VIKING WOMEN:

VALKYRIES AND HOUSEWIVES MOTHERS AND MISTRESSES

Strong, proud and independent women Women given away as gifts to confirm alliances between families
TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ROLE MODELS?

GENDER ROLES IN THE VIKING AGE

More multifunctional than expressed in the traditional picture of Viking women? Can we trace the strong and powerful women known from the sagas through other sources?

Viking women could exercise power in multiple ways. A woman could be powerful in some aspects and weak in others.

THE SAGAS

The sagas give us the most colourful descriptions of women in the Viking Age

Harald Fairhairs men propose to Gyda, by Christian Krog

RUNESTONES
It required both initiative and power to erect a runestone

DENMARK: CA 220 MEMORIAL STONES

23 are erected with a woman as the sole commissioner 11 are erected in memory of a woman

WOMEN IN THE ART

Carvings, jewellery, tapestries, picture stones etc

The Dynnastone, Norway

LAWS
Scandinavian women had more rights than elsewhere in Europe.

CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN SOURCES

Most of them, both eastern and western, are astonished about the liberty of the Scandinavian women.

MYTHS AND RELIGION

The Norse religion is crowded with female beings: They are goddesses, giantesses, elves, nornes, valkyries.
Silver jewellery, Gotland. Freyja with her gold necklace Brsingamen.

WOMEN IN SAGAS AND NORSE POEMS

Women described as strongheaded, proud, independent and vindictive Women encourage the men to take revenge in order to keep up the honour of the family.
In the matter of honour, the women themselves were in no danger of being killed. A man who laid hand on a woman had lost his honour, and he had damaged the honour of his family.

Sometimes the women also took revenge themselves . This is what happened in the story about Hallgerd and Gunnar in Njls saga.

ARCHAEOLOGY
The deceased is buried with burial gifts that indicate what he or she did when they were alive.

Usually the gender is determined by the

objects found in the grave. (Archaeological sex-determination) Only a few persons with high status were buried in huge burials mounds with rich burial gifts. If we find rich female burials, this ought to be a strong indication that women had a strong position in the society
Gausel Queen, Rogaland, Norway

LATE ROMAN AND MIGRATION PERIOD (ca 200 500AD)

Tendency: We have more and we have richer female burials than male burials.

Male burials.

The quality seems to be reduced the older the buried man is. Female burials. The richest burials belong to women between 50 60 years old. The status of women seems to increase with their age.

HOW DID WOMEN GAIN HIGH STATUS? Young girls were given away as gifts. Rich burials for grown up women show that women had a different foundation for their high status than just being a gift.
See: Frans Arne Stylegar http://arkeologi.blogspot.com/2008/09/grav-og-slektskap-ijernalderen.html

Burial gifts for a woman from Tuna, Sweden, ca 300 AD

VIKING AGE:

(800 1000 AD) 10TH CENTURY: Only every 4th grave can be certainly classified as a female burial. (Western Norway and Kaupang)

9TH CENTURY: The distribution between male and female burials seems to be fifty-fifty. (Kaupang, Norway. )

There seems to be a decline in the status of women during the Viking Age.

See: Frans Arne Stylegar: Kaupang men and women http://arkeologi.blogspot.com/2008/11/kaupang-men-andwomen.html

Grnhaug Ship Burial, ca 930 AD, Avaldsnes Norway

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF GENDER

The gender is normally identified by the burial gifts.

Sword, shield and knife found in stfold, Norway 2004

Burials interpreted as male: Weapons, riding equipment, blacksmiths tools, penannular brooches etc.

Ovale brooches, necklace and broche found in Rogaland 2007

Burials interpreted as female: Pair of oval brooches, disc brooches, necklaces, spindle whorls, keys etc.

WHAT IF A WOMAN WERE BURIED WITH WEAPONS?

In Scandinavia there are found many burials with both male and female artefacts. Such burials are normally interpreted as mixed graves of one man and one woman

BOTH MEN AND WOMEN COULD CROSS THE GENDER BARRIERS

Sometimes we find burials that force us to reconsider our idea of gender roles in the Viking Age.

