Ashield-maiden (Old Norse:skjaldmær[ˈskjɑldˌmæːr]) was a femalewarrior fromNordic folklore andNorse mythology.
The termskjaldmær most often shows up inlegendary sagas such asHervarar saga ok Heiðreks. However, female warriors are also mentioned in the Latin workGesta Danorum.[1] Both the legendary sagas andGesta Danorum were written after theViking Age and are considered fictional. Earlier reports of fighting women occur in some Roman sources fromlate antiquity.[2] They are often associated with the mythicalValkyries, which may have inspired the shield-maidens.[3] They may have also been inspired by accounts ofAmazons.
The term "shield-maiden" is acalque ofskjaldmær. Since Old Norse has no word that directly translates to warrior, but ratherdrengr,rekkr, andseggr can all refer to male warriors, andbragnar can mean warriors, it is problematic to say that the term meant female warrior to Old Norse speakers. Judith Jesch researched the word in an attempt to find its origin. While she found that it was used to describe Amazons as well as women warriors in the sagas, typically from the East, she found no conclusive evidence that it dates to the Viking Age, and suggests that it may have entered Old Norse in the 13th century. Additionally, the term is found in the name of a ship and the nickname of a poet.
In modern English, it can refer to a generic female warrior, but is also used to refer specifically to a type of character that appears in legendary sagas. Confusingly, it is sometimes used to refer to hypothetical female warriors in the Viking Age. Jesch argues against this usage in academic works to avoid confusion between textual and literal shield-maidens. The term is also used in modern English as a synonym for 'valkyrie'. Indeed,Brynhildr, a valkyrie, describes herself as a shield-maiden in theVǫlsunga saga. However, the text was composed in the 13th century, and not in the Viking Age. In the Viking Age, valkyries served drinks inValhalla and chose the dead in battle, but were not warriors in the same way as shield-maidens in the sagas.[1]
Examples of shield-maidens mentioned by name in the Norse sagas include Brynhildr of theVǫlsunga saga,Hervor inHervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Brynhildr of theBósa saga ok Herrauðs, and the Swedish princess Thornbjǫrg inHrólfs saga Gautrekssonar. Princess Hed, Visna,Lagertha andVeborg are female warriors named inGesta Danorum.
Two shield-maidens appear inHervarar saga. The first of these Hervors was known to have taken up typically masculine roles early in her childhood and often raided travelers in the woods dressed as a man. Later in her life, she claimed the cursed swordTyrfing from her father's burial site and became a seafaring raider. She eventually settled and married. Her granddaughter was also named Hervor and commanded forces against attackingHuns. Although the saga remarks on her bravery she is mortally wounded by enemy forces and dies on the battlefield.[4]
Saxo Grammaticus[5] reported that women fought on the side of theDanes at theBattle of Brávellir in the year 750:
Now out of the town of Sle, under the captainsHetha (Heid) and Wisna, with Hakon Cut-cheek came Tummi the Sailmaker. On these captains, who had the bodies of women, nature bestowed the souls of men.Webiorg was also inspired with the same spirit, and was attended by Bo (Bui) Bramason and Brat the Jute, thirsting for war.
ScholarsJudith Jesch andJenny Jochens speculate that shield-maidens' often grim fates or their sudden return to typically female roles is a testament to their role as figures of both male and female fantasy as well as emblematic of the danger of abandoning gender roles.[citation needed]
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Brynhildr of theVǫlsunga saga, along with her rival in love,Guðrún Gjúkadóttir, provides an example of how a shield-maiden compares to more conventional aristocratic womanhood in the sagas. Brynhildr is chiefly concerned with honour, much like a male warrior. When she ends up married toGuðrún's brotherGunnarr instead ofSigurðr, the man she intended to marry, Brynhildr speaks a verse comparing the courage of the two men:[6]
Sigurd foughtthe dragon
And that afterward will be
Forgotten by no one
While men still live.
Yet your brother
Neither dared
To ride into the fire
Nor to leap across it.
Brynhildr is married to Gunnarr and not Sigurðr because of deceit and trickery, including a potion of forgetfulness given to Sigurðr so he forgets his previous relationship with her.[7] Brynhildr is upset not only for the loss of Sigurðr, but also for the dishonesty involved. Similar to her male counterparts, the shield-maiden prefers to do things straightforwardly, without the deception considered stereotypically feminine in much of medieval literature. She enacts her vengeance directly, resulting in the deaths of herself, Sigurðr, and Sigurð's son by Guðrún. By killing the child, she demonstrates an understanding of feud and filial responsibility; if he lived, the boy would grow up to take vengeance on Brynhildr's family.
