In the 1800s, a Viking burial site was unearthed in Birka, Sweden. The burial included a Viking ship, weaponry, game pieces, horses and riding accessories, and other tools. The grave was documented as that of a Viking warrior, as evidenced by the contents of the burial. As Brown shares in her book, most “sexing” (that is, determination of whether a skeleton is male or female) throughout the history of archaeology has been sexing by metal. That is to say, where weapons are found, it is deemed to be a male, where jewelry is found, female. There are a number of reasons why the field of archaeology has used this approach even as DNA testing has emerged, and Brown provides an interesting overview of this process.

In 2017, DNA analysis was performed on the bones found in Birka and led to an unexpected and shocking discovery: they were bones of a female. The Real Valkyrie explores what this means, what has been hidden in plain sight all along, and imagines the possibilities of the life lived so long ago.

Using her history of the Icelandic sagas, Brown takes an innovative approach to her book. Taking real life stories, cultural knowledge, and details from the Viking past, she creates a potential life story for this woman, who she names Hervor, after a character in a saga. There are real details folded in. Evaluation of the skeleton provided information on where the Viking woman lived at various points in her life. Aging of the bones placed her within a relatively narrow window of time, and her age at death was 30-40 years old. Melding all of that together, Brown paints a reality-based, fictional story that brings the life of a 10th century Viking woman to life. The start of each chapter includes this fictionalized story of Hervor before shifting into a more common non-fiction exploration of the society at the time, spanning politics, warfare, burial mechanisms, clothing, and more.



Throughout the entire book, the undercurrent is an exploration of the gender roles during the time of the Vikings, roles that we learn were not nearly defined as they would be in more modern times. Brown also seeks out information concerning when the story changed, when Vikings started to be portrayed as gender-divided with men as warriors and women as housebound stereotypes. Two major milestones in this evolution can be laid at the feet of Christianity, which morphed the social roles to fit religious requirements, and also during the Victorian Era, when defined gender roles were at their peak.

In her books, Brown is interested in exploring what we think we know of history and how it compares to what may have been the true story before future centuries created myths and tales to reinforce their own views. There was so much in this book that was eye-opening. For example, there was gender fluidity - beyond just the blurred gender roles (blurred, that is, by modern standards) - where some women were referred to as “king” instead of “queen” and where some women took on male names and personas for periods of time in their lives. Homosexuality was also acceptable, as long as it was not part of an act of adultery, which was not acceptable for anyone.

What was also eye-opening to me is the significant role modern bias has played in how Vikings have been viewed; how, for example, graves were assumed to contain men if they met certain qualifications. It was assumed that women would not have been warriors in spite of ample evidence to the contrary, for example, in the sagas. And, lending the title to the book itself, archaeologists have assumed that the women warriors depicted in Viking artwork and stories must have been supernatural Valkyries because that seemed more likely than the fact that they immortalized actual warrior women.

Brown’s book is well-researched and based in cultural documents; she also uses literary license to explore the ‘what if’ of history. How many other ‘facts’ of history are layered upon initial biased perspectives? How much are we a product of our own time and own biases even in spite of having knowledge to the contrary? Nothing Brown said about the Victorian Era or the role of the church in gender definition was new to me, but these perspectives are deeply ingrained in us in a way that makes it harder to see what is staring us right in the face.

For anyone interested in the Vikings and their society at large or the history of women, this is a fascinating read that will make you think about the world a little more critically.

(<b>Note:</b> I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

In 1889, at the site of the Viking trading center in Birka, Sweden, a long-dead warrior’s burial chamber was found, complete with an impressive array of weapons and valuables. However, a far greater discovery would occur well over 100 years after her initial unearthing when DNA analysis showed her to be a woman.

It’s this mysterious and intriguing figure who takes center stage in "The Real Valkyrie". Based upon what has been scientifically documented from modern analysis of her remains and the artifacts that the warrior was discovered with, plus a combination of Viking literature and other tools from the historical record author Nancy Marie Brown goes on to construct a story of what this woman’s life might have been like. And as she weaves her tale from chapter to chapter, she touches upon many aspects of life during the Viking era and ends up revealing a world that, amongst many aspects, was a surprisingly diverse one amongst its various warbands, free towns, and kingdoms, and possessed considerable cosmopolitan streaks thanks to a surprisingly large international reach through both raiding and trading that stretched from Ireland to the Silk Road. However, central and most important is Brown’s revelations of a Viking world where the women and men were by no means contained to strict gender roles, especially when it came to picking up a sword.

To say the least, the new perspective that the author provides sends something of a battering ram crashing into long-held misconceptions, and I for one could not possibly be more for it. Brown’s creatively realistic imagining of the kind of life that the Birka warrior might have lived finally gives a voice to what seems to be quite a sizable number of similar women who for hundreds of years have long been written off as mere legend or fantasy. And by showing the Viking era to be far more complex than what traditional historical lenses have made it out to be, she also reveals a time and culture that frankly is all far more fascinating than most of us have been able to realize until now.. "The Real Valkyrie" is strongly recommended to anyone currently on the hunt for an eye-opening read.

