Status Updates From The Northwomen: Untold Stor...

Just like how women had to step up and work factory and welding jobs Previously done by men before WWII, Viking women might have done the same thing when Viking men went out on raids, journeyed to far off lands, or went on scouting expeditions.

"The ancient religion of the North...provided key leadership opportunities for upper-class women. Freyja, for example, was known as an elite goddess who looked with favor on elite women in leadership positions in sacred cults honoring her. And these leadership positions brought public honor and respect."

"When the disparate pieces of evidence are taken together, the achievements of these women tell us something interesting: that gender roles in the Viking world were never as narrow and rigid as many researchers long imagined them to be. Some women refused to be bound by traditional thinking, breaking new ground and taking bold new steps."

"And as Scandinavians slowly embraced Christian beliefs, women lost a vital source of their influence and power in the North. Churches rose where sacred groves once stood...women were no longer permitted to perform blood sacrifices or perch on high seats...they confessed their sins and listened to the scolding voices of priests who viewed women as inferior beings."
Darn, Christians ruining everything! Lol

"As [Gudríd] prayed for the souls of others in the closing decades of the 1000s, the Viking Age itself, which had burned so brightly for more than three centuries in Scandinavia and in a host of Viking settlements to the east and west, was at last coming beginning to flicker and die. The days of Viking lords reclining on their high seats in massive timber great halls in the North...were winding down."

Indeed. Greenland didn't have the manpower to split between keeping its settlements and trade operational and sending expeditions to Vinland. Perhaps if this news had been brought to Iceland, Norway, and Denmark, there would've been more pressing motivation?
But, alas, the settlement didn't last very long and there were no explorations by the Vikings into the interior of North America or even the Great Lakes.

So, academics have known for quite some time that the Vikings had visited North America from The Vinland Sagas, but there was no archeological proof. It wasn't until 1961 that they found and published their proof.
Examples like this, the ruins of Troy, and Babylon lend credence to many legends. It's a pity that white/Christian/Western archeology tends to get more attention and funding, and others are dismissed.

Ah, here we go. The first indigenous people to arrive carried not weapons but furs and skins. They wanted the Viking weapons, but they didn't want to share that sort of technology with the natives.
But the second encounter was not as peaceful. The Vikings were pushed out of their protected encampment by warriors and into the woods, with one of the women fearlessly defiant against the attackers.

From the looks of things, the Viking explorers from Greenland had arrived in Newfoundland and stayed there for a year to make some new ships and temporary housing before sailing back to Greenland. There were no interactions with Native Americans. At least not yet.

"Today, we are fortunate enough to have accounts of the voyages that Erik's children and his extended family made to the northeastern shores of North America...known collectively as The Vinland Sagas."
Which, I believe, was adapted into a manga and anime. Might be worth a watch over Christmas.

I was wondering if the hunting of narwals for their horns was going to come up.

Erik the Red would certainly have to be a successful persuader if he wanted to get people to leave Iceland for Greenland. But I suppose the meager living of some of the poorer Icelanders would look for any opportunity to get out of their oppressive situation.

"But not everyone was satisfied with life in Iceland...By the second half of the 10th century, power and wealth were becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer chiefly families. This left little opportunity for some of Iceland's young settlers, whose families immigrated from Scandinavia to escape such an oppressive society...Instead, they spent their days eking out a meager living..."

Poor walruses. Hunted for their ivory.

There's a place in Iceland called "Icelandic Phallalogical Museum"! It displays several hundred penises! What?! Lmao!

Not only did Viking raids given female warriors an opportunity to earn wealth, glory, and fame in raiding and pillaging, but also providing opportunities for women to defend their homelands by commanding defenses and running the kingdom in the absence of the men.

A red-haired, Viking woman raider? That's an attractive combination. Apparently, the Irish thought so too, since they mentioned her lol!

"If there was one female Viking warrior,...were there others as well? And if so, where were those women buried?"
Those questions are the biggest criticisms to this idea too.

I was wondering if we were going to get an Amazon reference. The theory goes is that they come from Eurasia, particularly around the Black Sea near Ukraine. They were trained in horse archery, and this has been a tradition that has continued for countless generations. And now there has been hints that the Birka warrior woman may have adopted this style of fighting with evidence horses and archery in her burial.

"Could [the Birka warrior woman] have been transgender, gender fluid, or nonbinary? (The answer to the latter question is a resounding yes: each of those identities was entirely possible in the Viking world. But archeology and osteology...are generally unable to determine the gender identities of individuals who were buried long ago.)"
That is why artistic renderings and possessions are good indicators.

If you can't believe skeletal evidence, if you can't believe DNA evidence, then you're just a close-minded misogynist.

"In the view of many archeologists, the world those poets painted was no place for a woman.
Nevertheless, the sagas contain several stories of ancient warrior women."
Not the least of which were the Valkyries. Like, come on!

Ah, here we go. It's usually minor differences in the pelvis that show a difference between male and female.

"For more than 120 years, Stolpe's interpretation went unchallenged. But in 2014, a Swedish scientist with a reputation for cautious and thorough research stepped up to a lectern at an archeological conference in Stockholm and dropped a bombshell."
I love bombshells! It creates so much chaos and attention and interest!

So, this excavation of a Viking warrior's burial mound was determined that the occupant was male? Well, this was in 1877, so forensic analysis of skeletal remains, and which bones are attributed to sex, is not for a hundred years or more.

Now we are on the chapter of Viking warrior women. They've been in depicted in more modern shows, but just how accurate is that?

Princess Olga, the wife of Igor, had taken up the mantle of regent of Kiev and expanded her lands to take the Develians and others in order to secure trade between her and the Byzantines. When she succeeded, she converted to Christianity and became Saint Olga. Her sainthood seems to have overshadowed her historical actions, such as how she treated her enemies and economic rivals.

"According to one legend, [the Derevlians] tied [Igor] to two large saplings that they had bent to the ground, then let the trees go, tearing the Rus prince in half."
Oof, what a way to go.

The Byzantines still had Greek fire during this time. Despite their navy not being the best, this weapon was able to turn the tide of any naval battle.