Vikings are popularly depicted as brutish, blood thirsty warriors who conquered and terrorized much of the European continent. Television series, such as Vikings, and popular culture depictions, such as Thor, are driving interest in Vikings, but very little attention, both scholarly and popularly, has been paid to Viking women. Today's blog post is dedicated to discussing the roles of women in Viking culture in order to demonstrate their active role in the Viking society and culture.
The Vikings existed in the modern countries of Scandinavia in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark of northern Europe between 700-1200 AD. Vikikings are characterized as seafarers who conquered much of Europe, which is true, but they had a much more complex culture and lifestyle than that. They were avid farmers and fisherman who has complex social organizations made up of specialized workers (ranging from merchants to craftsman), monarchs, distinctive social classes, as well as slaves. A system of taxation existed among Vikings, and it may have been a driving force for their desire to conquer new lands, which was driven out of a need to get necessary supplies for the groups' survival.
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| Viking Women served in domestic roles in Viking culture, but they had the autonomy to choose what career they wanted to pursue... |
The majority of scholarly work on Vikings has focused on men despite the central role that female gods played in Pagan Norse mythology, but more recently scholar have begun looking into the roles of females in Viking culture. It appears that women had somewhat equal social standing in Viking culture, as well as played a central role in community activities. Women were involved in building structures both domestically as well as while raiding, had their choice of profession they pursued, had the right to own property, and were responsible for conflict mediation. The central role that most women seemed to occupy was that of wife and mother, but these women had the option of initiating a divorce if proper grounds were met. If this happened women retained any and all property they brought into and gained during the tenure of the marriage. Mothers received custody of young children, but custody of older children was shared between both parents.
Recently, renewed attention has focused on the role of women in Viking culture. A number of women have been found in graves that contain weapons, leading to the question of whether or not women were warriors themselves. Women warriors play central roles in Viking mythos as Valkyries are women who road out to battle to return fallen warriors to Valhalla, the preferred Viking afterlife. Several engravings and art pieces also support the notion of women as warriors as women have been depicted in these roles. At the present time it is unclear if women (or men) were specifically warriors as grave goods cannot 100% conclusively demonstrate that, but the grave good and other evidence taken together does seem to strongly suggest that Viking women could be and were serving as warriors and conquerors alongside men.
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| ...such as being Shield Maidens, or warriors. |
Vikings are popularly depicted as barbarians, but they had complex social organizations with unique cultural attributes. Women were a large part of that society and culture, serving in various roles that were not clearly understood until recently. Both women and men in Viking culture served their roles that allowed for the survival and expansion of their culture, leaving a memorable mark among modern cultures.
Bibliography
Adam, J. 2014. “The Lives of Women in the Viking Age: The Role of Critical Feminist and Historical Assessment.” University Research Paper. http://wgst.athabascau.ca/awards/broberts/forms/Jessica.pdf
Holcomb, KM. 2015. “Pulling the Strings: The Influential Power of Women in Viking Age Iceland.” Thesis. Department of History. Western Oregon University. http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=his
Holloway, A. 2014. “Research Suggests Viking Women Accompanied Warriors on Overseas Missions.” Ancient Origins. http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/research-suggests-viking-women-accompanied-warriors-overseas-missions-002045
Jesch, J. 2014. “Viking Women, Warriors, and Valkyries.” The British Museum. https://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/04/19/viking-women-warriors-and-valkyries/
Larson, C. 2012. “Viking Social Structure and Gender Roles in Scandinavia Based on Burials & Grave Goods.” Bachelor Thesis. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
McLeod, S. 2011. “Warriors and Women: The Sex Ratio of Norse Migrants to Eastern England Up to 900 AD.” Early Medieval Europe 19: 332-353.
Sawyer, B. 1998. “Women in Viking Age Scandinavia.” Academia.edu.
https://www.academia.edu/12462598/Women_in_Viking-Age_Scandinavia_or_who_were_the_shieldmaidens_?auto=download
22 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this. It is interesting to think that in a time period where my mind thought women were inferior to men that there was a society where that wasn't the case. Also as a woman with kids who has been divorced for a legit reason it would be nice to have set parameters such as they had nowadays. Would be a lot better than these horrendous court battles we now drag our families through.
This was fascinating to read. It is nice to see that Viking women may not have been the weak beings that they are often thought as. It was interesting to read how the family dynamic worked when it came to the division of labor and divorce.