Well researched and thought out. Tracing the life of Hervor helped me to connect to the information, as personal narratives are always compelling. I especially appreciated the emphasis on how society's biases can color our historiography and view of history. I can definitely use this in my World History and Gender Studies classes.

I received the ARC in exchange for honest review.
This was thought provoking and a well researched. I enjoyed goinf into detail about gender roles and the fluidity of these roles during Viking times. While the story of Hervor is fictional, the research and conclusions drawn are logical and quite possible. This is an excellent addition to the topic and an much needed take on women during the period.

I originally thought this book was going to be a historical fiction, but it appeared to have more fact than fiction as it showed how the author had experience connecting historical perspectives along with the storytelling about Hervor's life. I think many of us have preconceived ideas of Viking society and I found this book to be refreshing in how it educates the reader to a new perspective while giving engaging depth to the information. If you enjoy historical writing, this book is certainly going to interest you - but even for those who don't believe themselves to be avid history buffs but enjoy learning even a little bit more about historical societies will find this a worthwhile read!

I'm one of those people who love to read anything history but one of my favorite types is those that show a realistic female presence. Instead of making them ALWAYS housewives, the people look at actual history and science and figure out the truth. This book solidified my dislike of organized religion but that's a rant for another day. I love how the author wove the sagas with factual based interpretations of this Shield-Maid's life. Brown was given a base knowledge of age, locations throughout her life, and what this warrior was buried with and created a realistic human. The way this is written is very accessible as well. My primary focus in history is generally Russian way past the Viking Age but this still made complete sense to me without further research. I know how intimidating history books can be because you don't know where to start your research. I found this to be an interesting and I think it could be a great start to Viking Age research. This would give you the perspective that you can't trust history to show you the women.

I received an ebook from Netgalley for an honest review.

This book is an amazing weave of well-researched and compelling facts with engrossing fiction. I truly love the focus on strong and powerful Viking women. Hervor's story will stick with me long after reading this book. Truly a must read!

I don't read enough on the Norse and this book proves it. In a word, it was WONDERFUL to read. I was entirely taken in by this story, much of it I had no clue about. This is going to be a nice addition to my shelf.

A Tenth Century grave found in 1878, in Birka, Sweden had all of the weaponry and artifacts, including the bones of two horses, that confirmed it was a Viking warrior who was laid to rest. For over 100 years, the presumption was of a strong MALE warrior. In 2017, DNA results proved that the bones were FEMALE. After attacks on the presumption that the woman had ever been a warrior, the DNA testing team defended themselves in 2019 stating that “... at least one Viking Age woman adopted a professional warrior lifestyle....” and “[W]e would be very surprised if she was alone in the Viking world.”

Author Nancy Marie Brown has taken the evidence at hand to make a very convincing argument that the woman warrior buried in Birka, Sweden was not an anomaly at all, but one of many that Christianized Scandinavian lore has glossed over. In the narrative about this unnamed Viking woman, Brown names her Hervor and creates a possible story of Hervor’s life based upon what is known about the Viking world of the tenth century.

Even though my parents were very interested in the Vikings and I was exposed to Viking/Scandinavian history my entire life, I learned a tremendous amount from this book. I did not know that many of the Vikings dressed themselves in flamboyant silks from trading with the east, nor did I know about Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings or about Queen Olga of Kyiv. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Viking history or Women’s Studies.

A big thank you to author Nancy Marie Brown, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this book in advance in return for an honest review!

I cannot get enough of history books, I adore learning about cultures and lives before our own...and who doesn't love learning about Vikings!? This book revolves around one specific Viking though, a woman buried in grave Bj581. With each chapter we learn more about her life and the lives of those around her at the time she was alive (around the late 900s).

Nancy Marie Brown is an amazing writer. I was captivated by her use of "fictional" story to portray the woman buried in Bj581 and what could have been her life, while then writing facts about how life was at that time. It is amazing to me how much information has been changed later on in order to suit the patriarchy. Women were not just kept at home and worrying about children, and this book is a wonderful example of what lives women DID live during this time period.

I thought I knew a lot about Vikings, but this book will definitely smash the stereotypes and prove how life as a Viking was not what we see in movies. As a woman myself, I found reading this empowering and inspiring! Hearing about what women could do back then as well as Brown herself being able to uncover all this data to this day, really showed how life was not just all men doing things out and about. Women had lives too, and very FULL lives. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a history buff, anyone who wants to know a TRUE glimpse into the lives of Vikings, as well as to any woman who wants to be inspired by a really badass Viking woman! 10/10 !

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review
. A thought provoking mix of fact and fiction concerning the female role in Viking history. I always enjoy books on Viking history and this was no exception.

I found this book very interesting and neat! Lots of historical evidence about the real warrior women of the Viking/Nordic cultures. It shows just how important these figures were to the culture and how this empowered the women of the Viking times.

