By Nicole Flannigan
Originally written for Compass Education Group
In 1889, while excavating in the Swedish town of Birka, archeologist Hjalmar Stople made an exciting find: the grave of a prominent Viking warrior. Birka—a major European trading hub between the 8th and 10th centuries—is home to thousands of Viking graves. Still, this tomb was particularly impressive because of the array of objects it contained. In it, Stople discovered multiple weapons, such as a battle-axe, a spear, shields, and armor-piercing arrows. In addition, he found a strategy board game next to the body, likely indicating that the tomb’s occupant was a student of military tactics and potentially a high-ranking general.
Since the burial contained the implements of a professional warrior, Stople, influenced by the prejudices of his time, declared the body to be male. Viking culture was thought to be overwhelmingly patriarchal; the idea that anyone other than a high-ranking man could have been given such a burial was unfathomable. For over a hundred years, no one closely examined the skeleton in the grave, and Stople’s assumption remained unquestioned.
In 2014, Stockholm University osteologist Anna Kjellström re-examined the warrior’s bones and concluded that, based on the shape of the skeleton’s mandible and pelvis, the skeleton belonged to a woman around five foot six inches in height and over 30 years old. In 2017, a research team led by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Sweden’s Uppsala University sequenced the skeleton’s DNA. Her team’s results confirmed Kjellström’s findings. The high-ranking general was, indeed, female.
We have long read in Norse folklore that Viking women were fierce warriors. Their tales tell us about shield-maidens as well as legendary warriors like Lagertha and the Valkyries. However, until recently, archeological evidence of Viking women warriors has been scarce, and certain scholars have regarded the stories as mere myths. With this recent discovery, however, it appears that evidence of female Viking heroes may have been there the whole time, hiding in plain sight. The tomb in Birka may be the first tomb of a Viking woman warrior we’ve discovered, but it likely won’t be the last.