The Vikings, pt. 1 -- In the Norsemen's World
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
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The Scandinavian House and Women's Status
The typical Scandinavian house was much smaller than the ancient Scandinavian long house that had preceded it, but still relatively large by medieval European standards. Many women are specifically noted and named in runic inscriptions as important land owners or as clan matriarchs. In some sagas and other documents, there are references to female warriors who went out fighting and raiding and who were called shield maidens. There is a sort of logic to it that if men are frequently away at war, if many of them die, at war often women, wives, daughters, mothers were left then to handle the household and the running of civil society at home.
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