The Real Valkyrie mixes history with fictional conjecture to tell the story of Hervor, a Viking age woman warrior. The discovery of the warrior jn a grave at Birka was long thought to be a prime example of a traditional viking warrior burial. However, with modern DNA sequencing, history has to rewritten as the warrior was discovered to be a woman and not a man as originally thought.

Nancy Marie Brown takes us on a fictional, yet historically based journey of this warrior woman and shows us what life was like during the 10th century in Scandinavia and beyond.

What I found most interesting was Brown’s focus on the East Way. We have all heard the Viking raids on British and Irish monasteries, but Vikings traveling the trade routes and settling parts of modern day Russia are less commonly told tales.

Definitely a must read for fans of Norse History and Womens Studies.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free advanced reader’s ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book takes you on a ride that you never want to get off of. Nancy Marie Brown takes history and weaves it to beautifully tell the story of Hervor, the Birka warrior. It takes everything we thought we knew about the Vikings and turns it upside down. Though Hervor's life wasn't a very long one, the tales that are twisted into what her life may have looked like and the adventures she could have had, are simply addicting. Hervor meets other amazing women during her travels in this book and with each new meeting you crave more. These stories make you want to dive deeper into the history we thought we knew. It makes you question everything you've learned in history. Fiction based in facts at its absolute best.

History as we know it collides with real Valkyrie's in this meticulously crafted, well-researched dive into the everyday lives of women in the Viking Age.

"They were farmers, poets, engineers, artists - but their place in history was carved by their swords."

I am thoroughly impressed. This dudette knows her Vikings.

In this deep analysis of women in the Viking Age, Brown paints the lives of not just our mysterious Hervor, but of every woman, seen and unseen, throughout Nordic history. I learned so much about everyday life in this brutal world - the kind of stuff that most historians I've seen or read don't really dive into. For example, she takes you through. not just the wardrobes of what a queen or a mother might wear, all the way down to a warrior, servant, and slave.

While I didn't necessarily agree wholeheartedly with a few of her takes on Christianity, I did appreciate the pagan/Norse perspective she brought to the table. I would venture to say that it wasn't the core beliefs that were faulty, but the man-made aspects, i.e. the church that caused the fault and disrupted the placement of equality between men and women.

A lot of the misconstrued beliefs about Christianity and the justifications for male members of the Christian church oppressing women can be sourced back to the King James translation, which distorted the original Hebrew text in order to fit their narrative of what they (primarily the King) deigned to be "suitable social constructs".

I'm sure this isn't the first sign of behavior like this in history (given that the KJV version of the bible was devised in 1611) of men contorting ancient, sacred words to fit their own faulty narrative. I'm not a major religious person, but it is something to think about.

This is me getting off my soapbox now.

Another thing I loved was Brown's way of painting a visceral picture; she takes her What If? historian questions, and absolutely runs with them - making it not only an all-consuming fever dream for Viking nerds but an educational one.

All in all, I really liked this, and while it was dense with information, I honestly loved it. Every question I ever had about the women in the Viking Age was answered.

Big thank you to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC copy of this book!

Book Breakdown

Writing Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Quality Research: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Enjoyment Level: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

「 Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆」

This is an examination of found bones and old pomes to follow the idea of Viking warrior woman. Lots of evidence is examined and the interpretation is grounded on the evidence. Thankfully no ancient aliens.

This was more of Nancy's take on what a Valkyrie was during 913-980 A.D.. She goes on to tell of several other females such as Lagertha played by the artist Katheryn Winnick in the History Channel television series Vikings. But she has given our skeleton the name Hervor. Where she uses some of the sagas depicting Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings as her model for a young valkyrie. Hervor quit Gunnhild's court and became a Viking. By analyzing her teeth, they found that she had traveled to England or Ireland and also had traveled to Kyiv. She may have been aquatinted with the Red Girl in Ireland and Queen Olga in Kyiv. She uses poems to conjure up some family heirlooms such as the famous Flaming Sword. She uses the Saga of Hervor penned by an Icelandic lawyer named Haukur Erlendsson from 1302 and 1310. Many of the tales are only guesses by Nancy and she has books and references she uses at the end of her tale. This wasn't like any book I've read under the heading of mystery and thrillers more of a history book. Worth the read.

Starting with the confirmation that a warrior buried with full warrior signifiers at Birka was a woman, Brown constructs a possible life for her based on her grave goods, historical information data, and written accounts of the period. I loved the detail and information about the world this woman lived in, and how she might have lived. Brown does an excellent job--as usual--in bringing the Viking world and its trading partners to live. My only reservation is about the lack of discussion of transgender identities during the period--Brown discusses how pronouns and signifiers like "King" changed as women took on certain roles, but not whether there is any evidence of trans identities as we understand them today. Perhaps there is simply no information currently known about transmen and transwomen in Viking like, but I'd wager that there were, and am curious about the lives they may have lived. Overall, though, this is a rich and fascinating book, and I recommend it highly.