Samantha Bond
Anth 101 Sec 3002
Clearly, then Viking Warrior women had the right to have a career, land, fight, etc. These women had the opportunity to do everything a men could do, that is impressing because even in this days in some countries they do not have that opportunity. The different of beliefs from countries or cultures apply here. Some countries or culture do not let the women to work or fight just stay in the house for domestic things. But in Viking culture back in the days they send women to war and gave them more opportunities.
Before reading this I never considered how vikings were depicted in modern culture - specifically movies. They appear to be extremely aggressive, which they were but they also understood the vital role women could play in society. Their appreciation for women was high compared to other societies and I don't think they're given enough credit for it.
I always keep telling myself that women are always stronger and are capable of things. Physically and mentally. Reading this made me think hard on this subject. I cannot say that women are completely stronger than men but they are vital to society and they play an role in society. This was a good read.
Caylynn Lam Yuen
Anth101
SummerSession2016
This is a very interesting topic. It is especially interesting to consider the role of women in Viking culture since from a cursory glance, it seems to be such a masculine culture. The Viking culture's focus on warfare and conquering makes it seem as if it would be a culture that only valued very masculine traits. It is surprising to hear then that it was in this culture in which women had some autonomy. All at a time when most women in the world had very little power over their lives.
Claire Jennings-Bledsoe
This posting is incredibly interesting to me. I have often wondered "who, and what", the Vikings were. To me, the Viking women have always appeared to be powerful in so many ways, and always beautiful. As stated in the blog posting, it is true that most of these women are portrayed as barbarian, however, I believe that their role is simply much more intense than women's roles today. There are very few women who would work in trades that require hard labor, etc. whereas these women were perfectly accepting to this idea. This posting has been helpful, and allowed me to better understand the Viking culture a bit more.
Andrea Clustka
Summer 2016
Anthropology 101
The way this world is today, you wouldn't ever think that woman was capable of doing what they did now, only because now days it's always about the men.
Aaliyah Caldwell
I’ve always like Viking culture but never really learned much about except that they were fierce warriors and their mythology I’m happy that you posted this awesome article and I always just assumed the women of the Vikings just did the normal work while the warriors were out doing their thing I didn’t really know that there were female Vikings and always thought that they were a nomad type of culture moving from one place to the next really interesting read.
I always had wondered what women in viking cultures did but I never cared enough to research and figure out but thank you for answering my question with this post.
I've actually been interested in Viking culture after I first saw "How to Train Your Dragon" for the first time. I found it interesting that the females of the movie seemed to have as much respect as the males. I've read that female Vikings could forgo marriage to protect their villages at times. I found the concept of female warriors in that culture to be interesting, as the battles are said to have been brutal, and several ancient societies didn't believe that women were capable of that.
This is a informative article on Viking women. They in fact are very overlooked because I personally didn't even know they exist. It is true when you hear viking you typically picture an aggressive, barbaric male with a beard, armor and a helmet with horns on both sides. This article explains that the culture is much more than the violent depiction we interpret from tv shows and childhood memories such as "Dave the Barbarian."
Vikings are something you always hear about but when you here about it you hear that they are "savages" who come to pillage your town and take your women and booze. To read this article and find out that though they may have participated in those acts it was more to them than just that.
After reading this post, its strange to read that women were capable of doing so many things back in viking times because in today's society women who do hard labor jobs are looked down upon and seen as being deviance because today's society have labeled women as being stay-at-home moms and that they should be taken care of by their husbands. -Brianne Pickett
I find the power that women are accused of having in these Viking communities nearly unbelievable. It is strange to think that people we thought of as savages could have more respect and rights for women that "civil'izations have today.
I'm glad to hear that women were capable of doing so many things because today's society make women seem like they are worthless and cant do anything on their own.
Very intersting article. I've neve?r heard about viking before.I think it's cool that women can do stuff like this. How do you feel about a female warrior or Shield Maidens.
-Daisha Benton
I generally had pondered what ladies in viking societies did yet I never sufficiently minded to research and make sense of yet thank you for noting my question with this post.
To hear these women had this much power is beyond me. It's amazing how our generation today degrades women and do not follow in Vikings footsteps.
It is nice to see how women played a key role in this part of history. Women are empowered and are seen as the weak links in society in this modern day. Although, women can do anything they put their minds too just like anyone else. They also hold the cradle of life as we as men cannot have children without a strong woman.
The world we live in today would make you think women didn't participate in such things. they make it as if women were not worthy enough for things like this.But after reading this article, I'm happy because women have always been strong and always will be.
I like how the womens jobs were just as important as a male's job.Women today are looked at sideways if they have a "mans" job. Examples of this would be a plumber,construction worker or even a police officer. This article makes me want to research the vikings women a little bit more to see more awesome things they are known for.
-Jasmine Busby
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