In addition to possible examples of female warriors identified through grave goods, powerful females are also represented within Viking Age textual sources, specifically the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems. The most explicit of these mentions are of valkyries, or females who serve the Norse God Odin to guide dead souls to the hall of Odin, or Valhalla. While overtly warriors, it is important to note that these were also supernatural beings (Price et al. 2019)—an idea that will be explored later on in this project. One example of valkyries emerges within the story of The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane: “King Hogni had a daughter called Sigrun. She was a valkyrie and rode through the sky and over the sea. She was Svava reborn” (trans. Terry 1990).
The existence of the Valkyries in the text also may extend to material findings of the Viking Age. In 2012, amateur archeologists found a small figurine near Hårby in western Fyn, Denmark. The figurine is constructed from gilded silver, as well as decorated with black niello inlays. The figurine has a height of 3.4 cm and is believed to be a pendant, given the loophole behind the head of the figure depicted.
Figure from Hårby, DK.
Gilt silver with niello inlay.
H 3.4 cm.
(source: NMC)
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