![]() There are few books out there which concentrate on this topic, and so this is a welcome update of Judith Jesch's Women in the Viking Age, which is now about 30 years old. Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir's Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World provides an overview of the lives of women in the Viking Age. In the process, this fascinating book uncovers the reality behind the myths and legends to reveal the dynamic, diverse lives of Viking women. The women in these stories take full part in the power struggles and upheavals in their communities, for better or worse.ĭrawing on the latest historical and archaeological evidence, Valkyrie introduces readers to the dramatic and fascinating texts recorded in medieval Iceland, a culture able to imagine women in all kinds of roles carrying power, not just in this world, but pulling the strings in the other-world, too. Rather than their death being futile, it is their destiny and good fortune, determined by divine beings. ![]() ![]() Viking myths about valkyries attempt to elevate the banality of war – to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies of young men, glorious and worthwhile. They protect some, but guide spears, arrows and sword blades into the bodies of others. ![]() Valkyries: the female supernatural beings that choose who dies and who lives on the battlefield. ![]()
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