First of all, I want to apologize for being absent during this time. However, I return with renewed strength to continue writing about this topic that I like and enjoy so much: the vikings.
Following the thread of the story behind the characters in the Vikings series, and having started from such famous warlords as Ragnar and Ivar Boneless, the time has come to talk about the great and powerful women They occupy a decisive position in this story. In this case, we are going to talk about the queen Aslaug. Yes, I know that he doesn’t arouse much sympathy in the series (although I must confess that he is one of my favorite characters), but his story and legend are very different from what we have been told…
Before proceeding to talk about the character himself, wouldn’t you be interested in knowing a bit of context? We have seen in series like vikings formidable women and the role they had in Viking society, but what is real about this and what about legend?
The first thing we must be clear about, despite the romanticization of this idea and its exaltation, is that Viking society it was not an example of a feminist society. However, if we compare it with other cultures of the time, we can see that the role of women was significantly more important. However, that role was reduced to a more familiar environment. She is also surprised by her notorious moral authority and her defense of the honor of the clan, but she was also engaged in activities such as small-scale hunting, education and being the guardian of family traditions (Régis Boyer, 2005, p. 69). As far as we know to date, they did not sail alongside men or go to war, at least not on the scale that is often imagined.
Perhaps the concept of skjaldmöthe squires vikings These warrior women are mentioned in the Sagas, in an almost mythological context, so we must take it with a grain of salt (bear in mind that the gods are also mentioned in the Sagas). At least until now, the evidence and the archaeological remains found (which are not many) did not lead us to think that they really existed, or maybe they did…? There is a finding in birka very interesting (I leave you in the bibliography a link to one of the many existing articles about it). Originally, it was thought to be the tomb of a great warrior. However, DNA analysis has shown that the remains belonged to a woman, specifically, a viking warrior. In addition, the trousseau that she found suggests that she must have been a highly respected chief or warrior (Michael Greshko, 2017). Despite this finding, there is no more evidence to show that it was a normal fact for women to go to war, so we can think that it did happen on certain occasions, but of course they would not have existed on the scale at which we see it. have shown in the series.
Aslaug, also known as kraka either RandalinIt was a Queen viking from Scandinavia, daughter of the legendary Sigurd, who killed the dragon Fafnir, in whose blood he bathed to make himself invulnerable (we can appreciate here a certain similarity with the myth of Achilles) and of the skjaldmö Brynhildr, although she was raised by her grandfather, Heimer. The latter, after the death of Aslaug’s parents, had a harp built large enough for her little girl to fit in, so he hid it and so they traveled, he as a wandering musician, she as a passenger on the harp.
Traveling in this way, they reached Spangereid, an area in southern Norway, where they spent the night at the home of a peasant couple, Äke and Grima. They soon became suspicious of the size of the harp and thought that there would be a hidden treasure inside. At nightfall, Grima convinced her husband to kill old Heimer while he slept, after a struggle and achieving his death what was his surprise when, opening the harp, they found little Aslaug… Realizing his tremendous error they adopted the girl as their own, hiding her noble origin by changing her name to Kraka, which means raven, and also hiding her beauty, making her always dirty and disheveled. And that’s how she grew up, with adoptive parents and in a house where she was not well received.
Parallel to our history, Ragnar Lodbrok He had set out on a journey with his warriors, but as fate would have it, they arrived on the shores of southern Norway, where his men discovered the young Kraka taking a bath. They were so enthralled with her beauty that they burned the food they were cooking, and when Ragnar asked them for explanations, they told him about the girl and her unimaginable beauty. Incredulous, Ragnar sent for the young woman, but he wanted to put her to the test with somewhat curious conditions: she had to appear before him neither dressed nor naked, neither hungry nor satiated, neither alone nor accompanied. In this way, Ragnar wanted to see if his intelligence matched his beauty. And so it happened, Kraka appeared before him dressed only in a fishing net, eating an onion and accompanied by a dog, fulfilling all the conditions. Ragnar fell in love with her, took her with him and proposed to her.
However, Ragnar continued to travel and arrived in Sweden, where he visited Viceroy Eysteinn Beli, who tried to persuade him to annul his marriage to Kraka in order to marry his daughter, a Swedish princess. Upon returning, three birds had warned Aslaug of this proposition (Aslaug was credited with sorceress powers), who finally revealed her true parentage and who prophesied that, to prove that she was the daughter of the powerful and famous Sigurd, they would have a son. that would take in one of the eyes a mark in the form of a snake. And so it was, being born Sigurd, Serpent Eye.
Sigurd was not the only son of Aslaug with Ragnar, but they had other of the most famous and powerful Viking chieftains: Björn, Hvitsärk, Ubbe, Sigurd and Ivar Boneless himself. Ivar’s birth is also shrouded in magic and tragedy. When Aslaug and Ragnar married, she warned him that they must wait three days before consummating their marriage or a terrible misfortune would happen, but Ragnar ignored the warning, thus being born the Boneless (I recommend you visit my previous article on Ivar Boneless to know the full story and life of this great Viking chieftain). Caution should be used when citing Ragnar’s children, as it is not always clear which ones would really be his children, or the product of what relationship.
Eysteinn, hearing of it, felt betrayed and cheated, so he took up arms against Ragnar. Initially he fought Ragnar’s other sons, Eric and Angar, whom he slew in battle. Unlike in the Vikings series, the Sagas show us a powerful, respected and faithful Aslaug, who did not hesitate to protect Ragnar’s children, even if they were not the children of her relationship with the Viking. Thus, when the Swedes killed Eric and Angar, sons of Ragnar from her previous relationship (with Thora), she did not hesitate to put herself in command of an army with her sons and go to avenge them. Wearing Randalin As a name of battle, he left by land at the head of a cavalry made up of more than fifteen hundred men, while his sons traveled by sea. In this way they carried out the attack and defeated the Swedes in a resounding victory.
These events led to Ragnar’s decision to go west to what we know as Northumbria, the former kingdom of Great Britain.
Although they had already visited the kingdom in the year 865, for this occasion Aslaug, who we remember was associated with magical powers due to his great acts of the past, predicted a catastrophe due to the state of the fleet and the bad weather that it would pummel the fleet on its way. Ragnar ignored and left, with the consequent disaster that befell him, being captured by King Ælla, at the hands of whom he died thrown into the pit of snakes.
After this the trace of Aslaug disappears from the writings.
We can conclude that apparently these powerful and warrior women were more a specific case at a specific time, that something generalized. We know that they had an important role in Viking society, that, without a doubt, some knew how to fight and did, but nothing can be confirmed beyond that. As always with this fascinating people, we must be careful and try to separate the myth from the historical evidence.
«But remember, your grandfather, my father, was the greatest warrior of all time. He slayed the dragon Fafnir and is spoken of in the sagas. Surely you will inherit his warlike gifts from him. All of you will be great warriors.”
Aslaug in the Vikings series
Bibliography:
Ibanez Lluch, Santiago (Ed.). (2016). Saga of Ragnar Hairy Leggings. Tale of the Sons of Ragnar. Madrid, Spain: Editorial Miraguano Editions.
Boyer, Regis. The daily life of the Vikings (800-1050). 2nd ed. Jose Olaneta
https://www.nationalgeographic.es/historia/2017/09/the-famous-Viking-warrior-of-birka-was-in-reality-a-woman-according-to-reveal
JESCH, Judith. Women in the Viking Age. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1991.