What do you think?
The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women
‘As heroes we were widely known – with keen spears we cut blood from bone’
In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden, was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history and literature to reinvent her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.
Nancy Marie Brown links the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond. She imagines Hervor’s adventures intersecting with larger-than-life but real women, including Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, the Viking leader known as the Red Girl, and Queen Olga of Kyiv. Hervor’s short, dramatic life shows that much of what we have taken as truth about women in the Viking Age is based not on data but on nineteenth-century Victorian biases. Rather than holding the household keys, Viking women in history, the sagas, poetry and myth carry weapons. In this compelling narrative, Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield-maids to vivid life.
In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden, was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history and literature to reinvent her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.
Nancy Marie Brown links the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond. She imagines Hervor’s adventures intersecting with larger-than-life but real women, including Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, the Viking leader known as the Red Girl, and Queen Olga of Kyiv. Hervor’s short, dramatic life shows that much of what we have taken as truth about women in the Viking Age is based not on data but on nineteenth-century Victorian biases. Rather than holding the household keys, Viking women in history, the sagas, poetry and myth carry weapons. In this compelling narrative, Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield-maids to vivid life.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2021
About the author
Nancy Marie Brown
24 books229 followersMy books combine extremes: Science and sagas. Science and faith. History and fantasy. They ask, What have we overlooked? Whose story must not be forgotten? For 20 years, I worked as a science writer at Penn State University. Now I write from a farm in Vermont, where the days are quiet and cool. Icelandic horses graze outside my windows, and every summer I travel to Iceland in search of adventure--and inspiration.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 260 reviews
October 26, 2021
4.5 "engrossing, immersive, speculative" stars !!!
2021 Honorable Mention Read
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and St. Martin's Press for an e-copy. I am providing my honest review. This was released in August 2021.
This book was a delight to read. Ms. Brown has taken newly found information of a burial of a Viking warrior that has been misgendered. She names this warrior Hervor and we are taken on an absolutely thrilling journey and guided into her-story through a re-examination of Viking sagas, historical thought and archaeological findings. Ms. Brown creates a plausible interpretation of what it was like to be a female warrior in pre-Christian Viking times circa 8th to 10th century.
Ms. Brown takes on a thrilling journey of what a possible life was this female warrior and she explores the history of Scandinavia, Ireland, Estonia and deep into Central Asia. She describes the weaponry, food and customs. We learn about both industrial and domestic arts and the roles of the royalty, warrior class and peasantry. She does not shy away from the brutalities, cruelties and slave trading as well as the revelry and family structures. The tapestry is woven and we begin to see that this brutal harsh life was also exciting, thrilling and full of adventure.
An absolutely exciting and educational read. Thanks for all your efforts Ms. Brown !
2021 Honorable Mention Read
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and St. Martin's Press for an e-copy. I am providing my honest review. This was released in August 2021.
This book was a delight to read. Ms. Brown has taken newly found information of a burial of a Viking warrior that has been misgendered. She names this warrior Hervor and we are taken on an absolutely thrilling journey and guided into her-story through a re-examination of Viking sagas, historical thought and archaeological findings. Ms. Brown creates a plausible interpretation of what it was like to be a female warrior in pre-Christian Viking times circa 8th to 10th century.
Ms. Brown takes on a thrilling journey of what a possible life was this female warrior and she explores the history of Scandinavia, Ireland, Estonia and deep into Central Asia. She describes the weaponry, food and customs. We learn about both industrial and domestic arts and the roles of the royalty, warrior class and peasantry. She does not shy away from the brutalities, cruelties and slave trading as well as the revelry and family structures. The tapestry is woven and we begin to see that this brutal harsh life was also exciting, thrilling and full of adventure.
An absolutely exciting and educational read. Thanks for all your efforts Ms. Brown !
May 21, 2021
Informative, engrossing and extensively researched!
Birka, a Viking town located on an island outside of Stockholm, Sweden, is home to over 1000 Viking graves. One of the graves was excavated in 1878 and the contents led archeologists to believe it was the grave of a Viking warrior. It was presumed that the warrior was male until 2017.
"In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman."
What was this female warrior's life like?
Science and history collide in this book. The author has done extensive research using archelogy, history, and DNA in addition to poems, Nordic fables, and literature to show what life might have been like for women living in medieval times. Life was not easy back then and Viking women were tough as nails. Viking women carried weapons, they fought, they survived, they lived, they died. The writer informs readers in the beginning of the book that she is using both fact and fiction in this book. She gives the female Viking a name and imagines what her life was like, what did she experience, how she lived.
The author also looks at religion, how history is told, cultural influences and gender. History -How is it influenced? Who does the telling? How are the facts changed? How does religion affect history? How have society’s perception of women, changed how Viking woman have been thought of in history? Interesting things to consider while reading this book.
The author also mentions Lagertha, portrayed by Katheryn Winnick in the show Vikings. That show was the reason, I was interested in reading this book. I found this book to be fascinating, beautifully written and researched. I loved her take on what a female Viking's life might have looked like as she met other notable women during her life. The book is rich in detail and provides food for thought.
Interesting, powerful, and Riveting.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
Birka, a Viking town located on an island outside of Stockholm, Sweden, is home to over 1000 Viking graves. One of the graves was excavated in 1878 and the contents led archeologists to believe it was the grave of a Viking warrior. It was presumed that the warrior was male until 2017.
"In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman."
What was this female warrior's life like?
Science and history collide in this book. The author has done extensive research using archelogy, history, and DNA in addition to poems, Nordic fables, and literature to show what life might have been like for women living in medieval times. Life was not easy back then and Viking women were tough as nails. Viking women carried weapons, they fought, they survived, they lived, they died. The writer informs readers in the beginning of the book that she is using both fact and fiction in this book. She gives the female Viking a name and imagines what her life was like, what did she experience, how she lived.
The author also looks at religion, how history is told, cultural influences and gender. History -How is it influenced? Who does the telling? How are the facts changed? How does religion affect history? How have society’s perception of women, changed how Viking woman have been thought of in history? Interesting things to consider while reading this book.
The author also mentions Lagertha, portrayed by Katheryn Winnick in the show Vikings. That show was the reason, I was interested in reading this book. I found this book to be fascinating, beautifully written and researched. I loved her take on what a female Viking's life might have looked like as she met other notable women during her life. The book is rich in detail and provides food for thought.
Interesting, powerful, and Riveting.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
February 23, 2022
4****
This is the only book I have been able to read this month, and it was very interesting and good.
This is the only book I have been able to read this month, and it was very interesting and good.
July 19, 2021
I have just read The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women, by Author Nancy Marie Brown.
What an intriguing, and interesting book. There was so much detail and research put into this book.
It was fascinating from start to finish. I have already recommended it to several friends who enjoy history.
The detail about the gravesites, and what was discovered, to the attention to detail that was described in their lives, clothing, habits, and armour!
A very enjoyable read about a fascinating topic!
Thank you to NetGalley, Author Nancy Marie Brown , and St. Martin's Press for my advanced copy to read and review.
#TheRealValkyrie #NetGalley
What an intriguing, and interesting book. There was so much detail and research put into this book.
It was fascinating from start to finish. I have already recommended it to several friends who enjoy history.
The detail about the gravesites, and what was discovered, to the attention to detail that was described in their lives, clothing, habits, and armour!
A very enjoyable read about a fascinating topic!
Thank you to NetGalley, Author Nancy Marie Brown , and St. Martin's Press for my advanced copy to read and review.
#TheRealValkyrie #NetGalley
June 22, 2022
Standard procedure until very recently was to identify any Viking grave that contained weapons as belonging to a man. If there were no weapons, but lots of jewelry, it was a woman. Because everyone knows that men like swords, chicks like jewelry, and stories about shield-maidens and valkyries were just myths . . . right? I mean, never mind the sagas talking about warrior women who were "better with the sword than the embroidery needle." That's obviously fake, right? Well, Brown takes one specific grave, that of a warrior in Birka, Sweden, and tells HER story, because there is no doubt that the warrior buried there, with full weaponry, sitting on a saddle, in "men's" clothes, was a woman. Having died in her thirties and been buried with honor, and with many grave goods, she was clearly someone of status, a war band leader at the very least. Which makes you wonder: how many other warrior's graves were for women warriors?
Brown uses the evidence provided by the grave, and in written record, to build the life of this warrior up. It's absolutely fascinating, so fascinating, that I wish she had just stuck to the nonfiction narrator. In attempt to spice up her prose (as if the topic wasn't spicy enough already!), she starts each chapter with a short fictionalized account of what the woman (whom she calls Hervor) was doing at that stage of her life. The fiction bits are brief, so brief that they always end just as I'm getting into them. But the nonfiction bits are much stronger, and not just because they're real. If you're going to tell me about how the trade routes passed through Russia along the Silk Road, which means that Vikings regularly had access to fine silks and furs, why start that off with a paragraph where she admires someone's coat and then buys her own? Who cares?! Just tell me about the coat actually found in the grave, and where it came from. That's why I picked up this book!
