Lagertha, according to legend, was a Viking ruler and shield-maiden from what is now Norway, and the onetime wife of the famous Viking Ragnar Lodbrok. Her tale was recorded by the chronicler Saxo in the 12th century.
Thanks to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, we know of a legendary female Viking known as either Lagertha or Ladgerda.
This has brought forward the question of whether or not the individual was originally from Birka, or if she had settled there afterwards. Controversially, the conclusion of the study was that "the individual in grave Bj 581 is the first confirmed female high-ranking Viking warrior".
Astrid. Astrid was a popular name in Viking times and is still in widespread use today. It's a favourite name amongst Scandinavian royalty, which included Princess Astrid of Sweden, who went onto become Queen of Belgium, and Princess Astrid of Norway.
Controversy surrounds interpretation of 1000-year-old grave. Last week, archaeologists reported that a Viking buried with a sword, ax, spear, and two shields—first discovered in the 1880s and long thought to be a man—was, in fact, a woman, making her the first known high-ranking female Viking warrior.
– The sagas
The sagas tell that women did go on some of the Viking expeditions. The most notorious and frightening of these long distance travellers were Freydis, the daughter of Erik the Red. She initiated one of the Viking expeditions to Vinland.
Women tended to marry between the ages of 12 and 15, and families negotiated to arrange those marriages, but the woman usually had a say in the arrangement. If a woman wanted a divorce, she had to call witnesses to her home and marriage bed, and declare in front of them that she had divorced her husband.
Lagertha. Perhaps the most well known of all the Viking warrior women of Norse sagas, Lagertha is most recognisable as the wife of Ragnar Lödbrook [portrayed by Katherine Winnick in Vikings]. But the story of Lagertha is a little different to the farmer turned shield maiden we see on the show.
By the age of 16, a Viking boy could be sent off to war. Vikings didn't have family names. Instead, boys and girls usually took their father's, or sometimes mother's, first name as a surname and added “son” or “dottir” (daughter).
His wife Ljufvina was a princess of Mongolian descent and despite her dark skin and unusual looks, she reigned as queen over the Norsemen at Karmsundet. Hjor and Ljufvina had two sons: the twins Hamund (Håmund) and Geirmund. They, too, had dark skin and were therefore nicknamed Heljarskinn; the “Black-Skinned”.
Who is queen at the end of Vikings? In season six, part B, fans discovered how Ingrid had been a witch, who called on the gods to help her get revenge on Erik (Eric Johnson). Viewers are keen to know why Ingrid became Queen of Kattegat in the final moments of the series.
Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, an Arab lawyer and diplomat from Baghdad who encountered the men of Scandinavia in his travels, wrote that Vikings treated their female chattel as sex slaves. If a slave died, he added, “they leave him there as food for the dogs and the birds.”
Ragnar Lothbrok
Arguably the most famous Viking warrior of them all, not least for his role as the leading protagonist in Vikings, the History Channel's popular drama.
Erik the Red's reputation is probably one of the most bloodthirsty among all of the Vikings. The son of Thorvald, Erik is chiefly remembered for being the Viking who founded the first settlement in Greenland.
Elskan, elskan mín, also ástin/ástin mín = My love, my darling. Mín-ending adds some weight to the word, but it can also be used to berate someone and can even sound patronizing.
A shield-maiden (Old Norse: skjaldmær [ˈskjɑldˌmɛːz̠]) was a female warrior from Scandinavian folklore and mythology.
For this point in history, however, Viking women enjoyed a high degree of social freedom. They could own property, ask for a divorce if not treated properly, and they shared responsibility for running farms and homesteads with their menfolk. They were also protected by law from a range of unwanted male attention.
war·rior·ess. |ərə̇s. plural -es. : a female warrior.
But there is absolutely no hard evidence that women trained or served as regular warriors in the Viking Age. Valkyries were an object of the imagination, creatures of fantasy rooted in the experience of male warriors. War was certainly a part of Viking life, but women warriors must be classed as Viking legend.
Sagas and runic inscriptions show that families were formed by monogamous marriages. A man may have had relationships, and children, with several women, but when he died, only one wife was acknowledged.
There is no record of Vikings sharing their wives.
If anything, the available evidence suggests that Viking men of high status often had several female partners apart from their wives. This left low-ranking Viking men at a disadvantage when securing partners for themselves.
The faces of men and women in the Viking Age were more alike than they are today. The women's faces were more masculine than women's today, with prominent brow ridges. On the other hand, the Viking man's appearance was more feminine than that of men today, with a less prominent jaw and brow ridges.