The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

by Neil Price

Alongside the berserkers, another persistent symbol of Viking-Age warfare is the shield-maiden. They appear conflated with Valkyries and other female warriors several times in the heroic poems of the Eddic tradition, in skaldic poems, and with some frequency in the poetic citations of Snorri’s Edda. In the sagas of Icelanders, by contrast, armed women are not encountered at all other than in isolated contexts of self-defence, momentary rage, or planned revenge. However, shield-maidens do appear frequently in the legendary sagas: in the figure of Hervör retrieving her father Angantyr’s sword, and also in the Saga of Ragnar lothbrók, the Saga of Hrólf Gautreksson, and several others. Early parts of Saxo’s History of the Danes, begun in the late twelfth century, also includes many dramatic descriptions of shield-maidens. In several of these sources, the action is set not just in the Viking Age, but also in the centuries preceding it as far back as the Migration Period.