Really, it's a small nitpick though. This book was FASCINATING.
Brown uses the evidence provided by the grave, and in written record, to build the life of this warrior up. It's absolutely fascinating, so fascinating, that I wish she had just stuck to the nonfiction narrator. In attempt to spice up her prose (as if the topic wasn't spicy enough already!), she starts each chapter with a short fictionalized account of what the woman (whom she calls Hervor) was doing at that stage of her life. The fiction bits are brief, so brief that they always end just as I'm getting into them. But the nonfiction bits are much stronger, and not just because they're real. If you're going to tell me about how the trade routes passed through Russia along the Silk Road, which means that Vikings regularly had access to fine silks and furs, why start that off with a paragraph where she admires someone's coat and then buys her own? Who cares?! Just tell me about the coat actually found in the grave, and where it came from. That's why I picked up this book!
Really, it's a small nitpick though. This book was FASCINATING.
January 28, 2021
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
In 2017, DNA analysis was used on the bones found in an important burial site previously unearthed in Birka, Sweden. These bones are believed to be those of a Viking warrior due to the weapons and other tools found within the grave. Scholars were then shocked to learn that these bones belonged to a female. The Real Valkyrie does a fantastic job of using science and archaeology to show that Viking women had more agency than we have previously believed. Brown does an excellent job imaging what the life of the warrior found in Birka, who she names Hervor, might have been like. She uses her expansive knowledge of Viking history and sagas to bring the 10th century Viking world and society to life. The Real Valkyrie shows how modern assumptions and biases have shaped what we think about Viking women more than real data and facts have.
This is a well-researched and thought provoking book. While discussing what Hervor's story may have been, Brown shows off her incredible story-telling skills as well. This is an aspect of the book that I really enjoyed. She images how Hervor's life might have intersected with other amazing Viking women such as Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, Queen Olga, and other figures. It's very enjoyable and engaging to read through. I recommend it to anyone interesting Viking society and history, as well as the history of women. It provides great insight into the subject and makes you wonder what else have historians gotten wrong in the past.
In 2017, DNA analysis was used on the bones found in an important burial site previously unearthed in Birka, Sweden. These bones are believed to be those of a Viking warrior due to the weapons and other tools found within the grave. Scholars were then shocked to learn that these bones belonged to a female. The Real Valkyrie does a fantastic job of using science and archaeology to show that Viking women had more agency than we have previously believed. Brown does an excellent job imaging what the life of the warrior found in Birka, who she names Hervor, might have been like. She uses her expansive knowledge of Viking history and sagas to bring the 10th century Viking world and society to life. The Real Valkyrie shows how modern assumptions and biases have shaped what we think about Viking women more than real data and facts have.
This is a well-researched and thought provoking book. While discussing what Hervor's story may have been, Brown shows off her incredible story-telling skills as well. This is an aspect of the book that I really enjoyed. She images how Hervor's life might have intersected with other amazing Viking women such as Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, Queen Olga, and other figures. It's very enjoyable and engaging to read through. I recommend it to anyone interesting Viking society and history, as well as the history of women. It provides great insight into the subject and makes you wonder what else have historians gotten wrong in the past.
January 24, 2022
This was very well-researched and laid out in both an exploratory and narrative fashion. While it is clearly non-fiction, it is an enjoyable read from beginning to end.
This isn't a reference style format but rather a biographical style of the Viking Warrior Women.
Nancy Marie Brown set out to change the perspective of Viking Women and did a fantastic job of it here.
Solid 4 Stars.
This isn't a reference style format but rather a biographical style of the Viking Warrior Women.
Nancy Marie Brown set out to change the perspective of Viking Women and did a fantastic job of it here.
Solid 4 Stars.
March 13, 2021
History as we know it collides with real Valkyrie's in this meticulously crafted, well-researched dive into the everyday lives of women in the Viking Age.
I am thoroughly impressed. This dudette knows her Vikings.
In this deep analysis of women in the Viking Age, Brown paints the lives of not just our mysterious Hervor, but of every woman, seen and unseen, throughout Nordic history. I learned so much about everyday life in this brutal world - the kind of stuff that most historians I've seen or read don't really dive into. For example, she takes you through. not just the wardrobes of what a queen or a mother might wear, all the way down to a warrior, servant, and slave.
While I didn't necessarily agree wholeheartedly with a few of her takes on Christianity, I did appreciate the pagan/Norse perspective she brought to the table. I would venture to say that it wasn't the core beliefs that were faulty, but the man-made aspects, i.e. the church that caused the fault and disrupted the placement of equality between men and women.
A lot of the misconstrued beliefs about Christianity and the justifications for male members of the Christian church oppressing women can be sourced back to the King James translation, which distorted the original Hebrew text in order to fit their narrative of what they (primarily the King) deigned to be "suitable social constructs".
I'm sure this isn't the first sign of behavior like this in history (given that the KJV version of the bible was devised in 1611) of men contorting ancient, sacred words to fit their own faulty narrative. I'm not a major religious person, but it is something to think about.
This is me getting off my soapbox now.
Another thing I loved was Brown's way of painting a visceral picture; she takes her What If? historian questions, and absolutely runs with them - making it not only an all-consuming fever dream for Viking nerds, but an educational one.
All in all, I really liked this, and while it was dense with information, I honestly loved it. Every question I ever had about the women in the Viking Age was answered.
Big thank you to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC copy of this book!
Book Breakdown
Writing Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Quality Research: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Enjoyment Level: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
「 Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆」
They were farmers, poets, engineers, artists - but their place in history was carved by their swords.
I am thoroughly impressed. This dudette knows her Vikings.
In this deep analysis of women in the Viking Age, Brown paints the lives of not just our mysterious Hervor, but of every woman, seen and unseen, throughout Nordic history. I learned so much about everyday life in this brutal world - the kind of stuff that most historians I've seen or read don't really dive into. For example, she takes you through. not just the wardrobes of what a queen or a mother might wear, all the way down to a warrior, servant, and slave.
While I didn't necessarily agree wholeheartedly with a few of her takes on Christianity, I did appreciate the pagan/Norse perspective she brought to the table. I would venture to say that it wasn't the core beliefs that were faulty, but the man-made aspects, i.e. the church that caused the fault and disrupted the placement of equality between men and women.
A lot of the misconstrued beliefs about Christianity and the justifications for male members of the Christian church oppressing women can be sourced back to the King James translation, which distorted the original Hebrew text in order to fit their narrative of what they (primarily the King) deigned to be "suitable social constructs".
I'm sure this isn't the first sign of behavior like this in history (given that the KJV version of the bible was devised in 1611) of men contorting ancient, sacred words to fit their own faulty narrative. I'm not a major religious person, but it is something to think about.
This is me getting off my soapbox now.
Another thing I loved was Brown's way of painting a visceral picture; she takes her What If? historian questions, and absolutely runs with them - making it not only an all-consuming fever dream for Viking nerds, but an educational one.
All in all, I really liked this, and while it was dense with information, I honestly loved it. Every question I ever had about the women in the Viking Age was answered.
Big thank you to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC copy of this book!
Book Breakdown
Writing Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Quality Research: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Enjoyment Level: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
「 Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆」
March 13, 2021
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley
When Tessa Thompson was cast as Valkyrie in Thor Ragnarök , some people got upset because Thompson wasn’t a blond white woman, like how Valkyrie is in the Marvel Comics. You know, because Marvel Comics is so accurate when it becomes to the portrayal of the Norse myths; I mean Loki’s horse child that he got when he was a mare, is in there, right? Hel is his daughter, correct? But the thing is Tessa Thompson was Valkyrie in all the important ways. It is not difficult to imagine Thompson portraying the historical figures that Brown writes about in her book.
Brown’s point of departure is to speculate about the life of a woman who was buried in Birka and for over a century was said to be male.
Nope. She is a she.
Brown’s book is part history, part criticism of the sagas where she looks closely at the role of women. Much of the book is speculation, and to Brown’s credit she is totally up front about this. She also makes a very good case for re-examining burials and the assumptions that many people make about the Vikings.
The book is a strongly needed corrective to such assumptions, though it cannot correct all of them nor should it be excepted to. It can be frustrating because of the subject matter, much of the book is speculation. While the speculation is grounded in fact, you do wonder about some of it. For instance, just because it was okay for a boy to challenge authority doesn’t necessary mean a girl could.
Each chapter starts with part of what might have been the life story of the woman warrior, making this history also partly a work of historical fiction. Paradoxically this is both the book’s strong point and its weakest. If you prefer straight forward history, this will be maddingly. If you want straight historical fiction, you will enjoy it and then get frustrated at the breaks. At times, it does feel like the story is designed to cover all major historical points or aspects that we do know about. This makes it possible, but also makes the reader wonder about likely.
