Viking, 2000), 284.

  Arab travelers: Ibn Rustah, trans. Lunde and Stone, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness, 126 (“treat their slaves well”). Ibn Fadlan, quoted by Hraundal (2013), 100–106 (“sex,” “washes,” “girl kills herself”).

  sacrifices: Clare Downham, “The Viking Slave Trade,” History Ireland (May–June 2009): 15–17. Leszek Gardeła, “The Dangerous Dead?” in L. Slupecki and R. Simek, eds., Conversions (Fassbaender, 2013), 117. Price (2019), 19. Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. (2017), 6 (“not questioned”).

  graffiti: Hanne Jakobsen, “Dealing with the Doldrums on a Viking Voyage,” Science Nordic (April 23, 2013). Images of the graffiti on the Oseberg ship were posted by the University of Oslo on the Vikingskipshuset Facebook page (February 26, 2020).

  fetters: Emperor Constantine VII, De administrando imperio, quoted by Robert Ferguson, The Vikings (Viking Penguin, 2009), 124–26 (“slaves in chains”). Ben Raffield, “The Slave Markets of the Viking World,” Slavery & Abolition 40 (2019): 682–704. Jankowiak, “Dirhams for Slaves,” 9. Harðar saga ok Hólmverja, ch. 17. Njáls saga, ch. 89. Edda, 1:28 (“cat”). First Merseburg charm, quoted by John Jeep, Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia (Routledge, 2001), 112–13. Hávamál, st. 149 (runes).

  “two buckets”: Grettis saga, ch. 17.

  sleep ashore: Anton Englert, “Ohthere’s Voyages Seen from a Nautical Angle,” in J. Bately and A. Englert, eds., Ohthere’s Voyages (Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, 2007), 117–29. Örvar-Odds saga, ch. 32 (tents). Eyrbyggja saga, ch. 39 (“cooking”).

  14: THE SLAVE ROUTE TO BIRKA

  stranger shows up: This scene is loosely based on Egils saga, ch. 49, Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar, ch. 15, and Njáls saga, ch. 5. The Red Girl and her brother Trond are found in Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book 8. There is no proof Hervor and the Red Girl sailed to Burnt Island.

  Viking slave route: Laxdæla saga, ch. 9 (“Burnt Island”). Anders Winroth, The Age of the Vikings (Princeton University Press, 2014), 109, 116 (Hedeby). Njáls saga, ch. 5 (Oresund). Ben Raffield, “The Slave Markets of the Viking World,” Slavery & Abolition 40 (2019): 682–704 (Gotland).

  reclaimed Viken: Hákonar saga góða, ch. 7–8. Dagfinn Skre, “Towns and Markets,” in Skre (2007), 468; “Kaupang: Between East and West,” in Skre (2011), 446. Tenaya Jorgensen, The Scandinavian Trade Network in the Early Viking Age (master’s thesis, University of Oslo, 2017), 21.

  Gunnhild led: Hákonar saga góða, ch. 7–8, 10, 19, 22–26, 29–32. Haralds saga gráfeldar, ch. 1, 3. Nóregs konunga tal (“Age of Gunnhild”), 202.

  barricades: Bengt Wigh, Animal Husbandry in the Viking Age Town of Birka and Its Hinterland (Kulturhistoriska Forskningsinstitute Stockholm, 2001), 135. Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Lena Holmquist, and Michael Olausson, “The Viking Age Paradox,” in J. Baker, S. Brookes, and A. Reynolds, eds., Landscapes of Defence in Early Medieval Europe (Brepols, 2013), 291.

  Birka: Helen Clarke and Björn Ambrosiani, Towns in the Viking Age (Leicester University Press, 1991), 68, 73–75. Björn Ambrosiani, “Birka,” in Brink and Price (2008), 98. Hedenstierna-Jonsson (2006), 48–51, 92; (2015), 85. Elin Ahlin Sundman and Anna Kjellström, “Signs of Sinusitis in Times of Urbanization in Viking Age–Early Medieval Sweden,” Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013): 4460. Holmquist (2016). T. Douglas Price et al., “Isotopes and Human Burials at Viking Age Birka and the Malaren Region,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 49 (2018): 19. Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar, ch. 10, 13.

  Adam of Bremen: History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, trans. F. J. Tschan (1893; rpt., Columbia University Press, 2002), 51–52, 199, 207–8. While archaeologists have not found the temple at Uppsala, one excavated at Uppåkra in Skåne, Sweden, was indeed “decked out in gold” and flanked by sacrificial deposits; see Price (2020), 210–13.

  “singing”: At-Tartushi, quoted by Chihiro Tsukamoto, What Did They Sound Like? Reconstructing the Music of the Viking Age (master’s thesis, University of Iceland, 2017), 19–20.