I just reviewed The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown. #TheRealValkyrie #NetGalley
https://www.netgalley.com/book/209294/review/769118
This is a great book that sheds light on women, and the roles they filled within Viking/Norse society. Also, how Victorian views on women are of great importance to the storyline. Women were Warriors, Women fought in combat, and Women were more than mere house ivies-or "key keepers" as mentioned in the book. Throughout history we have thought of women as the keepers of the home, and men as the ones to protect. This book discusses eye-opening discoveries that will forever change our view of women. This book is great for history buffs, and budding anthropologists.

Earlier translations of the Eddas and other Norse historical documents were done by white men of a society where women were subjugated wherever possible and refused literacy, therefore they A$$umed that ALL warriors were male (they even gave Bouddica a hard time). Archaeology could be forgiven their bias to some degree because (as the author points out) skeletons and some grave goods degrade over a millennium. The author has done extensive due diligence into existing works and findings and presented the gathered information and conclusions in a clear, understandable way that the reader can easily enjoy as well as comprehend. I confess to bias because I am female and Pop came to the US from Norway in the early twentieth century. I highly recommend this book and plan to buy a print copy for my local library (and nag my out-of-state kids to do the same).
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

There is so much we don't know about the Viking culture. The author does her best to give her educated opinion on how things may have been during this time. I am hooked on this era & read everything I can get my hands on. While this is a topic that is intensely interesting to me, I could only read this book in short sittings, otherwise I would start to nod off. There is so much information & at times it is written in a way that kept me fully engaged, yet in other situations, I struggled to stay interested.

The author provided her own historical fiction shorts throughout the entire book telling how she feels the female Birka warrior may have lived. She created these stories based on the information she could find from that time. A great majority of the information is taken from the Sagas & as the author points out, they are written at a later date, so it is hard to know what can be interpreted as fact or fantasy.

The author discusses much about the history of the time to various tools used, where resources for tools likely came from, the slave trade, foods likely eaten & even the spinning of wool & flax for textiles & sails. No book about the Viking era is complete without also discussing the Viking boats of the time & the author includes examples of many different ships from this time. How religion wormed it's way into the Viking's God's was also fascinating. I found it especially interesting to learn of how the church came up with new laws & rules. If memory serves, one was that a man & woman must marry for life. At one time the church allowed for divorce. Another regarded sexuality or same sex. This wasn't always frowned upon, but then later became forbidden; a sin. In our modern age, it seems that in many ways our modern cultures are slowly undoing all of these sins aka rules the church came up with.

With all that I have already written, the meat of this book is the role the author believes woman played during this time. From what I have learned prior to reading this book, along with the additional knowledge I have gained here, I have to agree with the author's interpretations. Some women were warriors & honored as such. Divorce was allowed. Women could own lands & become kings. That's not a typo, I wrote "Kings." Women were not property, unless they were slaves & anyone could become a slave, even a King. And anyone, even a slave, could become a King. I expect most women had more traditional roles, but the author points out that the misguided belief that women stayed home while the men went to war is mostly due to the Victorian era's interpretation of the Viking era. For some reason, this view has stuck. There is of course, also the church which said a woman was the property of her husband (or father) & a woman had no rights, could not own land, etc. Naturally the church is going to paint a skewed picture of the Viking era. Women were to be seen, not heard. It also doesn't help that the Viking's didn't write down their history. It was all verbal & we all know what happens when stories get repeated down the line over time. This left the monks to write the first telling of the Vikings & if you know even a little about your Viking history, you know they painted a terrible picture of the Vikings.

Overall, even though I could only take this in small amounts, therefore it took much longer to read than other books, I am very grateful to have read it. If you have any interest in the Viking era this is a book you really don't want to miss.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

Considers historical and archaeological evidence to bring Viking women to life. This book honors the women who are not often featured in history. Insightful and educational.

This book is an absolutely thrilling read. I am of Swedish descent, and have always been interested in Viking history. I find history in general fascinating. Especially the fun that comes from realizing that almost everything we know was painted over by the Victorians. Why should the Viking history be any different? 

The text of this work is engaging. It draws you into the history in surprising ways. The entire story of the Viking women is completely rewritten here by science and data. We learn that Vikings did not keep their women stuck at home to tend the children, but rather that Viking women were heroes and adventurers just as the men. It is an absolutely riveting read. I highly recommend it.

I received this book for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

I chose this book to request because I found the subject of The Valkyrie so interesting. And this book definitely did not disappoint. The history of it is just so gripping.

This book is a combination of history, archeology and fiction that, together, give a fresh perspective on the lives of female Vikings. It was occasionally repetitive, but always informative and interesting.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in return for my unbiased review.

I was so intrigued when I saw the subject of this book and my read did not disappoint. I learned so much about Viking culture and so much about women in that culture. This book is a mix of history, analysis, and speculation that keeps the individual found at the burial site in sharp focus. The author is detailed with regards to historical resources but also very upfront when it comes to her own speculation and theories. It was easy to keep those sorted in my reading. It does shine a light on how much of history is translated and filtered though the male gaze.

