VIKING WOMEN: Queens, Wives, Traders, Seeresses and Warriors of the Norse WORLD (THE Book 4)

The Viking Age was never a story of men alone. While warriors crossed the seas, Norse women managed farms, produced the sails that powered longships, controlled valuable stores, defended family claims, traded across distant routes, and helped establish new settlements. Some became queens and landowners. Others served as seeresses, healers, or Christian patrons. A small number may even have fought with weapons. Yet their lives were divided by wealth and freedom. The same world that gave certain widows remarkable influence also exposed captive women to forced labour, sale, and exploitation. Drawing on graves, human remains, runestones, law codes, foreign accounts, archaeology, and later sagas, Jonathan R. Alderwick examines what can truly be known about women in the Viking Age. From the Oseberg ship burial and Birka's female warrior grave to Queen Emma, Aud the Deep-Minded, and Gudrid the Far-Travelled, this gripping history separates reliable findings from legend. Discover the women who made the Viking world possible-and the stories hidden beyond the shieldmaiden myth.