By using osteological investigation or DNA extraction, we have identified: - male skeletons with female burial gifts - female skeletons with male burial gifts

Mixed burial from Gerdrup; a sacrificed male slave and a woman with spear and knife (Christensen & Bennike 1983)

We even find men buried in female clothes (British

Isles, Holland)
See: TRANSVESTITE VIKINGS? By Tina Lauritsen and Ole Thirup Kastholm Hansen http://viking.hgo.se/Topic/may-03.html

 WOMEN AS TRADERS AND TRAVELLERS

THE SAGAS
Tell that women did go on some of the Viking voyages.

RUNESTONES
A runic inscription on a stone slab by Ryssgraven, Sweden. (Destroyed
around 1850 )

Ingunn, the daugther of Hrd, let these runes be made in memory of herself. She wanted to go east to Jerusalm. Fot wrote the runes.
See: http://www.ukforsk.se/runsten2.htm

Freydis in Vinland. As exhibited in the Saga

Museum, Iceland.

ARCHAEOLOGY
Women reached places as far apart as Greenland and Russia. Did all these women just accompany their men?
A Celtic relic-shrine, from Isle of Man, found in Norway,

FEMALE TRADERS?
There are female burials with scales and weights. Such weights were used to measure precious metals and spices.

Ranuaik a kistu (Ranveig owns this box)

Interpreted as a gift brought back to Norway of a travelling Viking for his woman.

The interpretation is that these women were traders.

WOMEN AS VALKYRIES AND SHIELD-MAIDENS

1. DIVINE BEINGS

Valkyrie means Chooser of the slain

Like the valkyries sent by Odin to pick up the warriors that were slain on the battlefield.

2. HALF DEVINE AND HALF EARTHLY

Mortal women with supernatural powers. We often meet them in heroic poems

3. MORTAL FEMALE WARRIORS That dressed and fought like men.

Asgardsreia by P. N. Arbo,
See: M.S.Vea. The legendary king Augvald and his decendants http://en.vikingkings.com/PortalDefault.aspx?portalID=116&activeT abID=869&parentActiveTabID=867

SHIELD-MAIDENS DID THEY EXIST?

Valkyries and shield maidens were part of the mental universe of the Vikings. We find them both in literature and in art. Were valkyries and shieldmaidens only mythical figures? Why were the myths of valkyries created?

The death of Hervor by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1880

We can not totally ignore the fact that some mortal women became warriors,

"There were once women in Denmark who dressed themselves to look like men and spent almost every minute cultivating soldier's skills; (..)

Ill: Shield-maiden Rusla, (Saxo)

They put toughness before allure, aimed at conflicts instead of kisses, tasted blood, not lips, sought the clash of arms rather than the arm's embrace, fitted to weapons hands which should have been weaving, desired not the couch but the kill, and those they could have appeased with looks they attacked with lances".

Saxo Grammaticus: History of the Danes,

circa 1200 CE

FOREIGN ACCOUNTS:
THE RED MAIDEN THAT ATTACKED IRLEAND The war of the Irish with the foreigners (12th century) gives a list of Viking fleets that attacked Munster in the 10th century. The last of these fleets were led by The Red Maiden.

A Shield Maiden guarding the Norwegian Constitution (Andreas Bloch 1905)

FEMALE WARRIORS THAT ATTACKED BYZANTINES The Greek historian Johannes Skylitze (11th Century) tells that the Scandinavian ruler of Kiev attacked Byzantines in Bulgaria 971 and was defeated. The victors were astonished when they saw armed women among the fallen warriors.

FEMALE WARRIORS IN THE ART

THE OSEBERG TAPESTRY The Oseberg tapestry pictures a religious procession. Many of the figures, also women, carry spears. Are they female warriors?

Woman with spear from a pillar in the stave church at Urnes, Norway

FEMALE WARRIORS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Some burials can hardly be interpreted as anything else than women buried as warriors. THE SHIELD MAIDEN FROM AUNE, NORWAY The skeleton was of a woman, ca. 20 years old. A complete equipment for a Viking warrior: - a sword - an axe - two spears - arrowheads - the fragments of a shield

Valkyrie by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1880

THE SHIELD-MAIDEN FROM SOLR, NORWAY (900 950 AD)

The burial contained: A skeleton of a woman, 18 20 years old. She was slender and gracefully built. She was 1.55 metres high This tiny lady was equipped as a warrior with: - a two egged sword - an axe - a spear - 5 arrowheads - a shield - a skeleton of a horse - a bridle - some other tools
See: Per Herns. Nikolay, Arkeologisk tidsskrift, Uio. C 22541 a-g. Et gammelt funn tolkes p ny,

The Valkyrie's Vigil, Edward Robert Hughes (1851 . 1914)

WHY BRING WEAPONS INTO THE NEXT WORLD?

