Shield-maidens and Norse Amazons Reconsidered Women and Weapons in Viking Age Burials in Norway

Abstract

This paper provides new insights into the custom of burying women with weapons in Viking Age Norway. Possible female graves furnished with swords, axe heads, spearheads and arrowheads are known from Rogaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Telemark, Trøndelag and Vestfold, and although each case is unique, they share some intriguing confluences. In addition to weapons, their assemblages often contain high quality jewellery, curated objects, amulets, and items imported from distant locations. This paper investigates various source critical and methodological issues associated with these finds and situates them in an interdisciplinary context, seeking to propose new ideas on who the deceased were in life and how their mourners wanted to remember them in death.