If you have read the Sagas, or Brown’s other books, there isn’t much new here, but it is worth the read for the discussion of the various sagas.
When Tessa Thompson was cast as Valkyrie in Thor Ragnarök , some people got upset because Thompson wasn’t a blond white woman, like how Valkyrie is in the Marvel Comics. You know, because Marvel Comics is so accurate when it becomes to the portrayal of the Norse myths; I mean Loki’s horse child that he got when he was a mare, is in there, right? Hel is his daughter, correct? But the thing is Tessa Thompson was Valkyrie in all the important ways. It is not difficult to imagine Thompson portraying the historical figures that Brown writes about in her book.
Brown’s point of departure is to speculate about the life of a woman who was buried in Birka and for over a century was said to be male.
Nope. She is a she.
Brown’s book is part history, part criticism of the sagas where she looks closely at the role of women. Much of the book is speculation, and to Brown’s credit she is totally up front about this. She also makes a very good case for re-examining burials and the assumptions that many people make about the Vikings.
The book is a strongly needed corrective to such assumptions, though it cannot correct all of them nor should it be excepted to. It can be frustrating because of the subject matter, much of the book is speculation. While the speculation is grounded in fact, you do wonder about some of it. For instance, just because it was okay for a boy to challenge authority doesn’t necessary mean a girl could.
Each chapter starts with part of what might have been the life story of the woman warrior, making this history also partly a work of historical fiction. Paradoxically this is both the book’s strong point and its weakest. If you prefer straight forward history, this will be maddingly. If you want straight historical fiction, you will enjoy it and then get frustrated at the breaks. At times, it does feel like the story is designed to cover all major historical points or aspects that we do know about. This makes it possible, but also makes the reader wonder about likely.
If you have read the Sagas, or Brown’s other books, there isn’t much new here, but it is worth the read for the discussion of the various sagas.
September 12, 2021
While I found the book to be well written it wasn't what I expected. I was expecting something more substantial than just well this could have happened and putting in Norse mythology and poems from the 900s. Perhaps someone with a more avid interest in archeology would enjoy this more than I did. So with the thinking that there are a lot more books out there that I would actually enjoy I gave this one up.
September 9, 2021
This was interesting. But some assumptions made seem too wide to be nothing other than opinion. Perhaps I don't know a fraction enough about these sagas to affirm or perceive all this author does of Valkyrie. Yet the 200 or 300 year period onus and operatives that are the focus of this book was certainly a non-fiction read experience that describes other "eyes" outlook fairly well. Which is difficult. Very.
I think her Hervor in life pieces were not the stronger parts of this copy. Too many wide gender and symbols of gender positions and symbols are assumed fairly whole piece. She (skeleton Hervor named found)didn't seem alive to me in her core identity or personality motives either as she was depicted.
I think her Hervor in life pieces were not the stronger parts of this copy. Too many wide gender and symbols of gender positions and symbols are assumed fairly whole piece. She (skeleton Hervor named found)didn't seem alive to me in her core identity or personality motives either as she was depicted.
can-t-finish
August 4, 2021I was sent an ARC of The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by St. Martin’s Press.
The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown looks like a fascinating examination of the Viking warrior and the assumption, made by academics, archaeologists and anthropologists over the years that these warriors are always male. Recent DNA testing of Viking bones found in Sweden revealed the warrior to be a woman. This challenges the male-centric (and exasperating) view that men are always the warriors and women are suitable only for cooking and babies. Brown sets off to expose how the perspective of Victorian England, with its strict adherence to gender roles, was applied to an ancient culture radically different from England. She also shows how that Victorian attitude has persisted to this day, even though there is extensive evidence indicating that Viking culture wasn’t as concerned with gender as with physical prowess and strategic skills in battle.
Because little is known about the female warrior found in Birka, Sweden, Brown creates an imaginary life for her based on Viking myths and poems. Each chapter begins with a fictional account of this warrior woman (who Brown named Hervor after a warrior woman in the classic Old Norse poem Hervor’s Song) which follows (sometimes loosely) one of the myths or sagas. Then Brown explores the facts (what little is known) behind the sagas. This structure is repeated until the end of the book. At least, I assume so because I gave up about halfway through.
Despite how interesting I find the subject, the author is not a gifted writer. She is boring. There’s a lot of information to process—different saga names, different characters—and I find myself getting confused and bored and not caring about keeping it straight. This is unfortunate because the topic is so interesting and fits well with my recent read of Gaiman’s Norse mythology book. I’ve decided to stop reading the book because the information isn’t sticking in my brain, my eyes are glazing over and I’m incredibly bored. I don’t care for the way she creates a fictional Hervor and would prefer a more straightforward, research-based book. And maybe that’s just because she’s so boring to me and doesn’t do narrative nonfiction well. At any rate, I will not rate the book because it’s possibly a case of me, not the book.
If you are interested in the subject, don’t let my boredom put you off. Brown does take a fresh look at Viking research and exposes the assumptions made that are based on post-Christian writings about Viking culture (thus male-dominant and possibly not true interpretations/retellings of the pre-Christian culture).
The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown looks like a fascinating examination of the Viking warrior and the assumption, made by academics, archaeologists and anthropologists over the years that these warriors are always male. Recent DNA testing of Viking bones found in Sweden revealed the warrior to be a woman. This challenges the male-centric (and exasperating) view that men are always the warriors and women are suitable only for cooking and babies. Brown sets off to expose how the perspective of Victorian England, with its strict adherence to gender roles, was applied to an ancient culture radically different from England. She also shows how that Victorian attitude has persisted to this day, even though there is extensive evidence indicating that Viking culture wasn’t as concerned with gender as with physical prowess and strategic skills in battle.
Because little is known about the female warrior found in Birka, Sweden, Brown creates an imaginary life for her based on Viking myths and poems. Each chapter begins with a fictional account of this warrior woman (who Brown named Hervor after a warrior woman in the classic Old Norse poem Hervor’s Song) which follows (sometimes loosely) one of the myths or sagas. Then Brown explores the facts (what little is known) behind the sagas. This structure is repeated until the end of the book. At least, I assume so because I gave up about halfway through.
Despite how interesting I find the subject, the author is not a gifted writer. She is boring. There’s a lot of information to process—different saga names, different characters—and I find myself getting confused and bored and not caring about keeping it straight. This is unfortunate because the topic is so interesting and fits well with my recent read of Gaiman’s Norse mythology book. I’ve decided to stop reading the book because the information isn’t sticking in my brain, my eyes are glazing over and I’m incredibly bored. I don’t care for the way she creates a fictional Hervor and would prefer a more straightforward, research-based book. And maybe that’s just because she’s so boring to me and doesn’t do narrative nonfiction well. At any rate, I will not rate the book because it’s possibly a case of me, not the book.
If you are interested in the subject, don’t let my boredom put you off. Brown does take a fresh look at Viking research and exposes the assumptions made that are based on post-Christian writings about Viking culture (thus male-dominant and possibly not true interpretations/retellings of the pre-Christian culture).
February 1, 2021
(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
In 1889, at the site of the Viking trading center in Birka, Sweden, a long-dead warrior’s burial chamber was found, complete with an impressive array of weapons and valuables. However, a far greater discovery would occur well over 100 years after her initial unearthing when DNA analysis showed her to be a woman.
It’s this mysterious and intriguing figure who takes center stage in The Real Valkyrie. Based upon what has been scientifically documented from modern analysis of her remains and the artifacts that the warrior was discovered with, plus a combination of Viking literature and other tools from the historical record author Nancy Marie Brown goes on to construct a story of what this woman’s life might have been like. And as she weaves her tale from chapter to chapter, she touches upon many aspects of life during the Viking era and ends up revealing a world that, amongst many aspects, was a surprisingly diverse one amongst its various warbands, free towns, and kingdoms, and possessed considerable cosmopolitan streaks thanks to a surprisingly large international reach through both raiding and trading that stretched from Ireland to the Silk Road. However, central and most important is Brown’s revelations of a Viking world where the women and men were by no means contained to strict gender roles, especially when it came to picking up a sword.
To say the least, the new perspective that the author provides sends something of a battering ram crashing into long-held misconceptions, and I for one could not possibly be more for it. Brown’s creatively realistic imagining of the kind of life that the Birka warrior might have lived finally gives a voice to what seems to be quite a sizable number of similar women who for hundreds of years have long been written off as mere legend or fantasy. And by showing the Viking era to be far more complex than what traditional historical lenses have made it out to be, she also reveals a time and culture that frankly is all far more fascinating than most of us have been able to realize until now. The Real Valkyrie is strongly recommended to any history lovers currently on the hunt for an eye-opening read.
In 1889, at the site of the Viking trading center in Birka, Sweden, a long-dead warrior’s burial chamber was found, complete with an impressive array of weapons and valuables. However, a far greater discovery would occur well over 100 years after her initial unearthing when DNA analysis showed her to be a woman.
It’s this mysterious and intriguing figure who takes center stage in The Real Valkyrie. Based upon what has been scientifically documented from modern analysis of her remains and the artifacts that the warrior was discovered with, plus a combination of Viking literature and other tools from the historical record author Nancy Marie Brown goes on to construct a story of what this woman’s life might have been like. And as she weaves her tale from chapter to chapter, she touches upon many aspects of life during the Viking era and ends up revealing a world that, amongst many aspects, was a surprisingly diverse one amongst its various warbands, free towns, and kingdoms, and possessed considerable cosmopolitan streaks thanks to a surprisingly large international reach through both raiding and trading that stretched from Ireland to the Silk Road. However, central and most important is Brown’s revelations of a Viking world where the women and men were by no means contained to strict gender roles, especially when it came to picking up a sword.
To say the least, the new perspective that the author provides sends something of a battering ram crashing into long-held misconceptions, and I for one could not possibly be more for it. Brown’s creatively realistic imagining of the kind of life that the Birka warrior might have lived finally gives a voice to what seems to be quite a sizable number of similar women who for hundreds of years have long been written off as mere legend or fantasy. And by showing the Viking era to be far more complex than what traditional historical lenses have made it out to be, she also reveals a time and culture that frankly is all far more fascinating than most of us have been able to realize until now. The Real Valkyrie is strongly recommended to any history lovers currently on the hunt for an eye-opening read.
August 6, 2021
Originally published on my book blog, TheBibliophage.com.
Nancy Marie Brown combines history and imagination in her upcoming book, The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women. If you follow me, you know that I love books about Vikings and Norse people. And this is the best I’ve ever read. It covers a wide range of topics, instead of just focusing on who fought who for what pieces of land. Once it publishes in late August, I’ll add a hard copy to my shelf.
Brown centers her narrative around one specific ancient grave in a Swedish town named Birka. Here lies a Viking warrior. Archaeologists originally assumed the warrior was a man, but their methods improved over time. Now we know the warrior is a woman.
We also know her approximate dates of life. By examining her bones, scientists determine where she lived as a child. So, Brown takes the hard science, combines it with all the surviving goods in the grave, and imagines a life for this warrior. She names her Hervor.
By telling Hervor’s story, or more accurately, her imagining of the story, Brown explains multiple aspects of Viking culture. When she explains the weapons found in the grave, we learn how they were made and used. While we think of Vikings using broadswords, they also were master archers. They also used axes for many purposes beyond just the battlefield.
And because weapons were different in various cultures of the time, we can determine where Hervor traveled. This is the gateway into information about what cultures the Vikings influenced. The coins in this grave and many others also have distinct origins. So again, Brown delves into various monetary systems from Scandinavian countries to those of Asian locales further East.
Viking Craftsman
In addition to all these battle related items, Brown also talks in detail about the kinds of craftsman in Viking culture. For example, Hervor’s grave had a distinctive silver piece consistent with a type of hat worn along the famous Silk Road in Asia. Some scraps of fabric show a particular type of work known to be common in that same area.
Brown doesn’t just say, “this came from there.” Instead, she describes how women learned the art of weaving, embroidery, and sewing. In the context of Hervor’s youth, we see how some girls moved into typical home arts and others leaned towards the life of trading and marauding.
As she describes these craftspeople, Brown also makes clear that they were highly respected. In some cases, the Queen of a given region would be in charge of the craftsmen. This was particularly true of fabric-related tasks, but not limited to them. Providing fabric meant planning an entire manufacturing process, so it was no small responsibility. The best quality fabrics were made to trade. And the least quality went to the household slaves.
Viking Traders and Slavers
Yes, Vikings had slaves. And they traded slaves along with all the other goods they sold throughout their part of the world. Usually, slaves were people captured as one tribe conquered another. They were often from two regions of the same country, or from two adjacent countries. So, it’s quite different from how we think of slaves as being stolen from an entirely separate continent. Brown devastatingly lays out the values of various types of slaves. She explains how archaeologists know where the markets were. This section was the hardest part of the book to read. But it’s a hard, cold truth. Slavery didn’t begin in 1619 but has been a tragic fact of life for centuries.
Mythology and Religious Beliefs
Rather than separate the Norse mythology, stories, and poetry into a separate section, Brown weaves them throughout her narrative. In fact, many of her explanations are rooted in these stories. This means that the line between fact and fiction is blurred, but Brown makes it as clear as possible.
History happens alongside the writings in some cases. And in others, the writing happens hundreds of years after the events it purports to describe. In that case it’s heavily influenced by the Christian Church. It’s here that we see the role of Viking warrior women erased. Because the Church wasn’t served by the idea of strong women. They preferred forcing women into a specific kind of life. And that’s why Hervor’s grave was originally assumed to hold the remains of a man. But Brown proves the patriarchy wrong by combining scholarship and imagination.
My conclusions
This book is everything I hoped Arthur Herman’s recent book would be but wasn’t. It’s full of heart, chutzpah, and reveals the fullness of a Viking woman’s life. Brown is both teacher and storyteller. Her deft combination of all aspects of this story paints an inspiring picture. Most of what Hervor and her companions achieve makes me proud to have Norwegian DNA. Except the slavery, which is heartbreaking no matter how common.
After watching all seasons of The Vikings on the History Channel, my favorite character is Lagertha. She a fierce shield maid, mother, farmer, and battle worn woman. I loved Brown’s shout out to her.
But even more, I want a show about my new heroine, Hervor. In the meantime, I’ll just keep revisiting this book and delving into Brown’s other work about the Viking culture. I’m also glad for her extensive bibliography, since it offers considerable opportunity for continued learning.
Anyone curious about the fiercely feminist aspects of Norse culture should read this book. I highly recommend it.
Pair with Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, which is fictional, based in Norway and about the details of a woman’s life.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review.
Nancy Marie Brown combines history and imagination in her upcoming book, The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women. If you follow me, you know that I love books about Vikings and Norse people. And this is the best I’ve ever read. It covers a wide range of topics, instead of just focusing on who fought who for what pieces of land. Once it publishes in late August, I’ll add a hard copy to my shelf.
Brown centers her narrative around one specific ancient grave in a Swedish town named Birka. Here lies a Viking warrior. Archaeologists originally assumed the warrior was a man, but their methods improved over time. Now we know the warrior is a woman.
We also know her approximate dates of life. By examining her bones, scientists determine where she lived as a child. So, Brown takes the hard science, combines it with all the surviving goods in the grave, and imagines a life for this warrior. She names her Hervor.
By telling Hervor’s story, or more accurately, her imagining of the story, Brown explains multiple aspects of Viking culture. When she explains the weapons found in the grave, we learn how they were made and used. While we think of Vikings using broadswords, they also were master archers. They also used axes for many purposes beyond just the battlefield.
And because weapons were different in various cultures of the time, we can determine where Hervor traveled. This is the gateway into information about what cultures the Vikings influenced. The coins in this grave and many others also have distinct origins. So again, Brown delves into various monetary systems from Scandinavian countries to those of Asian locales further East.
Viking Craftsman
In addition to all these battle related items, Brown also talks in detail about the kinds of craftsman in Viking culture. For example, Hervor’s grave had a distinctive silver piece consistent with a type of hat worn along the famous Silk Road in Asia. Some scraps of fabric show a particular type of work known to be common in that same area.
Brown doesn’t just say, “this came from there.” Instead, she describes how women learned the art of weaving, embroidery, and sewing. In the context of Hervor’s youth, we see how some girls moved into typical home arts and others leaned towards the life of trading and marauding.
As she describes these craftspeople, Brown also makes clear that they were highly respected. In some cases, the Queen of a given region would be in charge of the craftsmen. This was particularly true of fabric-related tasks, but not limited to them. Providing fabric meant planning an entire manufacturing process, so it was no small responsibility. The best quality fabrics were made to trade. And the least quality went to the household slaves.
Viking Traders and Slavers
Yes, Vikings had slaves. And they traded slaves along with all the other goods they sold throughout their part of the world. Usually, slaves were people captured as one tribe conquered another. They were often from two regions of the same country, or from two adjacent countries. So, it’s quite different from how we think of slaves as being stolen from an entirely separate continent. Brown devastatingly lays out the values of various types of slaves. She explains how archaeologists know where the markets were. This section was the hardest part of the book to read. But it’s a hard, cold truth. Slavery didn’t begin in 1619 but has been a tragic fact of life for centuries.
