Shield-Maiden

A shield-maiden (Old Norse: skjaldmær) was a warrior woman in Scandinavian folklore and mythology.

Shieldmaidens are frequently mentioned in sagas like Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks and in Gesta Danorum. They also appear in the stories of other Germanic peoples, including the Goths, Cimbri, and Marcomanni. The mythical Valkyries could have been based on such shieldmaidens.

Historical Existence of Shieldmaidens

The historical existence of shieldmaidens is debated. Recent research, including that of archaeologist Neil Price, suggests that they did exist. However, some scholars, such as Professor Judith Jesch, argue that there is no evidence for trained or regular female warriors.

Archaeological Evidence

Graves of female settlers with weapons have been found, but scholars disagree on how to interpret these findings. In the graves of Nordic settlers in England, chemical analysis of the remains showed a fairly even distribution of men and women, which suggests that women were involved in warfare and some were buried with their husbands.

A special episode of the TV series Vikings showed that a 10th-century grave excavated in Birka in the 1970s, which contained many weapons and the bones of two horses, was identified as a woman's grave after a bone analysis by Anna Kjellström. In 2017, a DNA analysis confirmed it as a woman’s grave, known as the Birka Viking Warrior. However, some, including Viking researcher Judith Jesch, consider this conclusion premature.

Historical Reports

There are historical accounts of women participating in warfare during the Viking Age. The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes reports that women fought in the battle when Sviatoslav I of Kiev attacked the Byzantines in Bulgaria in 971. The Varangians (not to be confused with the Byzantine Varangian Guard) suffered a devastating defeat at the siege of Dorostolon, and the victors were astonished to find armed women among the fallen warriors.

When Leif Erikson's pregnant half-sister, Freydís Eiríksdóttir, stayed in Vinland, she allegedly grabbed a sword and fiercely repelled the attacking Skrælingar. The story is told in the Grønland Saga, but Freydís is not explicitly called a shieldmaiden.

Saxo Grammaticus reports that shieldmaidens fought on the Danish side in the Battle of Brávellir in 750 AD:

"From the town of Sle came Tummi, the sailmaker, under the main captains Hetha (Heid) and Wisna with Hakon Cut-cheek. To these captains, who had the bodies of women, nature had given the souls of men."

Legendary Accounts

Examples of shieldmaidens mentioned by name in Norse sagas include:

• Brynhildr in the Vǫlsunga saga
• Hervor in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks
• The Swedish princess Thornbjǫrg in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar
• Princess Hed
• Visna
• Lagertha
• Veborg in Gesta Danorum

In some translations of the Hervarar-Saga, two shieldmaidens are mentioned. The first of these Hervors is known for taking on typically male roles since childhood and often disguised herself as a man to rob travelers in the woods. Later in life, she took the cursed sword Tyrfing from her father's grave and became a seafaring raider. Eventually, she settled down and married. Her granddaughter, also named Hervor, commanded troops against invading Huns. Though her bravery is highlighted, she is fatally wounded in battle by enemy forces.

Scholars Judith Jesch and Jenny Jochens theorize that the often grim fate of shieldmaidens or their sudden return to conventional female roles is evidence of their role as both male and female fantasy figures, symbolizing the danger of abandoning gender roles.

Brynhildr Buðladóttir and Guðrún Gjúkadóttir

Brynhildr from the Vǫlsunga saga and her love rival, Guðrún Gjúkadóttir, illustrate the difference between a shieldmaiden and a conventional aristocratic woman in the sagas. Brynhildr is primarily concerned with honor, like a male warrior. When she is eventually married to Guðrún's brother Gunnarr instead of Sigurðr, the man she truly desired, Brynhildr speaks a verse comparing the courage of the two men:

"Sigurd fought the dragon, And this will not be forgotten As long as people still live. But your brother, He did not dare To ride through the fire Or leap over it."

Brynhildr is married to Gunnarr, not Sigurðr, due to betrayal and deception, including a forgetfulness potion given to Sigurðr, so he forgets his earlier relationship with her.

Brynhildr is angry not only about losing Sigurðr but also about the dishonesty involved. Like her male counterparts, the shieldmaiden prefers to confront issues directly, without the deceit often seen as stereotypically feminine in much of medieval literature.

She takes direct revenge, leading to the deaths of herself, Sigurðr, and Sigurðr’s son by Guðrún. By killing the child, she demonstrates her understanding of feuds and child responsibility; if the boy lived, he would grow up and avenge Brynhildr's family.

Guðrún has a similar interest in family ties but does not act directly at first. She is more inclined to incite her male relatives to act than to take up arms herself. Guðrún is not a shieldmaiden, and Brynhildr mocks her by saying: “Ask only what you can best know. That is appropriate for noble women. And it is easy to be content when everything happens as you wish.”

However, in her later marriages, Guðrún 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 ruthless, just like male heroes. A shieldmaiden does not fulfill the typical female role, but her strength of character is also found in the more domestic women of these stories.

In Popular Culture

Female warriors inspired by Norse sagas appear in numerous works of historical and fantasy fiction, including the 2013 TV series Vikings. The series portrays Lagertha (played by Katheryn Winnick) as the greatest shieldmaiden in the world.

In the TV series Beforeigners, Alfhildr Enginnsdottir (played by Krista Kosonen) and Urd (played by Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir) are shieldmaidens who fought alongside Thorir against Olaf II of Norway. Alfhildr later travels to modern-day Norway through a time rift and now works as a police inspector.

The historical advisor for the video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Thierry Noël, explained the inclusion of a female Viking warrior in the game by stating, "The archaeological sources on this point are very controversial. But (...) it was part of the [Norse] worldview. The sagas and myths of Norse society are full of strong female figures and warriors. It was part of their idea of the world that women and men were equally strong in battle." The main character of the game can be either male or female (the gender choice is made at the beginning of the game) and is named Eivor Varinsdottir, who leads the Raven Clan with her adoptive brother Sigurd Styrbjornsson.

Warrior women are a staple of fantasy fiction, though they are not often referred to as shieldmaidens. Some examples include Éowyn from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Thorgil in Nancy Farmer's The Sea of Trolls trilogy.