Guðrún shares a similar concern about family ties, but typically does not act on it immediately. She is more inclined to incite her male relatives to action than take up arms herself. Guðrún is no shield-maiden, and Brynhildr mocks her for this, saying, "Only ask what is best for you to know. That is suitable for noble women. And it is easy to be satisfied while everything happens according to your desires."[7] In her later marriages, however, she is willing to kill her children, burn down a hall, and send her other sons to avenge the murder of her daughter,Svanhildr. In the world of the sagas, women can be both honorable and remorseless, much like the male heroes.[citation needed]
Much of the study of shield-maidens focuses on them as a literary phenomenon. However, literary shield-maidens have long been seen by some as evidence of historical female warriors in the Viking Age. In the early 1900s a female weapon grave was found in Nordre Kjølen and labeled a shield-maiden. Shield-maidens however were not studied in depth until textual scholars began to examine the issue. Præstgaard Andersen, Jesch and Jochens all began to examine the textual sources.[8]Neil Price, argues that they existed.[9][10] Some scholars, such as professorJudith Jesch, have cited a lack of evidence for trained or regular female warriors.[11]
Graves of female settlers containing weapons have been uncovered, but scholars do not agree how these should be interpreted.[12] Graves in England andchemical analysis of the remains from the period ofViking activity in the British Isles suggested a somewhat equal distribution of men and women, suggesting husbands took wives, while some of the women were under the burial.[13][14]
In a tie-in special to the TV seriesVikings, Neil Price showed that a 10th-centuryBirka grave Bj 581, excavated in the 1870s inBirka and containing many weapons and the bones of two horses, turned out to be the grave of a woman upon bone analysis by Anna Kjellström.[9] In 2017, DNA analysis confirmed that the person was female,[15] the so-called "Birka female Viking warrior".
Roman sources occasionally mention women fighting among theGermanic peoples they faced; however, such reports are rare, andHermann Reichert writes that fighting women were probably exceptional, uncommon cases rather than the norm.[2]
There are historical attestations thatViking Age women took part in warfare. TheByzantine historianJohn Skylitzes records that women fought in battle whenSviatoslav I of Kiev attacked the Byzantines inBulgaria in 971.[16] When theVarangians (not to be confused with the ByzantineVarangian Guard) had suffered a defeat in theSiege of Dorostolon, the victors were stunned to discover armed women among the fallen warriors.[16]
WhenLeif Erikson's pregnant half-sisterFreydís Eiríksdóttir was inVinland, she is reported to have taken up a sword and, bare-breasted, scared away the attackingSkrælings.[16] The fight is recounted in theGreenland saga, which does not explicitly refer to Freydís as a shield-maiden.[17]
Female warriors inspired by the Norse sagas are portrayed in numerous works ofhistorical andfantasy fiction, including prominently in such works as the 2013 TV seriesVikings. The show depictsLagertha (played byKatheryn Winnick) as the greatest shield-maiden in the world.[18] In the TV showBeforeigners Alfhildr Enginnsdottir (played byKrista Kosonen) and Urd (played by Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir) are shield-maidens, who fought alongsideThorir Hund againstOlaf II of Norway. Alfhildr later came to modern day Norway through a time hole and now works as a police inspector.
Explaining the inclusion of a female Viking warrior protagonist in the video gameAssassin's Creed Valhalla, the game's historical advisor Thierry Noël said, "The archaeological sources are highly debated on that specific issue. But (...) it was part of [the Norse] conception of the world. Sagas and myths from Norse society are full of tough female characters and warriors. It was part of their idea of the world, that women and men are equally formidable in battle".[19] The game's main character can be a male or female (choice of gender at game start) named Eivor Varinsson/Varinsdottir who is the leader of the Raven Clan alongside their adoptive brother Sigurd Styrbjornsson. However, canonically the character is female and known as Eivor Varinsdottir, a shield-maiden. A shield-maiden is depicted in the 2022 filmThe Northman.
While female warriors are a staple of fantasy fiction, they are not often referred to as shield-maidens. Some who are includeÉowyn inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings[20] and Thorgil inNancy Farmer'sThe Sea of Trolls trilogy.
The gender-role inversion in Arbo's painting does not last for long: later in the film, Éowyn takes the same position as the shield maiden Hervor in the painting, lying on a field strewn with dead bodies, where her brother, Éomer, finds her. The colors in Arbo's painting are the golds, reds, yellows, and blues found in Rohan in the film, down to the white of the steed that, in the painting, has survived its rider.