Why were these young women equipped with weapons for their journey into the other world?

Were they female warriors? Did the weapons symbolise power? Were the women sacrificed? Did the women participate in battles as sorcerers?

THE RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES, William T. Maud (1865-1903 )

THE VOLVA:
A LINK BETWEEN HUMAN BEINGS AND THE GODS
Women could be priestesses (gydjer) at the same level as men could be priests (godar) The volva (from volr = magic staff) was a kind of priestess or shamaness who used a magic called sei. The Volussp: (The prophesy of the Volva)
Alone she sat when Odin came, the oldest of the gods looked into her eyes. She asked: What do you ask of me? Why do you taunt me? I know everything, inn Arm rings and necklaces, inn gave her To learn her lore, to learn her magic: Wider and wider through all worlds she gazed.

Sometimes the volva knew even more than the gods.

Ill. Old Uppsala by Carl Johan Billmark

THE POWER OF SEID

Volve by Sren Lexov Hansen, 1886

Both men and woman could use sei. Sei was primarily looked upon as a female skill.
There were many kinds of magic: seir, galdr, gandr vardlokk, tiseta, fjlkyngi, frleikr, trolldmr, gerningar, lj, taufr

Men who used sei had to cross the gender barrier in a way that was not socially or morally accepted. (Argr) Odin crossed the gender barrier and dressed up as a woman when he did the magic of sei.

See: Brit Solli 2002: Seid. Myter, sjamanisme og kjnn i vikingenes tid, Oslo

In Erik the Reds Saga: The volva Gudrid leads a magic ritual to stop a famine.

THE POWERFULL VOLVA KNOWN FROM SAGAS, POEMS AND MYTHS

Those who did sei, could see everything that was hidden in the past and in the future. They had the power of life and death. They were respected but also feared.

To put herself into a trance the volva could use magic songs like galdr and vardlokk or even herbs.
Gudrid in the Saga Museum, Iceland

THE VOLVA IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Until the last decades, the volva has hardly been recognised in the archaeological material.

THE STAFF: The most important object used to identify a volva. About 40 burials with staffs are discovered in Scandinavia. Most of them are very rich. OTHER OBJECTS USED TO IDENTIFY A VOLVA a chair Chair from Oseberg feathers (or bones of a bird) amulets herbs (henbane or cannabis) male objects like weapons chariots horses and dogs other strange articles

Iron staff, Myklebostad Norway

THE OSEBERG BURIAL

The Oseberg burial is the richest Viking burial ever found Two women buried in the Oseberg ship, 834 AD.
DNA and x-ray studies revealed that they were respectively 80 and 50 years old (Per Hock).

THE OLDEST: Is called the Oseberg Queen. She had a hormonal disease that gave her a masculine appearance.

THE YOUNGEST: Has been called a sacrificed slave. New investigation shows that she died of natural causes.

There are no indications that she was of a lower class than of the older woman.
See: //www.aftenposten.no/english/lo cal/article2391555.ece

Ill. Anders Kvle Rue, Levende Historie

OSEBERG: A BURIAL FOR A QUEEN OR A VOLVA?

The splendour of the burial will automatically give the image of royalty.

The mysterious burial methods indicate that one of the women was a volva.

Brit Solli 2002: Seid. Myter, sjamanisme og kjnn i vikingenes tid, Oslo Ingstad, A.S. 1992. Oseberg-dronningen - hvem var hun? In Christensen, A.E., Ingstad, A.S. & Myhre, B. (eds) Osebergdronningens grav. Schibsted, Oslo: 224-56.

INDICATIONS OF A VOLVA BURIAL IN OSEBERG

The burial contained: A staff: The most specific volva symbol (or was it a birch bark lure?) A beautiful wooden cart A tapestry that gave a description of a religious procession 4 animal-head posts A rattle Skeletons of 15 horses, dogs and bulls A chair Feather from a pillow Seeds of cannabis

WOMEN AS SKALDS (POETS)

We know about 250 skalds by name. Very few of them are women.

