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THOUGHT THAT VIKINGS were always long-haired men with funny hats and a strong dress sense?
Well it turns out that it wasn’t just men that took part in the plundering, pillaging and settlement building during the Viking explorations – women may have been involved too.
And in an interesting case of challenging gender stereotypes, it transpires that archaeologists thought that the skeletal remains found at burial sites were all male, due to the fact they had swords and shields with them.
But some of these bodies, buried with grave goods that included swords, were female.
USA Today reports that a new article by Shane McLeod, Warriors and women: the sex ratio of Norse migrants to eastern England up to 900, has shed some light on how many Norse women migrated to England.
The term Vikings is used to refer to Norse (or Scandinavian) explorers who travelled and settled in Europe from the late 8th to the middle of the 11th century.
In one case, three Viking burials thought to be of men because of three swords being recovered from the site turned out to be female.
There has also been an increase in the number of Norse-style jewellery items found at burial sites, which were believed to have belonged to women.
These new discoveries show that the ratio of females to males may have been equal during Viking times.
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So it would appear that the Nordic model of gender egalitarianism started a lot sooner.
I would love another Norse invasion, great looking men!
And women. Let’s not be sexist
It’s crazy how there are so many places in Ireland which celebrate the vikings. They invaded and pillaged our country and we choose to commemorate this and remember them with fondness. It’s the equivalent of Poland setting up Nazi trails, Nazi tour buses and Nazi restaurants.
aah emma, but they had fair hair and blue eyes
A lot of our cities are old Viking settlements, and they did eventually stay here and assimilate with the natives – they became “as Irish as the Irish themselves”. They’re as much part of our heritage as the Normans are.
That’s a really bad analogy. What happened in Poland under the Nazis was genocide.
I hope you’ve written to the company behind the Viking Splash Tour expressing your disgust.
You need to go back and read your history as your view is very wide of the mark in the overall context.
ha!
@emma, I take it you haven’t been to many exhibitions lately. Go to London & see how they ‘celebrate’ the holocaust in the Imperial war museum. it is the most factual and blatent exhibition of the terrible events that occured. & if you remember the viking centre by temple bar that was an exhibition of some wild explorers who took to the seas to explore new worlds, yes pillage and plunder but more importantly explore and settle as their homeland could not support their popultions needs, much like we are doing today to the likes of Britain, Canada, USA, Australia, etc…
I concur with you Lisa :)
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