“There were once women in Denmark who dressed themselves to look like men
and spent almost every minute cultivating soldier’s skills;
They put toughness before allure, aimed at conflicts instead of kisses, tasted blood, not lips,
sought the clash of arms rather than the arm’s embrace,
fitted to weapons hands which should have been weaving,
desired not the couch but the kill,
and those they could have appeased with looks they attack with lances.”
This is how 12th century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus describes female warriors. The Frankish Annals, written in the late 8th to early 9th century, mentions Viking raids led by women. Various Norse Sagas, written in the 12th to 13th century, also confirms the existence of female warrior – the shield maidens.
Despite this, it is still a debated concept and many believe them to be just a myth.
At the end of the 19th century, a Viking grave was excavated in the old Viking city Birka in Sweden. There lay a warrior, surrounded by weapons and buried with horses, which indicated a man of importance. The grave also included a board game which suggested an officer, someone with tactical knowledge. The grave was long held as an example of how a Viking Age warrior grave typically looked.
In 2017, DNA samples showed that the warrior in the grave was, in fact, a woman. And she is not the only one. Around 30 graves have been found in Sweden, Norway and Denmark that is believed to belong to shield maidens.
In Norway, a female warrior was found in a grave, surrounded by weapons. Her skeleton showed evidence of battle wounds, such as a skull wound likely caused by a sword. A reconstruction of the shield maidens face was made in 2019, pictured above.
Although many historians now accept that women were able to be warriors during the Viking Age, it was probably not a common occupation, but rather a few women from the higher societal classes that could gain a military position due to her qualifications.
Read about famous shield maidens here!
Sources:
https://popularhistoria.se/sveriges-historia/vikingatiden/att-birkakrigaren-ar-en-kvinna-uppror