Odin taught the human beings to make poems

Why didnt more women become skalds? Was the ability to make poems looked upon as a male skill?

See: Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age by (Woodbridge, Boydell, 1991).

Odin, Arthur Rackham

THE WOMAN AS WIFE AND MISTRESS

The social position and the work done by women were first and foremost connected with the family and the farm.

As head of the household a woman could exercise power

MARRIAGE WAS A POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL DEAL BETWEEN FAMILIES

THE LAW: Did not require that a woman agreed to her marriage

THE SAGAS SHOW: It was normal practice for fathers to consult their daughters about marriages. If a woman was forced into a marriage, it normally ended in a divorce or by the death of her husband.

DIVORCES
When a woman married, she brought a dowry with her into the marriage. In case of a later divorce, the woman could keep her dowry.

In sagas we meet many women who have been divorced and married several times.

At Tartuschi, Arabian emissary, ca 970 AD, reports:

"The women have the right to ask for a divorce. They get divorced whenever they want to.
Gyda, by Knut Bergslien

LOVE IN NORSE TIME

Marriages were arranged between families. Love was not part of the deal. Still, people found love both inside and outside the marriage.

Sagas, Norse poems and myths are filled with passionate love stories. You could prevent someone from getting married, but you could not prevent them from loving each other.

"Oddrun's lament" King Atle refuses his sister Oddrun to marry the man she loves. Oddrun says: "You can not force me to stop loving him. I left my head on my hero's breast".
Motif from the Heroic Sagas, by Arbo

LOVE IN MARRIAGE
Some people were in love before they married. Others learned to love each other.

Njl and Bergtora : Bergtra refuses the amnesty of those attacking her home, preferring to die with her husband: She says:

"I was given to Njal in marriage when I was young, and I have promised him that we would share the same fate."
The sacred marriage, Rogaland Norway

THE DANGER OF LOVE

It was forbidden by law to make love poems or mansongr. Why? The love poem could destroy a womans reputation or destroy the honour of her family The words had magical power that could enchant the woman mentioned

LOVE OUTSIDE MARRIAGE DANGEROUS? SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE WAS ACCEPTED?

Where love, sex and adultery are concerned, Vikings seem to have had a certain kind of double standards.

A man could be outlawed for making a love poem. and A woman could risk that her reputation was destroyed.

Freyja and Od, Loretnz Frlich 1895

A man could have several children with mistresses. and An unmarried women could have a child without this ruining her chances of getting married

ADULTERY
Adam of Bremen tells that adultery was punished by death. (ca 1070) "Men are sentenced to death for committing adultery, while women are sold as slaves. Rape of virgins is punishable by death.

MEN WERE PERMITTED TO TAKE MISTRESSES The same Adam of Bremen wrote that: "Every man has two, three or more wives at the same time, depending on his wealth and fortune.

TO SEEK LOVE ELSEWHERE

The feelings of the bride and groom were hardly taken into consideration when two people married. You might expect that quite a few would seek love elsewhere, and they did.

The sagas and the law confirm what Adam of Bremen says: It was socially accepted that some men had concubines or friller.
Freyja, by C. F. von Salza

FRILLER - CONCUBINES
A frille was a long time concubine that lived together with a man.

Sometimes a concubine was of a lower class than the man. Thus; a marriage between them was unacceptable. Sometimes a concubine was a resourceful woman from the same social layer as the man she chose to connect with.

A child of the concubine had the same rights to inherit as legitimate children.

Probably, also women had lovers

UNMARRIED WOMEN
A woman who gave birth to a child outside marriage:

Children that a slave woman got with her owner were counted as slaves. But the father could set the child free and foster it.

- was not expelled from her family, - had not destroyed her possibilities of getting married. - could reveal the name of the father at the Thing. - could conceal who the father was. It was then believed that the father was a slave, The child got the same status as its mothers family.

