#Scandinavian history

[queenfredegund]

Women in History Month (insp) | Week 1: Leading Women

[wonder-worker]

Seal of Ingeborg Håkonsdatter | Daughter of King Håkon V of Norway and Eufemia of Rügen | Wife of Duke Erik Magnusson and Knut Porse | Mother of King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden and Norway | Duchess of Södermanland, Halland, and Estonia | The first female de jure and de facto regent of Sweden

Original in the Hesburgh Library | Image taken from The Queens and Royal Women of Sweden, C. 970–1330: Their Lives, Power, and Legacy (Caroline Wilhelmsson)

[city-of-ladies]

“In discussing all these diverse images of armed and actively fighting women of Old Norse literature, and in critically acknowledging that many of the accounts that concern them were created several centuries after the events, it is easy to relegate them all to the sphere of fiction and to regard them as having no basis in historical reality whatsoever. But if we turn to other medieval sources, created independently of Old Norse literary tradition and stemming from different cultural milieus, we will find within them very similar patterns of the occasional female participation in martial activities. The two case studies reviewed above – namely that of Æthelflæd of Mercia and of the women who fought in the siege of Dorostolon – strongly support the idea that there could be some reality behind the stories of armed women that survive in Old Norse literature. Also other historical women of the Viking Age, especially those who stemmed from the highest echelons of society, were occasionally compelled to engage in endeavours associated with warfare and would oversee military operations. For instance, the great Princess Olga, who was the wife of Igor of Kiev, led her army against the Slavic tribe of Derevlians, devised her own impressive strategies and through all these initiatives gained recognition among her companions, regardless of her biological sex.

It thus feels highly unlikely that all these medieval accounts, including the famed descriptions of female warriors in Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum, were only inspired by legends of the ancient Amazons and served as curiosa and literary embellishments to entertain the audience. As we shall see in the following chapters of this book, archaeological finds from across Scandinavia provide support for the idea that some Viking Age women did wield weapons and in one way or another found their place in the martial sphere.”

Women and Weapons in the Viking World: Amazons of the North, Leszek Gardela

[loki-was-framed]

This is a public service announcement.

[axololtls]

The ruins of Åhus Borg, a castle / fort built circa year 1000-1100.

[chaoswizardry]

As per tradition, I fucked up the family gingerbread house, by decorating my side with ridiculous iconography. This year I am retelling one of my favourite stories, in anachronistic Scanish petroglyphs!

Merry Christmas, fellas

The glyphs tells the brief story of the battle of Fotwik 1134, in the style of carvings found around Scania. Featuring a classic Scanish wagon rider with dog, as well as two footprints

[er-cryptid]

Typhus in Saga-Era Iceland

Patreon

[the-mighty-fenrir]

Raven ❄️

In Germanic-Scandinavian mythology, the raven is a revered bird, images of which adorned the banners of Viking ships. The ancient Germans deliberately left those killed in battle unburied so that their flesh could be eaten by the messengers of God - wolves and ravens.

[newhistorybooks]

Beyond the epic poem of Beowulf and Grendel’s unnamed monster of a mother is the world of real Viking women, who had names and actual histories. Thanks to Heather Pringle, these Viking women live again in all their glory: no longer overlooked and forgotten but remembered for who they truly were.

[timemessedmeup]

Oslo, then named Christiana.

[rabbitcruiser]

The Kalmar Union was formed under the rule of Margaret I of Denmark on June 17, 1397.

[wonder-worker]

"Ælfgifu of Northampton appears, in both medieval sources and modern scholarship, to be a figure who exists mainly on the fringes of the authors’ interests. She lived in decades for which we have very sparse source material and, unlike Cnut’s second wife, Emma of Normandy, never found her anonymous encomiast. There has been in recent decades significant interest in Emma, and yet to my knowledge, no single publication devoted to Ælfgifu has appeared. This is not the fault of the evidence. Few sources mention her, but those that do often do so in context which are intriguing and suggest a powerful and ruthless Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who played a number of significant roles in the English and Scandinavian political scenes. [In particular, Ælfgifu weathered the disgrace of her powerful Mercian family in 1006], survived a career in the administrations of Denmark and Norway, and re-emerged in England in order to [successfully] secure the throne for her second son."

— Timothy Bolton, "Ælfgifu of Northampton: Cnut the Great's Other Woman", Nottingham Medieval Studies LI (2007)

[city-of-ladies]

“The archaeological, iconographic and textual sources thoroughly assessed in this book show unequivocally that the idea of the armed woman was not at all foreign to the population of the Viking world, and that such women warriors may have really existed. Some perhaps died during their first encounter with the enemy, others might have lived to see more than just one battle, while others yet might have engaged in armed conflict in indirect or symbolic ways, devising strategies, orchestrating the construction of defensive architecture, performing magic spells intended to influence the outcome of the fight and so on. 

Regardless of the different scenarios of their lives, this does not make such women in any way lesser than their male Viking counterparts. What is remarkable about them, however, is that these same women probably engaged in a whole plethora of other activities, which ranged from performing various domestic chores, raising children and taking care of animals to craftsworking, trading and travelling. In trying to reconstruct their lives, let us therefore abstain from seeing the armed women of the past merely as ‘warriors’, ‘sorceresses’ or ‘functional sons’, but let us embrace them as humans with all their wonderful complexities and contradictions.”

Women and Weapons in the Viking World: Amazons of the North, Leszek Gardela

[loki-was-framed]

Today's Old Norse Word in English:

scathe

verb

to harm or injure, especially by fire.

Old Norse: skaða, to injure.

[magicae]

In the 1600s to 1800s, the poorest of the poor in Sweden would live in backstugor (slope cottages). These were built on unusable land, often built into hillsides or rocky areas. The people living there didn't lease nor own the land, and only owned the building in itself. Often most of the inside area of the cottage would be used for crafting equipment such as a loom.

[image ID in alt text]

1. Lima parish, Dalarna, ~1920. (G. Renström, Nordiska museet) 2. Klevshult, Småland, 1890-1910. (A. Steijertz, Nordiska museet) 3. Torsås parish, Småland, 1903 (J. E. Thorin, Nordiska museet) 4. Östmark, Värmland, august 1916 (N. Keyland, Nordiska museet) 5. Väne-Ryrs parish, Älvsborg, 1911 (O. Jonsson, Vänersborgs museum) 6. Halleböle, Högby parish, unknown (unknown, Kalmar läns museum)