Mythology and Religious Beliefs
Rather than separate the Norse mythology, stories, and poetry into a separate section, Brown weaves them throughout her narrative. In fact, many of her explanations are rooted in these stories. This means that the line between fact and fiction is blurred, but Brown makes it as clear as possible.
History happens alongside the writings in some cases. And in others, the writing happens hundreds of years after the events it purports to describe. In that case it’s heavily influenced by the Christian Church. It’s here that we see the role of Viking warrior women erased. Because the Church wasn’t served by the idea of strong women. They preferred forcing women into a specific kind of life. And that’s why Hervor’s grave was originally assumed to hold the remains of a man. But Brown proves the patriarchy wrong by combining scholarship and imagination.
My conclusions
This book is everything I hoped Arthur Herman’s recent book would be but wasn’t. It’s full of heart, chutzpah, and reveals the fullness of a Viking woman’s life. Brown is both teacher and storyteller. Her deft combination of all aspects of this story paints an inspiring picture. Most of what Hervor and her companions achieve makes me proud to have Norwegian DNA. Except the slavery, which is heartbreaking no matter how common.
After watching all seasons of The Vikings on the History Channel, my favorite character is Lagertha. She a fierce shield maid, mother, farmer, and battle worn woman. I loved Brown’s shout out to her.
But even more, I want a show about my new heroine, Hervor. In the meantime, I’ll just keep revisiting this book and delving into Brown’s other work about the Viking culture. I’m also glad for her extensive bibliography, since it offers considerable opportunity for continued learning.
Anyone curious about the fiercely feminist aspects of Norse culture should read this book. I highly recommend it.
Pair with Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, which is fictional, based in Norway and about the details of a woman’s life.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review.
April 6, 2021
This book is an absolutely thrilling read. I am of Swedish descent, and have always been interested in Viking history. I find history in general fascinating. Especially the fun that comes from realizing that almost everything we know was painted over by the Victorians. Why should the Viking history be any different?
The text of this work is engaging. It draws you into the history in surprising ways. The entire story of the Viking women is completely rewritten here by science and data. We learn that Vikings did not keep their women stuck at home to tend the children, but rather that Viking women were heroes and adventurers just as the men. It is an absolutely riveting read. I highly recommend it.
The text of this work is engaging. It draws you into the history in surprising ways. The entire story of the Viking women is completely rewritten here by science and data. We learn that Vikings did not keep their women stuck at home to tend the children, but rather that Viking women were heroes and adventurers just as the men. It is an absolutely riveting read. I highly recommend it.
May 1, 2023
"The Real Valkyrie" is a blending of archaeology and storytelling, saga literature and social history. When the Viking grave Bj581 in Birka, Sweden was first excavated in the 1870s, the bones of the Birka Warrior was believed to be the bones of a man because of the extensive weaponry found in the grave. It was not until the 21st century that DNA testing revealed that it was in fact the skeleton of a woman, upending much of academically agreed upon facts about the role of Viking women. While previously depictions or sagas about warrior women where dismissed as mythical "valkyries", Nancy Marie Brown is unpacking what life would have been like for a real valkyrie such as the Birka Warrior.
This book chronicles a possibly plausible story of a Viking warrior woman by conflating parts of the Hervor of the sagas with the skeleton and taking aspects of the objects found in the Birka grave to extrapolate an entire life. I have read two of Nancy Marie Brown's books previously, "Ivory Vikings" and "The Far Traveler", and this book is more speculative in nature because there is little to no actual knowledge about who the Birka Warrior was or her true story. Each chapter begins with a fictional narrative that develops Brown's "Hervor" character's story. The rest of the chapter then takes an element from that narrative to examine further historical facts through non-fiction writing. It was fascinating learning about how different objects found in the grave indicate the extensive trading that was happening in the time period between East and West and the many cultures that a Viking warrior would have encountered in their travels.
My favourite of Brown's books remains "The Far Traveler" but I would still definitely recommend this book to readers interested in the Viking era/early medieval time period, fascinating women’s stories that have been almost forgotten by time, and the intersections of archaeology and social history.
*DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC of this book from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley for the purposes of providing an unbiased review.*
This book chronicles a possibly plausible story of a Viking warrior woman by conflating parts of the Hervor of the sagas with the skeleton and taking aspects of the objects found in the Birka grave to extrapolate an entire life. I have read two of Nancy Marie Brown's books previously, "Ivory Vikings" and "The Far Traveler", and this book is more speculative in nature because there is little to no actual knowledge about who the Birka Warrior was or her true story. Each chapter begins with a fictional narrative that develops Brown's "Hervor" character's story. The rest of the chapter then takes an element from that narrative to examine further historical facts through non-fiction writing. It was fascinating learning about how different objects found in the grave indicate the extensive trading that was happening in the time period between East and West and the many cultures that a Viking warrior would have encountered in their travels.
My favourite of Brown's books remains "The Far Traveler" but I would still definitely recommend this book to readers interested in the Viking era/early medieval time period, fascinating women’s stories that have been almost forgotten by time, and the intersections of archaeology and social history.
*DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC of this book from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley for the purposes of providing an unbiased review.*
March 15, 2022
This was a really interesting and well-researched look at Viking history, I really enjoyed it. The author really brought this time period to life with lots of interesting information. These warrior women kicked ass and we get to learn about them. It definitely reads more like a textbook but the information is so interesting it didn't matter to me. If you are interested in Viking history I would definitely recommend this one.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review.
January 17, 2022
In 2017, DNA tests showed that the grave of a (presumed male) Viking warrior was that of a woman. The author uses archeology, literature and history to outline the possible life of this woman, and describe life in medieval times.
I initially wanted to read this book because I was so tickled that the assumption that the warrior was a man was proved incorrect. But I kept reading the book because it was interesting learning about Viking life. Wow those women were tough (as were the men).
I initially wanted to read this book because I was so tickled that the assumption that the warrior was a man was proved incorrect. But I kept reading the book because it was interesting learning about Viking life. Wow those women were tough (as were the men).
August 20, 2021
DNF at 45%
I was SO excited to get approved for this ARC — I never request nonfiction books on NetGalley, but as soon as I saw a female-centric history of the Norse, I had to have it.
But then I started reading and …. Phew.
The author picked an unmarked grave that contained a female skeleton and elaborate grave goods, which indicated this was a buried warrior. She then imagined what this warrior’s life would have been like.
Which works, in theory.
In practice, though? It didn’t work for me.
Each chapter began with several pages of narrative retelling of Norse sagas, inserting this theoretical warrior into them. Fully half of each chapter is then spent saying, “no it is possible my semi-made up lady was there,” and then the remaining half is finally telling actual information about the Norse.
I just feel like I was reading a LOT of speculation, and very few passages that actually felt like I was learning about real-life vikings. (Yes, I know that so much of Norse history is speculating and assuming based on sagas and grave findings, but this leaned SO far into speculation that none of it felt real, none of it felt like nonfiction.)
And then, there was one passage that just INFURIATED me:
The entire conceit of the book is that our modern understanding of the Vikings/Norse was shaped first by Christian chroniclers’ misogyny and then by strict Victorian gender roles of early historians. So historians would do things like assume any grave with a weapon belonged to a man, said mentions of female warriors were myth but similarly exaggerated mentions of male warriors were metaphor, etc.
This book is trying to challenge a lot of those assumptions, and pretty explicitly says it’s going to err the other way — take mentions of female power at face value, assume they had rights and opportunities until told otherwise, etc. Which is a pretty cool idea!
But then I read a section about a Swedish leader who was assigned female at birth. This leader was elected king (not queen), used a male name, and insisted on male pronouns.
The book — which, remember, is supposedly all about challenging the assumptions and norms we project on ancient people — does not even mention or entertain the idea that this person might not be cis. It uses exclusively female pronouns, except when directly quoting sagas that used male pronouns. It only uses the female form of the name, not even telling us what the male form is (which is what this ruler went by!). It even says something about how they “symbolically changed their sex” when this leader had a meeting with their father and the saga switched from male back to female pronouns.
It just feels like this book is completely undercutting it’s explicitly stated mission. Like, we’re going to assume that the Victorians were projecting strict gender roles back on them, but won’t even consider that it’s actively projecting a modern assumption of gender identity onto this ruler?
An advanced copy of this book was provided by NetGalley; this review was left voluntarily.
I was SO excited to get approved for this ARC — I never request nonfiction books on NetGalley, but as soon as I saw a female-centric history of the Norse, I had to have it.
But then I started reading and …. Phew.
The author picked an unmarked grave that contained a female skeleton and elaborate grave goods, which indicated this was a buried warrior. She then imagined what this warrior’s life would have been like.
Which works, in theory.
In practice, though? It didn’t work for me.
Each chapter began with several pages of narrative retelling of Norse sagas, inserting this theoretical warrior into them. Fully half of each chapter is then spent saying, “no it is possible my semi-made up lady was there,” and then the remaining half is finally telling actual information about the Norse.