The writing is engaging. The portions that are speculative read like a novel and are riveting. The historical context is interesting and the analysis of it kept my attention.

There is so much we don't know about this culture. So many unanswered questions. I think anyone with an interest in Vikings, women in history, warrior culture will find this a great read.

I highly recommend it. Five stars for the writing. I gave it a 4.5 overall as the speculative viewpoint somewhat dilutes the historical foundation. It greatly enlivened the story however, so I would not change a thing about it. The discoveries are eye-opening and fascinating in their own right. This book gives them the intense scrutiny and attention they so well deserve and brings to the forefront the place of a woman in this culture., It leaves me with answers and even more questions.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and this is my honest review.

That the writer was able to craft a story that was part myth, part history and part complete speculation and make it as engaging and absorbing as she did is quite a testament to both her talent and the fascinating subject. There's a lot of artistic license here, but considering how much of the history may have been distorted simply due to gender norms of later dates, I think that's to be expected.

I can’t wait any longer to review this book. Nancy Marie Brown is that rarest of scholarly authors:: she has the ability to combine scholarship with imagination and storytelling. If this book doesn’t instantly become a bestseller, I’ll be very surprised.
I’m Scandinavian, so I have heard some of these tales throughout my life, but never the way Dr. Brown tells them. She has taken saga material from Snorri and other sources, and chosen from within them, a child, Hervor, to follow on her life’s journey. So each chapter opens with a bit of her story, Then she proceeds to add evidence that indeed women as well as men were Viking warriors.
She is not the first to suppose this. But, I believe, she has done perhaps the best job. Through her book, you can learn a great deal about Viking culture, as well as her premise that women were equal to men, There are many books about Vikings coming out in this present era. But when all is said and done, I believe The Real Valkyrie will stand the test of time and go on to be a classic for the ages.

First off I want to say a huge thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press , the author Nancy Marie Brown , and to NetGalley for letting me read and review it. While this looks like just a book the history of the Valkyrie as well as the vikings its also a mixture of their mythology which means you get the best of both worlds, and because of that its perfect for those who love history as well as mythology. The author has done an amazing job of bring both to life,so much so that she weaves the history and the mythology together that you actual just want to keep reading it page after page .

If you, like me, are deeply obsessed with mythology and feminism - pick up this book and add it to your shelves! In 2017, a DNA test revealed that a high ranking Viking warrior that had been found in a grave in Sweden, was in fact a woman. Nancy Marie Brown buries the myth that Vikings were a society ruled by men, and brings to light the fantastic and fascinating life of the Viking warrior women. Using science and history to link the found warrior to incredible women of history, this book is a fresh and exciting take on female warriors of yore.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for advance access to this title!

This was freaking amazing! At first it took me a bit to get into it, but once I did it was smooth sailing and I couldn't put it down.

Vikings and Valkyries - these two words can conjure up a lot of images, especially today with the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the real Vikings and Valkyries (real Valkyries?) were much more interesting, and although the Vikings we are referencing here were alive more than one thousand years ago. Even so, we're still learning about how they lived, worked, and fought. In 1878, in the Viking village of Birka, the bones of a Viking warrior were discovered. The figure was determined to be a warrior based on what had also been buried with the figure:

an axe blade, two spearheads, a two-edged sword, a clutch of arrows, their shafts embellished with silver thread, a long sax-knife in a bronze-ringed sheath, iron bosses for two round shields, a short-bladed knife, a whetstone, a set of game pieces (bundled in the lap), a large bronze bowl (much repaired), a comb, a snip of a silver coin, three traders’ weights, two stirrups, two bridles’ bits, and spikes to ride a horse on the ice, along with the bones of two horses, a stallion and a mare.
In 2017 the more fascinating discovery was made ... according to DNA testing, the Birka warrior was female.

Author Nancy Marie Brown takes this information and presents both a historical fiction account of what life might have been like for this Birka warrior (whom Brown names 'Hervor') as well as a very thorough exploration of what a Viking's life was like.

Brown posits that women as warriors in this time was not at all unusual and that it wasn't until Christianity came to the region (mid-900's) that a woman's role in society was looked upon differently.

In her narrative, Brown has Hervor traveling east in the Gulf of Finland and combines some Estonian mythology from this same time period. Brown writes:

Estonian folklore revolves around women, and while its pagan culture was warlike, women were not excluded from that facet of life.
...
The Estonian language ... like all Finnic languages, ... uses only one personal pronoun—no she, he, or it, just tema.
...
Estonian women and men wore identical jewelry—unlike in neighboring lands, where men, though gaudily bedecked, had their own jewelry styles. Likewise, weapons are found in up to 30 percent of female graves in tenth-century Estonia, along with nongendered objects like tools, implying that women had equal access to power.

