Binding: Hardcover
Description: In the tradition of Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra Brown lays to rest the hoary myth that Viking society was ruled by men and celebrates the dramatic lives of female Viking warriors Once again Brown brings Viking history to vivid unexpected life and in the process turns what we thought we knew about Norse culture on its head. Superb. Scott Weidensaul author of New York Times bestselling A World on the Wing" Magnificent. It captured me from the very first page." Pat Shipman author of The Invaders In 2017, DN a 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 imagine her life and times showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined. Nancy Marie Brown uses science to link the Birka warrior whom she names Hervor to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond. She imagines her life 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 law saga poetry and myth carry weapons. These women brag As heroes we were widely known with keen spears we cut blood from bone. In this compelling narrative Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield - maids to vivid life.
Title: The Real Valkyrie The Hidden History Of Viking Warrior Women
Author(s): Brown Nancy Marie
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Barcode: 9781250200846
Pages: 336 Pages
Language: English
Publication Date: 8/31/2021
Category: British & Irish History