SEX AND FERTILITY

In pagan times, the Scandinavians didnt seem to be ashamed of sexuality or desire.
Loke accuses Freyja,
Lorentz Frlich 1895

Promiscuity among women was not approved, not even among goddesses. At a feast in girs hall, Loke offends Freyja, by saying: Be silent, Freyja! For fully I know you, Sinless you are not, yourself. Every god and every elf in her Have been your lover.
(Lokasenna)

SEXUALITY AND THE FERTILITY OF NATURE

In pagan times, desire and sexuality was seen as part of the universal fertility of nature itself. Far into modern times, we could find traces of fertility magic in Scandinavia.. This was often exemplified in:

a God of Heaven
and

a Goddess of Earth

In the old fertility cults there was a clear distinction between male fertility and female fertility
The Vlsa ttr

lina laukaR

NERTHUS DIVIDED INTO FRIGG AND FREYJA?

In the Germanic world the goddess of earth was called Nerthus.

Nerthus lived in a sacred grove, on an island in the sea.

Nerthus rode a chariot. When she was among people, there was peace everywhere.

Nerthus by Emil Doepler, 1905

One theory suggests that Nerthus was split into two Norse fertility goddesses: Frigg and Freya

See: Nsstrm, Britt-Mari 1995: Freyja The Great Goddess of the North, Lund.

FRIGG (the goddess of maternal and marital love)

Frigg is the wife of the chief god Odin. The name Frigg is derived from ON frj = love. Frigg represents the expected female qualities; maternal and marital love. Frigg is the Protector of home and family
Frigg and Balder. Lorentz Frlich 1895 Frigg seems to be a rather passive deity, but when her son Balder was threatened, then she took actions like no other.

FREYJA: Expresses the erotic aspects of love,

the fertility of harvest and nature. The name Freyja is derived from frawjo/ fr, = lady, wife. Freyja is the wife of the traveller Od (who might be Odin)

Freyja represents several concepts of womanhood. The goddess of love and fertility The goddess of war and death The goddess of magic and seid Freyja is both a goddess of love and death. The circle of birth, death and new birth was closely connected in Norse mythlogy.

Freyja as shield maiden

Jenny Nystrm 1893

FRIGG AND FREYJA

TWO DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE SAME GODDESS? TWO DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF WOMANHOOD? Did Christian chroniclers - deliberately or mistakenly - describe Frigg and Freyja as two different fertility goddesses?

- One goddess to adore - One goddess to dislike

Freyja and the things associated with her were disliked by the Medieval Christians. Frigg, who represented marriage and motherhood, was adored.

Frigg spinning the clouds, JC Dollman,1909

THE VIKING MOTHER

Small children could be sent away to be fostered by other families. This was a way of strengthening alliances between families. But - the bonds and feelings between parents and their children seem to have been strong

Rune stone on Rims (ca 900 AD) Thore, brother of Enride, erected this stone in memory of his mother. Death of a mother is the worst that can happen to a son.

DELIVERY

The delivery was dangerous for the mother was well as for the child.

Many women died during delivery

Runestonein Gotland: Sibba erected this stone after Rotjud his wife, daugther of Rodgeir in Anga. She died young from 4 small children

INFANT MORTALITY
Infant mortality was very high. A woman could only expect that half of her children grew up.

We seldom run into children in the archaeological material.

The few times we find graves of children, you can sense the grief of their parents.

THE BABY GIRL FROM FRJEL, GOTLAND (8TH CENTURY)

THE GRAVE CONTAINED: burned bones of a babygirl, some glass beads, two bracelets two animal shaped brooches. All the objects were baby size. This very small jewellery is very uncommon. Was the jewellery especially made for this little baby girl?.

The grave shows all the care that has been given to this little girl.
Photo: Drawing: Ulla Sjswrd, From the paper Childrens graves status symbols? by Malin Linquist

INFANTICIDE AND VIKING GIRLS

The father decided if the new-born child should live, (be placed on his knee)

VIKING WOMEN WERE THE FIRST TO ACCEPT CHRISTIANITY Why; when Christianity deprived them of many rights? Were they attracted by the Christian prohibition of infanticide?

We should be careful when we transfer our traditional picture of gender roles to prehistoric conditions.

THE HUNTER FROM BACKASKOG, SWEDEN

Found in 1939. The grave was about 9000 years old. The person was buried with a spear and a chisel. He was for a long time called the oldest hunter in Scandinavia. Then; somebody looked closer at the skeleton. They discovered that he had given birth to perhaps as many as 10 children.
See: Catharine Ingelman-Sundberg: Forntida kvinnor