In Estonian society, power was corporate. It resided, not in one individual, but in a council. The power of a single council member was limited—even if that councilor was the king or war leader. A charismatic war leader from a strong clan could persuade and encourage, but the decision to go to war rested with the council.

Nor could the council be co-opted by the men. Property, in Estonian society, was also collective; clan-based, it was passed down through the female line. According to a law recorded in the thirteenth century, when a man marries “he shall then let all his goods follow his woman. If he wishes to leave her, he will lose arable land and goods.” A man joined his wife’s family, which made daughters as valuable as sons—or more valuable. In folklore, the mother of an only son is derided as nearly childless. To raise her status, she must bear a daughter.

This clan-based society where power was shared and women were esteemed was confusing to the Christians like Snorri Sturluson and Saxo Grammaticus who wrote about it in the thirteenth century. The church disapproved of—and had worked hard to eradicate—such societies for hundreds of years. Man was meant to rule woman, Christianity taught. A single God-anointed king was meant to rule society.
This isn't just conjecture, but some solid research, and the 'discovery' that the Birka warrior was female would seem to lend itself to this Estonian clan culture. Brown makes a great case and I suspect that this will be common thinking soon.

My only problem with this book was that I noticed there was a list of illustrations in the back of the book, but my Advance Digital Review Copy did not include any illustrations.

Looking for a good book? The Real Valkyrie is a great non-fiction read by Nancy Marie Brown, which includes a little fiction narrative to help illustrate the idea that women warriors were common among the Vikings and that they were the true Valkyries ("pagan battle-goddesses with shield and sword").

I received a digital copy from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Informative, engrossing and extensively researched!

Birka, a Viking town located on an island outside of Stockholm, Sweden, is home to over 1000 Viking graves. One of the graves was excavated in 1878 and the contents led archeologists to believe it was the grave of a Viking warrior. It was presumed that the warrior was male until 2017.

"In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman."

What was this female warrior's life like?

Science and history collide in this book. The author has done extensive research using archelogy, history, and DNA in addition to poems, Nordic fables, and literature to show what life might have been like for women living in medieval times. Life was not easy back then and Viking women were tough as nails. Viking women carried weapons, they fought, they survived, they lived, they died. The writer informs readers in the beginning of the book that she is using both fact and fiction in this book. She gives the female Viking a name and imagines what her life was like, what did she experience, how she lived.

The author also looks at religion, how history is told, cultural influences and gender. History -How is it influenced? Who does the telling? How are the facts changed? How does religion affect history? How have society’s perception of women, changed how Viking woman have been thought of in history? Interesting things to consider while reading this book.

The author also mentions Lagertha, portrayed by Katheryn Winnick in the show Vikings. That show was the reason, I was interested in reading this book. I found this book to be fascinating, beautifully written and researched. I loved her take on what a female Viking's life might have looked like as she met other notable women during her life. The book is rich in detail and provides food for thought.

Interesting, powerful, and Riveting.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

If a History channel special could be found in book form, it would be The Real Valkyrie. Written with an opening vignette in each chapter, Brown takes us through the reconstructed world of a warrior woman, Hervor.

Based on an elaborate burial in Birka, Brown builds her argument that the actual Viking past, one in which men and women were equal, by teasing out the variety of Queens and warriors from the historical record. She proves that our modern bias that warriors could only be men comes from the Victorian lens in which the Vikings were initially ‘discovered’ archeologically.

Using DNA evidence coupled with modern readings of surviving sagas, Brown reveals the intricate role women actually played. They were just as often heroes, villains and adventurers as we’ve come to expect from their male counterparts.

Interspaced between factual reporting, Brown tries her hand at fiction, weaving small scenes of how she believes a warrior would have grown, trained and traveled. Brown very explicitly outlines whenever she deviates from the historical record. I enjoyed these scenes, as they brought life to the scant historical record that accompanies the era.

At times, the book delved too deeply into weaving methods or weapon design. But these details did aid the world building. Overall, the book achieves it’s aim - my view of the Viking world has shifted, to a hopefully more accurate view.

This was an interesting book. It is part history, part archaeology, and part historical fiction. The author begins each chapter with an excerpt from the story of Hervor, the name she assigned to the female warrior skeleton. These vignettes are based on Viking sagas and provide a fictionalized account of the life Hervor may have led. I found them enjoyable. They captured my attention and piqued my interest in the nonfictional content presented in the chapter. They also kept the book from becoming too dry while breaking up the extensive amount of factual information. This format was a very effective way to make history accessible to readers who are not necessarily historians.
This book is well-researched and very thorough. Anyone studying, or otherwise interested in, the Viking period would be delighted with the wealth of information presented in this book. It offers fascinating insights into the lives of Vikings and those with whom they interacted.
I particularly enjoyed the chapters which focused on textiles, clothing, dyes, and other forms of personal adornment. This is an area of personal interest, and I was very pleased that the author devoted considerable attention to this topic.
This book would make an excellent reading assignment for a university course on Vikings, the Dark Ages or European history. There is plenty of material here to spark academic discussion.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ACR in exchange for my honest review.

