Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World

276 Pages·2020·5.821 MB·English

by  Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir

Valkyrie
ii
Valkyrie

The Women of the
Viking World
Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, 2020
Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. x constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
Cover design: Terry Woodley
Cover image © Ash Thayer
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-7883-1477-0
ePDF: 978-1-3501-3712-7
eBook: 978-1-3501-3710-3
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Contents

List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements x
Language and pronunciation xiii
Introduction: ‘Valkyries decide who dies or lives’ 1
1 Infancy and childhood 19
2 Teenage girls 37
3 Adulthood, married life and divorce 73
4 Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood 117
5 Widows 145
6 Old age and death 169
Epilogue 197
Further reading 201
Notes 205
Bibliography 227
Index 243
vi
Illustrations
Cover image
Kari Kvittingen Djukastein at the Viking fortress Trelleborg,
Denmark. Photo: Ash Thayer. By kind permission.
Images in text
Figure A A picture stone found in Dynna, Gran, Southern Norway.
Photo: Ove Holst. Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway,
www.unimus.no. CC BY-SA 4.0. 53
Figure B Silver figurine found in a cremation grave in Sibble, Grödinge,
Södermanland, Sweden. Swedish History Museum, CC BY-SA
2.0. 69
Figure C ‘Valkyrie’ figurine carrying a sword and shield, found in Hårby,
Funen, Denmark (C 39227). Photo: Arnold Mikkelsen. National
Museum of Denmark. CC BY-SA 2.0. 70
Figure D Copy of a silver pendant which was a part of an extravagant
set of woman’s jewellery excavated in Aska, Södermanland,
Sweden. Swedish History Museum. CC BY-SA 2.0. 90
Figure E Copy of a silver mount found in Klinta, Köping, Öland,
Sweden. A figure in a trailing dress carrying a drinking horn.
Photo: Swedish History Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0. 101
Figure F Picture stone from Hunninge, Klinte Parish, Gotland, Sweden,
now in Gotland Museum, Visby. Photo: Harald Faith-Ell, 1933.
Swedish National Heritage Board. Public domain. 102
viii Illustrations
Figure G Runestone U 29 in Hillersjö, Uppland, Sweden. Photo: Ofeig.
CC BY-SA 3.0. 146
Colour plates
Figure 1 Flateyjarbók (the Book of Flatey), Reykjavík, Árni Magnússon
Institute for Icelandic Studies, GKS 1005 fol. Photo: Jóhanna
Ólafsdóttir. By kind permission.
Figure 2 A necklace with over one hundred beads and nineteen
fish-shaped pendants, found in a girl’s grave in Norrkvie,
Grötlingbo, Gotland, Sweden. Photo: Gabriel Hildebrand.
Swedish History Museum. CC BY-SA 2.0
Figure 3 The Saga Oseberg ship. Photo: Ole Harald Flåten. Oseberg
Vikingarv and Ole Harald Flåten. By kind permission.
Figure 4 Norsemen’s Frøya. The warrior woman Frøya, played by Silje

Torp. From the Norwegian TV comedy Norsemen (NRK and
Netflix, 2017–). By permission.
Figure 5 Stora Hammars stone I, Lärbro parish, Gotland, featuring
several panels with mythological motifs. Photo: Bengt
A. Lundberg/Riksantikvarieämbetet. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Figure 6 Gilded silver pendants with niello inlay found in Tissø,
Kalmergården, Zealand, Denmark. Photo: Roberto Fortuna and
Kira Ursem. National Museum of Denmark. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Figure 7 A watercolour image by Mary Storm reconstructing what the
tapestry found in the Oseberg ship might originally have looked
like. Photo: Eirik Irgens Johnsen. Museum of Cultural History,
Oslo, Norway, www.unimus.no. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Figure 8 Drawing by Sofie Krafft of one of the fragments of the Oseberg
tapestry. Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway,
www.unimus.no. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Figure 9 Hunnestad stone, DR 284 from the Hunnestad monument.
Photo: Hedning. CC BY-SA 3.0.