  Anskar: Rimbert, Vita Anskarii, ch. 10, 11, 17, 26, 28, trans. C. H. Robinson, Anskar, the Apostle of the North (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1921). Sven Kalmring, Johan Runer, and Andreas Viberg, “At Home with Herigar,” Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 47 (2017): 1–27. Hedenstierna-Jonson (2016), 190. T. D. Price et al., “Isotopes and Human Burials,” 29 (Thor’s hammer). Price (2020), 461 (crucifix).

  Warriors’ Hall: Hedenstierna-Jonson (2006), 51, 63–64 (“defiance”); (2015), 75; (2016), 190–91 (“identity,” “external threat”). Hedenstierna-Jonson, Holmquist, and Olausson, “Viking Age Paradox,” 296, 298–99. Holmquist (2016), 41–42.

  15: RED EARTH

  all the women: The people Hervor meets are based on Birka graves Bj943 (amber carver), Bj463 (little girl), and Bj644 (couple). Hedenstierna-Jonson and Kjellström (2015). Hedenstierna-Jonson, “She Came from Another Place,” in M. H. Eriksen et al., eds., Viking Worlds (Oxbow Books, 2015), 90–101. Elin Ahlin Sundman and Anna Kjellström, “Signs of Sinusitis in Times of Urbanization in Viking Age–Early Medieval Sweden,” Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013): 4463. Anne Stalsberg, “Women as Actors in North European Viking Age Trade,” in R. Samson, ed., Social Approaches to Viking Studies (Cruithne Press, 1991), 78–79. Eva Andersson Strand and Ulla Mannering, “An Exceptional Woman from Birka,” in S. Bergerbrant and S. H. Fossøy, eds., A Stitch in Time (Gothenburg University, 2017), 301–16.

  Bj644: The contents of the grave are curated by the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm; see https://historiska.se/upptack-historien/context/845-grav-kammargrav-bj-644/. Eva Hjärthner-Holdar, “Iron: The Metal of Weapons and Wealth,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 142. Karyn Bellamy-Dagneau, A Falconer’s Ritual (master’s thesis, University of Iceland, 2015), 28.

  Saaremaa: Price (2020), 275–79. T. Douglas Price et al., “Isotopes and Human Burials at Viking Age Birka and the Malaren Region,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 49 (2018): 19–20.

  iron: Website of the Stiftelsen Ekomuseum Bergslagen, Sweden, https://ekomuseum.se/en/ (“red earth”). Hjardar and Vike (2016), 20 (“durable”). Eva Hjärthner-Holdar, Lena Grandin, Katrina Sköld, and Andreas Svensson, “By Who, for Whom? Landscape, Process, and Economy in the Bloomery Iron Production AD 400–1000,” Journal of Archaeology and Ancient History 21 (2018): 2–51. Hjärthner-Holdar, “Iron,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 133–42. Terje Gansum, “Role the Bones—from Iron to Steel,” Norwegian A
rchaeological Review 37 (2004): 41–57. Back Danielsson (2007), 247–48.

  smith’s art: Hjardar and Vike (2016) cite Svarfdæla saga and Ásmundar saga kappabana for superior swords, Eyrbyggja saga and Laxdæla saga for useless swords, 159, 171. Short (2014), 113–16. Anne Stalsberg, “Swords from the Carolingian Empire to the Baltic Sea and Beyond,” in Callmer, Gustin, and Roslund (2017), 262–64. Eleanor Susan Blakelock, The Early Medieval Cutting Edge of Technology (doctoral thesis, University of Bradford, UK, 2012), 62, 245. The PBS Nova TV special “Secrets of the Viking Sword” (first aired October 10, 2012) re-creates the “flaming sword” quench.

  Sword fighting: Anne Pedersen, “Viking Weaponry,” in Brink and Price (2008), 204. Short (2014), 105, 161. Sixt Wetzler, Combat in Saga Literature (doctoral thesis, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, 2017), 115. Williams (2019), 43, 51–52. Atlamál in grænlensku, st. 47–49 (Gudrun).

  Swords were special: Susan Elaine Brunning, The “Living” Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe (doctoral thesis, University College London, 2013), 143 (faces), 185, 190, 195. Laxdæla saga, ch. 29 (Leg-Biter). A. Faulkes, trans., Snorri Sturluson: Edda (Everyman, 1987; rpt., 1995), 158, 168 (“spear clash”). Gísla saga Súrssonar, ch. 1 (broke). Hervarar saga, ch. 1 (Tyrfing). Kormáks saga, ch. 9 (dragon). Hedenstierna-Jonson (2015), 81, 84–85 (sword-chapes).

  Type E: Fedir Androshchuk, “Vikings and Farmers,” in Olausson and Olausson (2009), 93–95. In the Swedish History Museum’s online catalogue of Birka grave Bj581, the sword is listed as Petersen Type V; Price et al. (2019) identify it as Type E. Both types are more commonly found in Russia and Ukraine than in Sweden, although Type V is common in Denmark.