Female Viking Warriors

[Vincent Butler]

Interesting to have it confirmed.

I always assumed they had female warriors anyhow. The pre-christian germanic cultures have too many 'shield maidens' as opposed to damsels in distress that I'd have no doubt that there'd be woman warriors as well. Myths tend to say more about the society them come from and their ideals. Boudicca though of a different culture and time is a good example of a celtic warrior woman, it'd be no stretch to assume the the germanic/scandinavian warrior cultures had the same prior to adopting Christianity.
Don't forget that Freyja was also a goddess of war and received half the dead of battles. The other half went to Valhalla.


I've never thought it as prolific as portrayed in TV dramatizations such as 'Vikings' and 'The Last Kingdom' do.

Probably not as common as some media portrayals, but I would not be surprised if they had some. I would have to read it again, but I have read "Egil's Saga" (I was given the book The Sagas of Icelanders several years ago) and don't remember anything about female warriors in it, so it was probably not the norm. Much of the Saga takes place outside of Iceland, and much is in Scandinavia. Also, outside of the deities, there is not much mention of them in the Prose Edda. Then again, maybe the other Sagas mention them, I have only read the first.

Good points, though, guys about the roles of the females in Norse mythology and their part with battles, especially Freyja. My question is, what does Freyja want with them? Is she creating her own army? Aha! She is planning on seizing power after Odin's army gets destroyed and he killed at Ragnarok!