104. Trial

Once more in England, the Vikings lie in wait, ready to attack a new village.  "Let's attack straightaway."  Rollo urges.

"No."  Ragnar stares off and says, to the complete mystification of the entire crew, "We attack tomorrow."

Growing up in a fairly Christian world, it makes complete sense to us, the audience, that the vikings would wait until the village was in church.  "Ragnar's so smart for knowing these things!  Why doesn't the rest of the crew just listen to him, gosh!"  But it would have been absolutely insane in their time to wait.  What if they were found?  The crew was in perfect condition and ready to fight now, what possible purpose would they have to wait?  The concept of setting aside an entire day for their gods was as alien to them as their confusion is to us.

But history tells us that it's a worthwhile tactic.  In the spring of 845, Ragnar Lothbrok sailed up the Seine river and sacked Paris with 120 ships.  He arrived in the city on Easter Sunday.  Not only was the army frightened and unprepared (for reasons I'll get to later), but the treasures of the church would have been on full display.  In desperation, King Charles gave Ragnar 7000 pounds of silver to leave the church unmolested and go away.

"Do you have a moment to discuss the word of Thor?"

It worked, and it set a precedent for paying the invaders off.  The whole concept was called Danegeld and there was a nice little throwaway nod towards it in the third episode when one of the Reve's soldiers says "Give them money to make them go away."

I wonder how Aethelstan would feel if he knew his lessons were serving Ragnar in this fashion!

My favourite part of this episode is how badass Lagertha gets to be.  She's a famous character on her own, described in the Gesta Danorum as the wife of one of King Siward's kinsmen.  When the king and his followers were murdered, all of their wives were gathered up and thrown into a brothel.  Lagertha was among them.  Ragnar set them free and led an army against the murderer, as Siward was his grandfather and he was the rightful heir to the throne.  Later, during the battle, he spied a maiden with long hair fighting among them and kicking some serious ass.

Among them was Ladgerda, a skilled amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All-marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman.

Check out that dead guy getting an upskirt...

Of course, if we're judging gender by gorgeously flowing locks, I've got some bad news for Rollo and Erik in the show...

Shield maidens and female warriors have a rich history with the Vikings... but unfortunately they haven't received much credit until recently.  Whenever a warrior was found in a grave with a sword, archaeologists would immediately assume that it was a male, without doing any analysis.  If it was found with a brooch, it was labelled female and if it was found with both, well, scientists assumed that a woman must have given the warrior some jewelry as a token of affection.

Bah!  Says I.  Female warriors were extensively documented in both lore and history.  Leif Erickson's sister, Freydis, travelled to Vinland with her brothers (as chronicled in The Saga of Erik the Red).  There, they were attacked by the native people and had to make a hasty retreat to the boat.  Angered that the men were running, Freydis decided to completely disregard the fact that she was enormously pregnant and:

...came out and saw how they were retreating. She called out, “Why run you away from such worthless creatures, stout men that ye are, when, as seems to me likely, you might slaughter them like so many cattle? Let me but have a weapon, I think I could fight better than any of you.” They gave no heed to what she said. Freydis endeavoured to accompany them, still she soon lagged behind, because she was not well; she went after them into the wood, and the Skrœlingar directed their pursuit after her. She came upon a dead man; Thorbrand, Snorri's son, with a flat stone fixed in his head; his sword lay beside him, so she took it up and prepared to defend herself therewith.[30] Then came the Skrœlingar upon her.

She removed her shirt and started smacking the sword against her breasts, screaming and fighting the natives until they ran from her in fear.  The other Vikings were able to escape safely and eventually made it home.

She also murdered a bunch of men and women in cold blood, but let's skip over that, shall we?

That doesn't mention Saxo's accounts of women in battle, the mentions of shieldmaidens and valkyrie in countless sagas, the Battle of Bravala where 300 women--some famous--accompanied the men into battle, Skylitze's account of the barbarian battle against the Romans where,

When the Romans were robbing the corpses of the barbarians of their spoils, they found women lying among the fallen, equipped like men; women who had fought against the Romans with the men.

Now that we have a better understanding of archaeology and anthropology, many scientists are conceding that we might have assumed too much with our earlier finds.  Women were treated with absolute respect in this culture, and hey, if you have someone here who's pretty good at swinging a sword, who cares if they've got a differently shaped crotch.  You're a warrior society, who has time to be picky?  Not only that, but even if the women were all left at home, there's no way they wouldn't know how to fight.  The only thing Vikings loved more than raiding foreigners was raiding other Vikings.

Marianne Moen put it beautifully in her thesis, The Gendered Landscape.

“To assume that Viking men were ranked above women is to impose modern values on the past, which would be misleading,”

NOW, I'm not saying that the Viking culture was this beautiful, egalitarian paradise where men and women held hands and praised each other's qualities all the live-long day.  Women were mostly domestic.  They held the keys to the home, but they were better weavers, caretakers and housekeepers.  More women were praised for their ability to craft than their sword-swinging skills.

However, women were praised.  Women raised their own runestones, built their own bridges, ruled their own lands and could divorce their husbands at any time--and even get their dowry back.  They couldn't attend the thing without a male escort, but they could attend and they were treated with the utmost respect.  The bodies found with the Oseberg ship burial were women of high status.  And, most exciting, the burial mounds at Repton and Heath Wood have been re-analyzed and found to contain an even ratio of men to women.  Pretty awesome stuff!

The problem with a lot of research is that many accounts of Vikings were written by Christians who put their own cultural ideals on what they wrote.  Then the resurgence of interest in Viking culture happened during the Victorian Era--which isn't known for how kindly it treated the ladies.  Reading a book from the 1970's is vastly different from when we started to re-analyze these burials in the past twenty years and it makes for some pretty confusing research, I'll be honest.  But I'm hoping that this research will continue and in the next few decades we'll have a clearer picture of the role of women!

Tell my loved ones... that patriarchy can suck it!

I always thought it was a little funny that the women were referred to as Shieldmaidens, though, when everyone was required to have a shield.  Even the poorest man would have an axe and a shield, and would be allowed to carry them wherever he went.  Men would be expected to not only know how to kill an enemy, but how to take part in the shield wall.

Now, there are several ways you can break up a shield wall.  Jabbing a spear into gaps is very effective, even if it leaves the attacker open to be speared.  Shooting arrows into the gaps, although arrows aren't very precise.  You could form your own shield wall to push and shove the other army until you've gained enough ground to have an advantage.  The famous shield wall at the Battle of Hastings lasted for seven hours, though it was used by the English against the Normans and, unfortunately, the Normans lost.

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing the shield wall

It was such an effective tactic that it didn't fall out of favour until people started using two-handed weapons like a pike or a two-handed axe.  So effective, in fact, that it's still used in skirmishes today.

Anything I missed?  Questions? Comments?  Snarky remarks?  Leave them below, I'd love to get some feedback!