Tag: Lagertha

For those of you who haven’t already seen it, Norsemen is a Netflix hit comedy set in the Viking age. Think Monty Python meets the Vikings. Michael Scott meets Ragnar Lothbrok. It has us laughing our assicles off.

Frøya is Norsemen’s resident shieldmaiden and we love her. While her costuming is anything but Viking, her spirit and her sass is what draws us to her.

There are many accounts of warrior women in the Viking sagas, however, they are only legend. There is much evidence to confirm the existence of male warriors in the Viking age through burials and grave goods, however, there has been little archaeological evidence to suggest that shieldmaidens ever existed.

A grave found in Birka in the 1880s, assumed to be the remains of a Viking male, has in fact been identified as the remains of a warrior women using genome testing.  These results have proven controversial however, as the lack of the male (y) chromosome is the only proof needed.

Did the Vikings really hand out oath rings, as depicted on the hit tv show, Vikings? It was previously believed that oath rings were connected to the Icelandic sagas and were used for paying fealty in court (National Museum of Denmark).