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The Washington Post

For more than a century after it was found, a skeleton ensconced in a Viking grave, surrounded by military weapons, was assumed to be that of a battle-hardened male. No more.
The warrior was, in fact, female. And not just any female, but a Viking warrior woman, a shieldmaiden, like Lord of the Rings’ Eowyn, or dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.
The artefacts entombed with the 1,000-year-old bones and unearthed in 1889 in Birka, Sweden, included two shields, a sword, an axe, a spear, armour-piercing arrows and a battle knife – not to mention the remnants of two horses. Such weapons of war among grave goods, archaeologists long assumed, meant the Viking had been male.
“I am no man”: Eowyn is revealed on the battlefield in Lord of the Rings


Yet modern-day genetics testing on the DNA extracted from a tooth and an arm bone has confirmed otherwise. The skeleton, known as BJ 581, belonged to someone with two X chromosomes.
“We were blinded by the warrior equipment,” one of the researchers, Anders Gotherstrom, said in an email this week. “The grave-goods shout ‘warrior’ at you, and nothing else.”
Gotherstrom, along with nine other scientists from the Universities of Stockholm and Uppsala, announced their results in a paper in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Theirs is the first genetic proof that at least some Viking women were warriors.
The shieldmaiden, whose teeth identify her as being at least 30, also appeared to be of high status. Her grave chamber is on a prominent, elevated piece of ground between the town and a hilltop fort, and also contained a full set of gaming pieces and a gaming board, typically used by military leaders to work out battle tactics and strategy.
Although some weapons have been found in other female Viking graves, none included only weapons – or so many of them.
“This is exactly what you would expect from male warrior graves,” said Cat Jarman, a British archaeologist not associated with the discovery. “There’s nothing that says it was a woman ... [The contents] were not exactly domestic.”
But some experts warn against making additional assumptions beyond gender. The artefacts could have been heirlooms from a male relative, they say, or were symbolic. Or perhaps the grave once held a second individual who was male. Her skeleton shows no obvious trauma indicative of battle wounds, but archaeologists of Viking graves say there are often none found on male warrior skeletons.
One of the major arguments against assuming the grave belonged to a woman is that “she could be someone who lived like a man,” Jarman said. “Someone buried her,” but what she was buried with might not have been of her choosing. “That’s who she was in death, but it doesn’t mean that’s who she was in life.”
The researchers who tested and analysed the DNA agree.
“Our results caution against sweeping interpretations based on archaeological contexts and preconceptions,” they write in their paper, but the findings are highly suggestive “that women, indeed, were able to be full members of male-dominated spheres.”
More than 3,000 Viking graves have been discovered encircling Birka, in central-western Sweden, but only about 1,100 have been excavated. The location is one of the largest Viking burial grounds ever discovered, yet only three graves with artefacts suggesting warrior ideals have been associated with the female gender, the authors write.
Vikings who weren’t engaged in battle usually were cremated, Gotherstrom said, and with women burials, there “would not have been much, or any, of the weaponry, but a stronger tendency for jewellery, broaches and everyday utensils.”
Until recently, female Viking warriors were largely the stuff of literature or mythology. Camilla, in Virgil’s Aeneid, was raised to be a huntress and was expert in the javelin and bow. But she was also suckled by a mare, according to Virgil, and could run over the ocean without getting her feet wet.
Norse legends feature women warriors such as Hervor and Brynhildr. And neither meek nor mild, Viking women were depicted in medieval art and literature as political leaders and priests.
The fascination with women warriors is long and varied, from the Amazons to Joan of Arc to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the 20th and 21st centuries, this obsession has brought us Eowyn from Lord of the Rings, Wonder Woman and Xena.
But for archaeologists, the confirmation of a real Viking woman warrior leaves them fumbling for words. As Gotherstrom finally described it: “Simply super cool.”


I am no man: Viking warrior identified as female, 128 years after her discovery

The shieldmaiden was buried with an axe, sword, arrows, shields and two horses

A fan from Norway watches the Mountain Bike Women's Cross Country Cycling event, at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

A plan of a Viking grave made by original excavator Hjalmar Stolpe in 1889. New evidence reveals the warrior was a woman. Photo: Supplied

Iceland’s Old Norse language dating from the age of the Vikings may be in danger of going extinct

Iceland's President Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson (L) and Danish Minister of Culture Mette Bock (R) during the presentation of 'The National Gift - The Complete Sagas of Icelanders', which was translated into Danish, in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark. There are rising concerns the Icelandic language may be under threat in the years ahead. Photo: EPA

The curator, Hjortur Sigurdsson, is pictured on October 27, 2016 at the Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik. Inside the museum's large illuminated rooms, there are penises and penile parts of all shapes and sizes from a huge array of mammals, from whales to bears, seals to cats, and even mice. / AFP PHOTO / Halldor KOLBEINS

Tourists wearing Santa hats take a selfie as geysers discharge water at Geysir, in Iceland December 25, 2016. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

This image shows National Day celebrations in the capital Reykjavik in Iceland. 17JUN14 [24AUGUST2014 TRAVEL POST MAGAZINE]

In pictures: Vikings set Scottish island ablaze with Up Helly Aa

Participants dressed as Vikings burn their viking galley ship at the culmination of the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands. Photo: AFP

Participants dressed as Vikings march down a street in the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. / AFP PHOTO / Andy Buchanan

Participants dressed as Vikings wait to start the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. / AFP PHOTO / Andy Buchanan

Replica Viking helmet and shields are laid to one side prior to the start the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. / AFP PHOTO / Andy Buchanan

Participants dressed as Vikings in prepare to burn their viking galley ship at the culmination of the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. / AFP PHOTO / Andy Buchanan

Participants dressed as Vikings participate in the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. / AFP PHOTO / Andy Buchanan

TOPSHOT - Participants dressed as Vikings pose by a long boat in the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. / AFP PHOTO / Andy Buchanan

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The shieldmaiden was buried with an axe, sword, arrows, shields and two horses


I am no man: Viking warrior identified as female, 128 years after her discovery

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The shieldmaiden was buried with an axe, sword, arrows, shields and two horses

The shieldmaiden was buried with an axe, sword, arrows, shields and two horses