I just feel like I was reading a LOT of speculation, and very few passages that actually felt like I was learning about real-life vikings. (Yes, I know that so much of Norse history is speculating and assuming based on sagas and grave findings, but this leaned SO far into speculation that none of it felt real, none of it felt like nonfiction.)
And then, there was one passage that just INFURIATED me:
The entire conceit of the book is that our modern understanding of the Vikings/Norse was shaped first by Christian chroniclers’ misogyny and then by strict Victorian gender roles of early historians. So historians would do things like assume any grave with a weapon belonged to a man, said mentions of female warriors were myth but similarly exaggerated mentions of male warriors were metaphor, etc.
This book is trying to challenge a lot of those assumptions, and pretty explicitly says it’s going to err the other way — take mentions of female power at face value, assume they had rights and opportunities until told otherwise, etc. Which is a pretty cool idea!
But then I read a section about a Swedish leader who was assigned female at birth. This leader was elected king (not queen), used a male name, and insisted on male pronouns.
The book — which, remember, is supposedly all about challenging the assumptions and norms we project on ancient people — does not even mention or entertain the idea that this person might not be cis. It uses exclusively female pronouns, except when directly quoting sagas that used male pronouns. It only uses the female form of the name, not even telling us what the male form is (which is what this ruler went by!). It even says something about how they “symbolically changed their sex” when this leader had a meeting with their father and the saga switched from male back to female pronouns.
It just feels like this book is completely undercutting it’s explicitly stated mission. Like, we’re going to assume that the Victorians were projecting strict gender roles back on them, but won’t even consider that it’s actively projecting a modern assumption of gender identity onto this ruler?
An advanced copy of this book was provided by NetGalley; this review was left voluntarily.
September 15, 2021
I would love to have the knowledge and understanding of Viking history that this author is comfortable with. Nancy Marie Brown is talking TO the reader, not AT them. She breathes life into one particular little-known scientific phenomenon: the discovery that one of the most honored graves of a Viking warrior contains female bones. This discovery turned history and scientific research on its heels. The long-established belief that all Viking warriors were men must now be completely re-evaluated, and Ms. Brown presents her theory of what this Viking’s life and times may have been like.
We meet Hervor and understand how her childhood was, how she moved from one region to another; how she evolved into a fierce warrior who was respected and honored. This study is based on scientific facts and data, but by giving life to one Viking, Ms. Brown creates a tangible and interesting woman; one whose bones defied years of misunderstanding.
Viking history is constantly evolving based on new discoveries, and this finding was a major game-changer. The Viking lifestyle was merciless, demanding, ritualistic and deep. Like them or not, the Vikings made a lasting impact on the evolution of Man (and Woman, teehee).
Sincere thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date was August 31, 2021.
We meet Hervor and understand how her childhood was, how she moved from one region to another; how she evolved into a fierce warrior who was respected and honored. This study is based on scientific facts and data, but by giving life to one Viking, Ms. Brown creates a tangible and interesting woman; one whose bones defied years of misunderstanding.
Viking history is constantly evolving based on new discoveries, and this finding was a major game-changer. The Viking lifestyle was merciless, demanding, ritualistic and deep. Like them or not, the Vikings made a lasting impact on the evolution of Man (and Woman, teehee).
Sincere thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date was August 31, 2021.
September 22, 2026
Nancy Marie Brown’s The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women is exactly the kind of history book that makes me wonder how much of what we think we know about the past is actually history, and how much is simply interpretation that has been repeated for so long that we stopped questioning it. Brown takes one extraordinary Viking burial and uses it as a doorway into a much larger discussion about women, warfare, gender, archaeology, mythology, and the ways historians have constructed the Viking Age.
At the center of the book is the famous Birka burial known as Bj581. When the grave was excavated in Sweden in 1878, it was immediately interpreted as the burial of a powerful male Viking warrior. And honestly, I can understand why the assumption was made when looking at the grave goods: there was a sword, axe, spears, arrows, shields, knives, horses, riding equipment, and gaming pieces. Everything about the burial seemed to scream “warrior.” For generations, Bj581 was held up as the quintessential Viking warrior’s grave.
Then came the discovery that completely changed the conversation.
In 2017, DNA testing established that the remains belonged to a woman.
That revelation is the foundation of Brown’s book, but what makes The Real Valkyrie so fascinating is that she doesn’t simply say, “Look, women were warriors too.” She asks us to examine why we were so certain that the person in this grave had to be a man in the first place.
This is where the book becomes much bigger than a discussion of one Viking woman.
Brown explores Viking archaeology, burial practices, Norse mythology, Icelandic sagas, Viking settlements, trade routes, warfare, queens, female rulers, textiles, clothing, social structures, and the legendary Valkyries. She also looks at how women appear in the surviving Norse literature and how those accounts have been interpreted through centuries of changing cultural assumptions.
One of the most interesting arguments in the book is the idea of “sexing by metal.” For a very long time, archaeologists essentially looked at the objects in a grave and assigned gender accordingly: weapons meant male, jewelry or household objects meant female. It sounds almost absurd when you put it that way, but this method had a tremendous influence on how Viking society was reconstructed. Brown points out that this approach meant that graves containing weapons were routinely classified as male, even when the skeletal evidence was ambiguous.
And this is the part of the book I found most important.
Modern advances in archaeology, osteology, and especially DNA analysis are allowing us to go back and question those earlier classifications. Bj581 is not simply an interesting exception. It demonstrates that the assumptions used to categorize thousands of archaeological remains may themselves have been flawed. If a grave that was considered the ultimate example of a male Viking warrior can turn out to belong to a woman, then we have to ask how many other graves were interpreted incorrectly.
That possibility completely changes the way I think about archaeological history.
Brown also challenges the simplistic idea that Viking society divided neatly into men who fought, traded, and traveled and women who stayed home, raised children, and managed the household. The surviving literature contains numerous stories of formidable women, while archaeological evidence increasingly complicates the traditional gender divisions imposed on the Viking world.
I particularly enjoyed the way Brown brings the woman from Bj581 to life by calling her Hervor, after the legendary warrior woman of Norse literature. The historical evidence can tell us certain things about her—her approximate age, her physical remains, the objects buried with her, and even clues about where she may have originated—but there are enormous gaps. Brown fills some of those gaps with imaginative reconstructions based on the archaeological and historical evidence. It gives the book a more intimate quality and allows us to imagine the person behind the bones rather than treating her simply as an archaeological specimen.
At the same time, I think one of the most important takeaways from this book is that we still have a long way to go.
The discovery of women in warrior graves has revolutionized our understanding of Viking women, but it does not mean we suddenly have all the answers. We still have to be careful about taking one extraordinary burial and using it to make sweeping claims about every woman in the Viking Age. A woman buried with weapons tells us that female warriors existed. It does not automatically tell us how common they were, what percentage of warriors were women, or exactly what social expectations surrounded them.
And that uncertainty is actually what makes this subject so exciting to me.
History is not finished. Archaeological discoveries, DNA testing, improved methods of analyzing skeletal remains, and new interpretations can completely change narratives that once seemed unquestionable. The most fascinating thing about The Real Valkyrie is not simply that Viking women could fight. It is that we apparently spent generations overlooking evidence that could have told us this much sooner.
For me, that is the real significance of the Valkyrie.
She represents not just a warrior woman, but a historical blind spot. She reminds us that the past does not always fit the categories we want to put it into. And while The Real Valkyrie goes a long way toward correcting the image of the Viking world as exclusively male and militaristic, I finished the book feeling that this is only the beginning. There are undoubtedly more graves, more women, and more stories waiting to be reconsidered.
We just have to be willing to look at them differently.
At the center of the book is the famous Birka burial known as Bj581. When the grave was excavated in Sweden in 1878, it was immediately interpreted as the burial of a powerful male Viking warrior. And honestly, I can understand why the assumption was made when looking at the grave goods: there was a sword, axe, spears, arrows, shields, knives, horses, riding equipment, and gaming pieces. Everything about the burial seemed to scream “warrior.” For generations, Bj581 was held up as the quintessential Viking warrior’s grave.
Then came the discovery that completely changed the conversation.
In 2017, DNA testing established that the remains belonged to a woman.
That revelation is the foundation of Brown’s book, but what makes The Real Valkyrie so fascinating is that she doesn’t simply say, “Look, women were warriors too.” She asks us to examine why we were so certain that the person in this grave had to be a man in the first place.
This is where the book becomes much bigger than a discussion of one Viking woman.
Brown explores Viking archaeology, burial practices, Norse mythology, Icelandic sagas, Viking settlements, trade routes, warfare, queens, female rulers, textiles, clothing, social structures, and the legendary Valkyries. She also looks at how women appear in the surviving Norse literature and how those accounts have been interpreted through centuries of changing cultural assumptions.
