Page 70 - All About History 58 - 2017 UK

Daughters of Freyja
Freyja apparently liked love poetry and
was seen as a romantic deity
Women
Discover five famous women from the
Viking Age
Queen of Dublin
After the deaths of her husband, the Norse king
of Dublin, and her son, Aud had her own ship
constructed and she left the British Isles for Iceland.
As a widow with control over her own resources, she
provided land for the slaves that had accompanied her, whom she
then turned into freedmen. She is often credited with introducing
Christianity to Iceland.
Queen
The remains of two women, one in her 50s and
one in her 20s, were discovered inside the Oseberg
burial ship, Norway. The richest Viking burial to
be uncovered, it implies that one of the women was
extremely wealthy and powerful. It has been suggested that this
person could be Queen Åsa of Agder, who is associated with
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Oseberg.
Literary character
Guðrún is a celebrated and beautiful fictional
character who features in the Icelandic Laxdœla Saga.
She marries four times, divorcing her first husband
after he wears a low-cut top she made for him just so
that she could accuse him of wearing feminine clothing and separate
from him. Her other three husbands tragically die and she becomes
the first nun in Iceland.
Queen of Denmark
Queen Thyre was the wife of the first recognised king
of Denmark, Gorm the Old, and the mother of Harald
Bluetooth. While her husband was away at battle,
Queen Thyre ruled in his place, earning the admiration of
her people. According to legend, she was responsible for the building
of the Danevirke fortification, although it predates her lifetime as it
was actually started in the Nordic Iron Age.
Shield maiden
Lagertha’s legendary, largely fictional, tale was
depicted by 12th-century Danish historian Saxo
Grammaticus. When the invading King Frø of Sweden
killed the Norwegian King Siward, Siward’s grandson
Ragnar swore revenge. Lagertha, who had been forced into a
brothel alongside Siward’s female relatives by Frø, assisted Ragnar,
impressing him with her courage and military skill.
to support their affairs while women continued to
look to her for matters on love and fertility.
a result, it soon became illegal under the new
Freyja was said to enjoy love poetry and, as
religion as Christians began to target the free-
willed goddess and her popularity. For this reason,
it is surprising to learn that the majority of Norse
use of patriarchal oppression.
For Norse women, Christianity actually offered
women actually embraced Christianity, despite its
them some really appealing options that paganism
could not. Most notably, it denounced infanticide
— a practice that was used frequently among the
Vikings, especially towards female infants.
It has been suggested that this is the reason
for the lack of female remains discovered in
Scandinavia that date back to the Viking Age, with
the exception of Birka, Sweden, where the number
of female graves outnumbers the men’s. For any
Norse mother, the thought of a religion protecting
her children from harm would have surely
encouraged her conversion.
Another reason that women accepted
Christianity so easily was its promise to give them
a better afterlife. Valhalla, the hall of Odin, was
not accessible to women after death as it was the
destination for those who had died in battle.
There is no explicit evidence that clarifies where
Norse women were expected to go once they
had died. However, going by the graves of Norse
women, who were usually buried with jewellery
and household tools, it can be assumed that they
did expect to enter the afterlife. It left them with
one option: the realm of Hel.
Hel was a dark, dreary and depressing place,
not exactly the dream place for women to spend
their afterlife. It is hardly any wonder that women
turned to Christianity in the hope that one day
they would reach something better.
Speaking of the afterlife, it is interesting to note
The left hand clasping the breast suggests
that this could be Freyja that although she was a deity of stereotypically
Legend had it that Freyja travelled in a
chariot pulled by two cats