This is a must read for anyone interested in Viking women! Absolutely fascinating.

In the 1800s archeologists unearthed a Viking burial site in Sweden and originally concluded the grave to be for a man. In 2007 DNA tasted showed that the Viking was a woman, not a man, which greatly changed our views of Viking gender roles..This book explores the science behind the archeology in a way that will be of interest to anyone who likes knowing how archeologists work as well as the modern bias that caused such mistakes as the incorrect sexing of such burial sites.

However, this book uses the burial site to not only tell us what we discovered about this woman and how it changed our perspective on the Vikings, but gives us a fictional take on what her life may have looked like based on the findings. This leads to a mix of fiction and non-fiction that work well together to build the story surrounding this burial site to bring Hervor's story to life.

This book explores the gender roles of Vikings and how they changed over time thanks to thinks like the influence of Christianity. Norse myths are also explored, adding fun bits for those who love mythology and what it says about a culture. Really great red for anyone interested in the kind of lives Viking women lived.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very engaging read. I appreciated the weaving together of fact and fiction to provide a close-to-realistic-as-possible representation of a Viking-age woman. The depth of research that went into this book is evident when reading, and it adds an authoritative tone to the text overall. Added to that authoritative tone is that the Real Valkyrie is written by a woman, and really, that is most appropriate when it comes to writing about women of the past.

The Real Valkyrie is an engaging piece of scholarship, revisiting the history of Viking exploration, conquest, and culture. The book centers Viking women, showing their essential roles in Viking culture while exposing the flawed conventional narrative which relegates them to supportive domestic roles, or imaginary mythology, while minimizing Viking women's actual extensive participation in political leadership, military strategy, and armed combat. Brown's innovative method integrates occasional fictional extrapolation, with detailed presentation of scholarly research. The result is a readable, fascinating story which corrects historical inaccuracies we've inherited from Victorian anthropology, giving voice to the "real Valkyries" of European history.

Thank you Nancy Marie Brown for a well researched and thought out book. It's a thought provoking read that challenges gender rolls. What if is a powerful question and one that needs to be asked more often. Hervor's story is compelling. Thank you for stretching my mind!

This was an interesting and compelling read about the history of the Viking warriors and that the strongest were probably women. I read Captivating History's The Vikings, and it did not mention one word about Viking women warrior, which was disappointing. Glad I found this! You can tell the author is passionate about the subject and kept her facts and observations honest/genuine.

I liked this more than I thought I would and thought this was going to be dull AF, it was not. Told in a narrative fashion like Nathan Philbrick and Rob Chernow's nonfiction favorites.

Highly recommended for people interested in ancient and early history.

Thanks to Netgalley, Nancy Marie Brown and St Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 8/31/21

This is an object lesson in how our own prejudices and shortsightedness impacts our view of the historical record - even in light of compelling evidence to the contrary. This is a well researched and compelling history of the real women warriors of the viking era, whose histories have been effaced by historians of the recent past.

I absolutely loved this book! I’ve always had a fascination with the Viking history and this book is devoted to the Valkyrie... Viking Warrior Women!!! It is truly an enjoyable read and a well researched book for anyone with an interest in Viking history!

** Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review! **

#PamelaReads2021 #100BooksIn2021 #TheValkyrie #VikingWarriorWomen #NetGalley

Awesome, weed read!!! A Great peek into strong female culture of the past hidden or dismissed for a long time. A great read for Viking enthusiasts as well as those interested in the role of women in the past!!

This is a fascinating trip back in time. When watching the Viking TV series, I mostly assumed that the prevalent role that women played was exaggerated for a modern audience. Thanks to The Real Valkyrie, I now know that’s not the case. What we think about Vikings is mostly based on assumptions from the Victorian era, so that’s why female warriors were thought to be ficticious. Thanks to the latest scientific advances, it is now possible to figure out that the bodies in many warrior tombs are women. Using a one such burial, the author imagines what this real person was like, and how she lived. She names her Hervor, and combines the stories from sagas with historical facts to give us a complete idea of these women’s daily lives. From domestic environments to war, Brown writes in an easy-to-follow style. There is mythology, history, art and maybe a little too much detail in some places, like how they weaved their clothing. What an inspiring read for women!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ St. Martin's Press!

Quick: what do you imagine when you think of a Viking? Blond. Ox horns sticking out of metal helmets. Warriors. Male.

Much of that is wrong--at least, that's the case Nancy Marie Brown makes in The Real Vaklyrie, a paradigm-shifting look at late 10th-century Vikings.

The research at the base of Brown's book is surprising but not new. In 2017, archeologists investigating a trove of Viking burials at the site of Birka on an island west of Stockholm, found a remarkably preserved warrior's grave, which they labeled "Bj581."

Among the artifacts inside were a sword, a battle axe, and a gameboard. The surprise came when DNA from the skeleton was tested: the warrior was a Woman! (In fact, genetic testing would go on to identify female remains in about 40% of the warrior burials at Birka.