One of the most interesting arguments in the book is the idea of “sexing by metal.” For a very long time, archaeologists essentially looked at the objects in a grave and assigned gender accordingly: weapons meant male, jewelry or household objects meant female. It sounds almost absurd when you put it that way, but this method had a tremendous influence on how Viking society was reconstructed. Brown points out that this approach meant that graves containing weapons were routinely classified as male, even when the skeletal evidence was ambiguous.
And this is the part of the book I found most important.
Modern advances in archaeology, osteology, and especially DNA analysis are allowing us to go back and question those earlier classifications. Bj581 is not simply an interesting exception. It demonstrates that the assumptions used to categorize thousands of archaeological remains may themselves have been flawed. If a grave that was considered the ultimate example of a male Viking warrior can turn out to belong to a woman, then we have to ask how many other graves were interpreted incorrectly.
That possibility completely changes the way I think about archaeological history.
Brown also challenges the simplistic idea that Viking society divided neatly into men who fought, traded, and traveled and women who stayed home, raised children, and managed the household. The surviving literature contains numerous stories of formidable women, while archaeological evidence increasingly complicates the traditional gender divisions imposed on the Viking world.
I particularly enjoyed the way Brown brings the woman from Bj581 to life by calling her Hervor, after the legendary warrior woman of Norse literature. The historical evidence can tell us certain things about her—her approximate age, her physical remains, the objects buried with her, and even clues about where she may have originated—but there are enormous gaps. Brown fills some of those gaps with imaginative reconstructions based on the archaeological and historical evidence. It gives the book a more intimate quality and allows us to imagine the person behind the bones rather than treating her simply as an archaeological specimen.
At the same time, I think one of the most important takeaways from this book is that we still have a long way to go.
The discovery of women in warrior graves has revolutionized our understanding of Viking women, but it does not mean we suddenly have all the answers. We still have to be careful about taking one extraordinary burial and using it to make sweeping claims about every woman in the Viking Age. A woman buried with weapons tells us that female warriors existed. It does not automatically tell us how common they were, what percentage of warriors were women, or exactly what social expectations surrounded them.
And that uncertainty is actually what makes this subject so exciting to me.
History is not finished. Archaeological discoveries, DNA testing, improved methods of analyzing skeletal remains, and new interpretations can completely change narratives that once seemed unquestionable. The most fascinating thing about The Real Valkyrie is not simply that Viking women could fight. It is that we apparently spent generations overlooking evidence that could have told us this much sooner.
For me, that is the real significance of the Valkyrie.
She represents not just a warrior woman, but a historical blind spot. She reminds us that the past does not always fit the categories we want to put it into. And while The Real Valkyrie goes a long way toward correcting the image of the Viking world as exclusively male and militaristic, I finished the book feeling that this is only the beginning. There are undoubtedly more graves, more women, and more stories waiting to be reconsidered.
We just have to be willing to look at them differently.
will-not-finish
December 29, 2021Though I was initially intrigued by this book, I struggled to continue with it due to the odd combination of fiction and nonfiction. The format did not work for me even though the topic was good. DNF, partly due to the fact that my netgalley arc expired.
***Thank you to Netgalley for the free review copy!***
***Thank you to Netgalley for the free review copy!***
August 31, 2021
4 1/2 stars. In 2017, DNA tests proved a high-status Viking warrior grave found in the late 1800s was not a male but a female. Brown uses this as a stepping to stone to imagine, what her life might have been like, at the beginning of each chapter, based on archaeology, the sagas and history. The rest of the chapter is used to discuss where the information came from and different aspects of Viking culture including, metallurgy, trade, slavery, religious beliefs, weaving, etc.
This work, and other recent scholarship, challenges the traditional view of the role of women in Viking society. There have been other graves that were once believed to be male Viking warriors but discovered recently to be women instead. It is interesting to see just how much societal views do influence historical interpretations. To this day, some scholars insist that these graves they had no problems accepting as Viking warriors when they thought the skeleton belonged to a male must have some other explanation than that these female skeletons were warriors themselves.
Brown’s book is a welcome addition to Viking history making readers aware of the greater agency women had in the Viking Age than earlier historians had perceived in their construct of this time period. There is always the danger in going too far in the other direction when a reinterpretation of history. This can be particularly true when there is a fictional creation of this woman’s life in the beginning of each chapter. This must be kept in mind when reading the work and it may turn off some readers. However, the passages in the beginning are not spun completely out of the air but based on real archaeological finds in this grave and others, and Viking warrior women who appear in the sagas (even if they are not usually presented in a positive light).
Anyone who is interested in Viking history will find this an interesting read. Not only does it expand the role of women in Viking society, it gives details about the nitty-gritty of Viking life, and places Viking society in the greater context of a large and complex international trade that stretched as far as Asia. It also does not turn away from what we in the modern day consider the much uglier side of Viking society either: slavery.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in return for an honest review.
This work, and other recent scholarship, challenges the traditional view of the role of women in Viking society. There have been other graves that were once believed to be male Viking warriors but discovered recently to be women instead. It is interesting to see just how much societal views do influence historical interpretations. To this day, some scholars insist that these graves they had no problems accepting as Viking warriors when they thought the skeleton belonged to a male must have some other explanation than that these female skeletons were warriors themselves.
Brown’s book is a welcome addition to Viking history making readers aware of the greater agency women had in the Viking Age than earlier historians had perceived in their construct of this time period. There is always the danger in going too far in the other direction when a reinterpretation of history. This can be particularly true when there is a fictional creation of this woman’s life in the beginning of each chapter. This must be kept in mind when reading the work and it may turn off some readers. However, the passages in the beginning are not spun completely out of the air but based on real archaeological finds in this grave and others, and Viking warrior women who appear in the sagas (even if they are not usually presented in a positive light).
Anyone who is interested in Viking history will find this an interesting read. Not only does it expand the role of women in Viking society, it gives details about the nitty-gritty of Viking life, and places Viking society in the greater context of a large and complex international trade that stretched as far as Asia. It also does not turn away from what we in the modern day consider the much uglier side of Viking society either: slavery.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in return for an honest review.
August 18, 2021
Viking warrior women is a history genre that I did not know that needed to read from before this book.
I received an ecopy of this book through Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own.
I received an ecopy of this book through Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own.
August 31, 2021
The Real Valkyrie is an interesting way to write a history book. In truth, it is history with a bit of historical fiction wrapped around it at times, allowing author Nancy Marie Brown to embellish an actual character from the distant past. Readers are seldom allowed such a taste of ancient lands and the people who inhabit them.
Ms. Brown questions previous notions of the past, asserting that the customs of those who previously interpreted former eras did so through assumptions based upon their own customs. The author presents facts to support her claims, that there were female warriors, and more than we thought.
One warrior was excavated in Birka, Sweden. Ms. Brown assigned her the name of Hervor, a person who did live during the Viking Age. Hervor serves as the main character in the historical fiction sections, educating us on how her life might have progressed. What’s very interesting is the way the author uses writings, poetry, odes, and other literary items that have survived, and clothes the life of Ms. Brown’s Hervor with historical truths.
This is a wonderful way to learn, and it really made the book a quick read. The Real Valkyrie is filled with supporting documentation, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the wonderful method used to present a history book with a story woven throughout. Highly recommended to history readers and those curious about the Viking past. Five stars.
My thanks to Net/Galley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.
Ms. Brown questions previous notions of the past, asserting that the customs of those who previously interpreted former eras did so through assumptions based upon their own customs. The author presents facts to support her claims, that there were female warriors, and more than we thought.
One warrior was excavated in Birka, Sweden. Ms. Brown assigned her the name of Hervor, a person who did live during the Viking Age. Hervor serves as the main character in the historical fiction sections, educating us on how her life might have progressed. What’s very interesting is the way the author uses writings, poetry, odes, and other literary items that have survived, and clothes the life of Ms. Brown’s Hervor with historical truths.
This is a wonderful way to learn, and it really made the book a quick read. The Real Valkyrie is filled with supporting documentation, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the wonderful method used to present a history book with a story woven throughout. Highly recommended to history readers and those curious about the Viking past. Five stars.
My thanks to Net/Galley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.
July 27, 2021
“From China in 1200BC to the United States today, archaeological and historical sources attest to thousands of women who have engaged in combat as warriors and war leaders. Yet routinely their witness, their histories and weapon-filled burials and battle-scarred bones, are dismissed. Scholars undercut (or ignore) them. Historians turn them into myths or allot their deeds to a convenient (or imagined) man. They’re presented as anomalies.”
Nancy Marie Brown is no stranger to writing about Vikings or the role that women play within Viking culture, however The Real Valkyrie is Brown’s attempt at putting together a comprehensive approach (and subsequently, debunking cultural notions and myths) of what a Valkyrie is, a Viking Warrior Woman, and the roles that each played in Viking society.
