Female Viking warriors prove that gender roles are not set in stone

The Romans found the fact that both Celts and Germanic tribes seemed to have  female warriors disturbing. After all, women were weak and vulnerable and not supposed to be able to fight like that.

This is how gender stereotypes survive: Proof of them being wrong is presented as an outlier, or – better yet – something only the perverted barbarians may practice.

Even Scandinavian historians have doubted the existence of Viking female warriors. Remains found in warrior graves were defined as male, given that only males could be warriors. 

Until recently, that is. Researchers now agree that the ancient Birka skeleton, found in a 10th-century Viking warrior tomb, did belong to a woman with two X chromosomes.

This confirms what we have been told in the Viking sagas: That women could be “shieldmaidens” fighting alongside their men. The Birka grave also tells us that they could be warrior leaders.

This means that the depictions of shieldmaidens (skjoldmøy or skjaldmær)  in the TV series Vikings may be more realistic than many have  believed.

As a Norwegian I am reminded of discussions I have had with American friends on the concepts of masculinity and femininity. Some of them stick to the idea that “real women” are feminine and “real men” are masculine. Still, I grew up in Viking country with women who by those standards were masculine, with short hair and practical clothing. It is hard to drag the boats on land with a lifted little finger. The idea that women can fight was never alien to me.

Viking figurine from Odense museum. Is this a Viking woman or a supernatural Valkyrie? 

Here is Norse specialist Jackson Crawford discussing the Medieval story about the The Shieldmaiden Hervor.