Brown stretches the word, "real," in her account of the warrior. In each chapter, she focuses on one element of the grave, mixes in research and archaeology, and sprinkles in details from the Nordic sagas to bring to life a warrior named Hervor, placing her at crucial sites of activity, which stretch from Dublin to the Orkney Islands, to mainland Norway and Sweden, then on to Estonia, the land of the Rus (Russia) and Kiev.

Each chapter begins with a fictional account of Hervor and closes with the evidence--both from the sagas and the science--behind Brown's characterization. To be honest, some of the research bogged down the story--I worked to get through the specifics of cloth weaving, for example, or the forging of a sword--but there's a point to the minutiae: total immersion in the life of a warrior woman at the height of the Viking Era.

As Hervor's voyages stretched ever wider, my interest grew: new perspectives on the far corners of Europe, populated by these viking raiders (but I repeat myself--one of my favorite lines of the book was "Vikings weren't a race, they were a job description").

I didn't come to The Real Valkyrie with a great knowledge of the Viking Era. I read the book, thanks to NetGalley, and I looked forward to the review I might write. So here it is: I left the reading of TRV with a wealth of new knowledge about Vikings, and a completely new way of thinking about who it was who really set wooden shields on the sides of ships, wore the funny helmets, and sailed the seas and rivers from Vinland to Kiev.

Nancy Marie Brown has done a wonderful job of investigating the mystery of the role that women played in Viking Age warfare. Using the remains of an uncovered warrior whom she names Hervor, Brown takes us through the Viking Age from the lens of this female warrior. In this world we see the standard gender roles that we assume were common for the time debunked as Brown shows almost all were equal in this time when speaking of gender.. Fans of the character Lagertha from The History Channel’s hit series Vikings will find it fascinating to read and see what it may have been like to be a woman and a warrior in the Viking Age and even see an anicdote on the real Lagertha herself. It is even more fascinating to see how the concept of “shield maidens” may have came into existence. Combining fascinating detective work with amazing scholarship I highly praise Brown’s ability to bring the real valkyries to life.

Is it history? Is it historical fiction? Whatever the classification, this book is wholly immersive and I cannot praise it enough. From pinpointing the sanitization of Viking women’s history (spoiler alert: it’s those darned Victorians) to spotlighting what the actual history may, in fact, be, this book is the best of both history and historical fiction; it transports the reader to a bygone era.

Highly, highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I really liked this book! It was informative and yet was written in an engaging way that kept me reading till the end. I will be recommending my library to purchase it. The imagining of the time period I thought was well done and kept my interest. I thought it was engrossing It really made me think about what a woman went through and I am always interested in books that celebrate the contribution of women through history. I remember hearing about the news in 2017 but didn't dig deeper. The combination of history and what it might have been like for a women in that time period. from the perspective of a woman of the time. I used to think that Valkyries were just a character in fantasy books that I had read. I am glad that I read this. There are other books out there that tell the stories of women in history and this is one that must be read. This is a book to include in any Women's History Month display!

It will surprise no one that everything we think we know about Vikings women dates back to those darn Victorians and their ability to completely Victorian-ize everything.

The island of Birka, not far from Stockholm, is home to a once-busy Viking village, meant to control trade routes around northern Scandinavia. It also happens to be home to hundreds of Viking graves. One grave in particular is of most interest to the author, that of a Viking warrior that was first excavated in 1878. Given the items recovered from the grave and the high-status burial provided, for over one hundred years it has been assumed (by dudes who could not conceive of any other option) that the Birka Warrior was male.

Not so, says the 2017 DNA test.

And from there the author is off and running on a fantastical journey across Europe, imagining what life must have been like for this warrior who lived over hundreds of years ago.

The author does a fantastic job using archaeology, history, and the Norse legends and sagas to bring to light a much more accurate picture of how Vikings women lived, fought, and died. In imagining what life might have been like for this warrior, to whom she gives the name Hervor, the author is able to shed more light on the women of the age who were far more independent than the Victorians would have you believe.

Using the many varieties of sources previously mentioned, the author constructs an example of what life might have been like for young Hervor. Each chapter begins with a segment of Hervor's "story" - a story which sees her cross paths with other formidable women of the age, from Queen Gunnhild to Queen Olga of Kyiv.

While the author has fictionalized what life might have been like for this Birka warrior, each chapter delves deeply into various aspects of life for the real Viking women who lived so long ago. There is extensive research here and the author clearly knows her stuff. The author's knowledge of the sagas and old Norse stories is a wonderful addition to the historical record.

I found this to be an intriguing work of creative nonfiction. The author alternates between an imagined biography of an individual from a real Viking burial with scholarly explanations based on the archaeological evidence and reading ''between the lines' of the Viking sagas. I found her assumptions compelling and the biography entertaining. The only reason I didn't it a full 5 stars is because I liked the character so much that I would have preferred to read more detail in the imagined biography.