Brown quite cleverly structures the book around the burial site and corpse of a Viking Warrior Woman in Birka (Sweden), and the evidence not just of her femaleness, but of her buried artefacts that indicate her travels across large parts of the known world.
Incorporating archaeology, myth, and an impressive dearth of historical knowledge, Brown attempts to connect the dots of who this woman was, why it has taken so long to appreciate her as Viking Warrior, and what this means for understanding warriors in Viking culture as a whole – perhaps she is not the exception, but rather just as much the rule as Viking Warrior Men.
I’ve found myself thinking and rethinking over aspects of the book, and even though it’s unsurprising to me that the role of Viking Warrior Women has long since been obscured, there were many facets to The Real Valkyrie that were particularly powerful in changing my understanding around women warriors, not just in Viking culture but across other histories.
Each chapter is quite accessible, and sectioned so that each one explores a different aspect of a Viking Warrior’s life (especially if she was female), and the various social, economic and political forces that would influence this role in Viking society. Brown leaves nothing out – from travel, to family, to clothing, to even a very detailed section on the process of forging a Viking sword, Brown paints a very detailed and deft picture of life as a Viking, let alone that of a Viking Warrior.
I particularly enjoyed her referring to Snorri Sturluson as “The misgonyist Snorri Struluson” – Brown does provide evidence to back up this claim, but it did give me a laugh everytime.
It’s clear that the author is an expert in this field, and every part of the Viking world explored is done with remarkable depth. I would also consider this is a weakness for a reader less interested in Vikings – the attention to detail means that while it is never a dry reading experience, there is a large amount of information that the reader has to pay attention to (especially if they want to get the most out of the reader experience).
One chapter that particularly stuck out personally was the one of slavery. Although I have more than a passing interest in Viking history, my knowledge is still somewhat lacking, and this was really the standout chapter that changed my perception of Viking culture. The fact that slavery was such a large and indiscriminate part of their economy and society is something I have rarely encountered in depictions of Vikings, and I found this to be one of the parts of The Real Valkyrie that really challenged my knowledge and ideas of what a Viking is.
Another strength of The Real Valkyrie was the analysis around religion, and as the slow erosion of paganism gave way to Christianity, so too did ideas around women and their roles in Viking society slowly shifted to mirror that of a Christian, not a Viking world.
Ultimately, Brown makes a very convincing and absolutely fascinating case for challenging our preconceived notions around gender, Vikings, and warrior-hood. I would strongly encourage anyone to pick this up who is interested in diving deep into the world of Vikings, Warriors, and how our understanding of the intersection of women between those two has shifted drastically - and been almost eroded entirely - over time.
Big Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.!
Nancy Marie Brown is no stranger to writing about Vikings or the role that women play within Viking culture, however The Real Valkyrie is Brown’s attempt at putting together a comprehensive approach (and subsequently, debunking cultural notions and myths) of what a Valkyrie is, a Viking Warrior Woman, and the roles that each played in Viking society.
Brown quite cleverly structures the book around the burial site and corpse of a Viking Warrior Woman in Birka (Sweden), and the evidence not just of her femaleness, but of her buried artefacts that indicate her travels across large parts of the known world.
Incorporating archaeology, myth, and an impressive dearth of historical knowledge, Brown attempts to connect the dots of who this woman was, why it has taken so long to appreciate her as Viking Warrior, and what this means for understanding warriors in Viking culture as a whole – perhaps she is not the exception, but rather just as much the rule as Viking Warrior Men.
I’ve found myself thinking and rethinking over aspects of the book, and even though it’s unsurprising to me that the role of Viking Warrior Women has long since been obscured, there were many facets to The Real Valkyrie that were particularly powerful in changing my understanding around women warriors, not just in Viking culture but across other histories.
Each chapter is quite accessible, and sectioned so that each one explores a different aspect of a Viking Warrior’s life (especially if she was female), and the various social, economic and political forces that would influence this role in Viking society. Brown leaves nothing out – from travel, to family, to clothing, to even a very detailed section on the process of forging a Viking sword, Brown paints a very detailed and deft picture of life as a Viking, let alone that of a Viking Warrior.
I particularly enjoyed her referring to Snorri Sturluson as “The misgonyist Snorri Struluson” – Brown does provide evidence to back up this claim, but it did give me a laugh everytime.
It’s clear that the author is an expert in this field, and every part of the Viking world explored is done with remarkable depth. I would also consider this is a weakness for a reader less interested in Vikings – the attention to detail means that while it is never a dry reading experience, there is a large amount of information that the reader has to pay attention to (especially if they want to get the most out of the reader experience).
One chapter that particularly stuck out personally was the one of slavery. Although I have more than a passing interest in Viking history, my knowledge is still somewhat lacking, and this was really the standout chapter that changed my perception of Viking culture. The fact that slavery was such a large and indiscriminate part of their economy and society is something I have rarely encountered in depictions of Vikings, and I found this to be one of the parts of The Real Valkyrie that really challenged my knowledge and ideas of what a Viking is.
Another strength of The Real Valkyrie was the analysis around religion, and as the slow erosion of paganism gave way to Christianity, so too did ideas around women and their roles in Viking society slowly shifted to mirror that of a Christian, not a Viking world.
Ultimately, Brown makes a very convincing and absolutely fascinating case for challenging our preconceived notions around gender, Vikings, and warrior-hood. I would strongly encourage anyone to pick this up who is interested in diving deep into the world of Vikings, Warriors, and how our understanding of the intersection of women between those two has shifted drastically - and been almost eroded entirely - over time.
Big Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.!
March 29, 2021
This was more of Nancy's take on what a Valkyrie was during 913-980 A.D.. She goes on to tell of several other females such as Lagertha played by the artist Katheryn Winnick in the History Channel television series Vikings. But she has given our skeleton the name Hervor. Where she uses some of the sagas depicting Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings as her model for a young valkyrie. Hervor quit Gunnhild's court and became a Viking. By analyzing her teeth, they found that she had traveled to England or Ireland and also had traveled to Kyiv. She may have been aquatinted with the Red Girl in Ireland and Queen Olga in Kyiv. She uses poems to conjure up some family heirlooms such as the famous Flaming Sword. She uses the Saga of Hervor penned by an Icelandic lawyer named Haukur Erlendsson from 1302 and 1310. Many of the tales are only guesses by Nancy and she has books and references she uses at the end of her tale. This wasn't like any book I've read under the heading of mystery and thrillers more of a history book. Worth the read.
August 29, 2021
A creative blend of history and speculation.
Through use of archaeological facts and discovery, the author turns the script on what we think we know about Viking women (Hervor, in particular), humanizing them, showing how they were much more than wives and mothers. They were also warriors. They had weapons: swords, shields. They fought in battle. They dressed in silks. They were people of status, respect, power. She then takes that premise further by creating fictional, though entirely plausible scenarios, which highlight the remarkable fluidity of women's gender roles during that era.
It was empowering as well as satisfying to read a detailed and well-researched history about the full lives of Viking women. Gave me lots to mull over. Thought-provoking, for sure!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.
BOOK BLOG
Through use of archaeological facts and discovery, the author turns the script on what we think we know about Viking women (Hervor, in particular), humanizing them, showing how they were much more than wives and mothers. They were also warriors. They had weapons: swords, shields. They fought in battle. They dressed in silks. They were people of status, respect, power. She then takes that premise further by creating fictional, though entirely plausible scenarios, which highlight the remarkable fluidity of women's gender roles during that era.
It was empowering as well as satisfying to read a detailed and well-researched history about the full lives of Viking women. Gave me lots to mull over. Thought-provoking, for sure!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.
BOOK BLOG
August 30, 2021
While this subject was fascinating and had me locked in from just the title, I found this a struggle to read. The research is there. The history is laid out and discrepancies touched upon. The facts as shown are very interesting. However, that being said, the writing is lackluster and tedious. It didn't flow well at all. At least not for me. It was hard to even want to pick this up and continue on.
If this is a subject that interests you, don't let my lack of enthusiasm persuade you to pass it up. This may be one that wows you as it has so many other readers.
I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a review copy. All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.
If this is a subject that interests you, don't let my lack of enthusiasm persuade you to pass it up. This may be one that wows you as it has so many other readers.
I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a review copy. All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.
May 11, 2022
This one was an eye opening read. As this author has readers questioning what we know about Viking women. And what influences our view of them. That the modern view we have that most likely comes from a period of time after the Viking age. And it is more than likely wrong. That those graves that archeologist and anthropologist thought were slightly smaller male warriors because they were buried with weapons might have actually been woman. New evidence shows that while many Viking women were the home makers they were women that did indeed go into battle. I learned a lot from this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 260 reviews