Admittedly, I was not as engrossed or fascinated with this book as many other readers. I am sure it is due to my expectations of the book. I think this book is best suited for people who already have solid historical knowledge of the Viking warrior era. I realized that I was in over my head so to speak but I did push through using other simplified sources to augment my comprehension. I listened to the audio book while I read the digital book to assist my understanding. I found it overwhelming as there was a lot of research and archeological findings discussed which seemed to cast doubt on some of the written historical literature. My knowledge is merely superficial making this a difficult read for me which has no reflection on the author. What was also challenging was that some of the book was speculative and provided the author's interpretation or opinions on areas not clearly explained by historical facts.

Of particular interest is the DNA findings by archeologists that a Viking warrior in an upper-status grave in Birka, Sweden is a woman and not a man as previously thought. The author uses science and history to link this Birka warrior to Viking trading towns. She names the warrior Hervor and explains the history which most likely led to the misconception of the gender of the warrior. It was assumed that those fallen warriors were men as no distinction was made to acknowledge that women would often dress similar to men in battle making is less likely to distinguish their gender.

My interest led me to an article on history.com by Sarah Pruitt written November 18, 2016 and updated August 4, 2023 entitled What Was Life Like for Women in the Viking Age? This helped simplify some of the history and my understanding of the research presented in the book. From my understanding, archeological findings are examined and interrupted with the historical data known at that time. Like most cultures of this time period, men and women typically held "traditional" roles and were identified by items that were found buried with their remains. Men were usually found with weapons or tolls whereas women could be found with household items, jewelry and needlework. The Scandinavian women at this time did experience an unusual amount of freedom allowing them a voice regarding arranged marriages and divorces. This is contrary to the idea of men being the "ruler" in the home but women often take over if her husband was away or died which explained why these bodies were found with keys or other symbols indicating their leadership of the home.

I will not attempt to comment further on the women mentioned as some were historical and others were mythical as they seemed to overlap in the oral histories at that time.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing me access to this digital review copy of this book. All opinions and comments in my review are expressly my own honest and unbiased view. ( )

Technically I only read the introduction but it was enough to establish that this is mostly speculation and not presenting new research so I noped out, knowing that I would only find myself irritated that sexism has so coloured what the Vikings really were. ( )

What a fascinating, eye-opening, thought-provoking book! The blurb for The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women promises it will lay to rest the outdated myth that Viking society was ruled by men and celebrate the dramatic lives of female Viking warriors. Author Nancy Marie Brown more than delivers on that promise.

Reading about Vikings is always interesting, isn’t it? They were so wild and strong and determined and single-minded and brutal. Their society was not anything like our soft lives of today. But they still followed what seems like tradition to us, didn’t they? Men did the manly things – like fighting – and women stayed where they belonged – in the home and minded their own business: children, church, and kitchen.

But not so fast. DNA tests revealed in 2017 that a grave in Birka, Sweden known as Bj581, long used as the textbook example of the ultimate Viking warrior’s grave, was in fact the grave of a woman. Any past attempts to raise the possibility of Viking warriors being both male and female was dismissed for years, with scholars citing so-called evidence of the contents of the grave, and not the bones, that they said proved weapons were for warrior men, and domestic items were for household women. Even when the DNA test results were presented some scholars still insisted only men were Viking warriors. Any evidence to the contrary had to be some kind of mistake.

Author Brown uses science to present a compelling “what-if” scenario for the life of Hervor, that Viking woman warrior, and describes The Victorian Bias which can well account for the pigeon-holing of Viking women into the roles Victorian women had to fill.

The Real Valkyrie will keep your interest start to finish. It’s much more than a dry, scientific argument to support the DNA results. It describes Viking life and history of the time as it could apply to both men and women, provides riveting glimpses into the personalities and actions of rulers and commonfolk, using humor and poetry to round out the stories. It’s also startling and more than a bit irritating to realize just how much this Victorian Bias has influenced our view of history and what we think could or could not have been.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing an advance copy of The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women via NetGalley for my reading pleasure and honest review. It was a wonderful book to read, proving that non-fiction can be just as compelling and full of murder, mystery and suspense as any fiction thriller. All opinions are my own. ( )

Earlier translations of the Eddas and other Norse historical documents were done by white men of a society where women were subjugated wherever possible and refused literacy, therefore they A$$umed that ALL warriors were male (they even gave Bouddica a hard time). Archaeology could be forgiven their bias to some degree because (as the author points out) skeletons and some grave goods degrade over a millennium. The author has done extensive due diligence into existing works and findings and presented the gathered information and conclusions in a clear, understandable way that the reader can easily enjoy as well as comprehend. I confess to bias because I am female and Pop came to the US from Norway in the early twentieth century. I highly recommend this book and plan to buy a print copy for my local library (and nag my out-of-state kids to do the same).
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )