The Hidden Lives of Viking Women

Archaeological and Historical Perspectives

Michèle Hayeur Smith, Alexandra Sanmark

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9798888571873
• Subtopic: Fashion Design
• Index: Social Sciences

Analyzes the lives, roles, and experiences of Viking women, highlighting their societal contributions through interdisciplinary perspectives.

This edited volume brings together an international group of scholars to address the lives, roles, myths, mythology, and lived experiences of Viking women as well as the impacts of change on women during the turbulent period of the Viking Age. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, this is a book dedicated to the lesser-known aspects of women’s lives as active members of society. It provides an innovative way of bringing together work from archaeological, anthropological, historical, and literary perspectives to address questions about women in trade, in war, in magic, in the household and activities that provided women with power and respect in their communities.

Table of contents

• The Hidden Lives of Viking Women
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 The hidden lives of Viking Age women: Introduction
• 2 Aspects of violence connected to women in the Old Norse legal systems
• 3 Migrants, conquerors, settlers: Viking women in Britain
• 4 Women in trade and exchange
• 5 Women as partners – gender balance and co-operation in the Viking Age household
• 6 Choosing the hero: Drink and the institutionalisation of heroism
• 7 The housewife and cult leader FriðgerðrÞorðardóttir in Viking Age Iceland1
• 8 The Vǫlva’s toolkit: Viking Age ritual specialists and the tools of their trade
• 9 Women’s textile magic in Viking Age Iceland