"She's not a Viking!" Topic

A mysterious female warrior discovered in a Viking grave in Denmark was originally thought to be a Viking. But now, researchers have made a surprising discovery about this fierce warrior who died more than 1,000 years ago — she wasn't actually a Viking…

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I'm not at all convinced that being ethnically Scandinavian is a requirement to be a "Viking". Being a member of a Viking crew/band with Slavic ethnicity would still count as being a Viking in my book. Basically, being Viking is more a behavior/life style than something based on ancestry.

Chris

Viking is not a noun, it is a verb, meaning to go raiding and plundering.

It may actually have derived from an adjective – vik-ingas – 'people of the Fjords'

Gildas, that's very interesting – I had never heard of that before.

So could one take the step and say that when someone went "a viking" (sic?) that it could be a reference to the occupation/activities of those living in the Scandanavian fjords?

While there would have been more/varied "occupations" for said people, history/life experience shows the most notorious activities of a people are what they are known/remembered/referred to about.

"history/life experience shows the most notorious activities of a people are what they are known/remembered/referred to about."

Only within the span of history and legend, wmyers. After that, you're known for your artifacts. In 10,000 years, the United States may be known as "the green bottle culture," Coca-Cola bottles having outlasted our concepts of human rights and limited government, and even our language.

Does it really matter because what we do know that she has been dead for a very long time.

How do you know that, Mithmee?

Perhaps she lived 9,000 – 9,900 years, and only died in the last 100 – 1,000, since she's really a vampire, or a witch.

Somehow I don't think Vikings would allow you to join their warband unless you were related to someone in it, or a total badass… ;-)

The Sorbs/Wends (the Westernmost Slavic tribe) were all across the Baltic as traders. I am not surprised by an early Slav in Denmark.

And how do they know she was 'a fierce warrior.'

Not that she may not have been a fierce warrior, but I see that later in the piece that it is just considered 'likely' that she was a warrior based on the axe found in her grave.

Vik means "bay, inlet", not specifically "fjord".

(Someone specifically from a fjord would be a fjording, which happens to be the name of a Norwegian horse breed.)

I got to wonder if the people who conclude that a woman was a fierce warrior from her being buried with an axe would leap to the same conclusion regarding a man buried with one.

Clicking on one of the links in the article, the actual reason for her being identified as probably Slavic is the style of the burial and grave goods. I first assumed the identification was on genetic grounds and was about to suggest that she, or her parents, might have been a captive brought back, and she might have been perfectly Scandinavian culturally speaking, but no it looks there must have been at least a small Slavic community there to perserve burial customs. Though the piece says "possibly Slavic", so presumably the indications are less than completely decisive.

Zephyr1

Somehow I don't think Vikings would allow you to join their warband unless you were related to someone in it, or a total badass… ;-)

Possibly the last bit – but have a look at Cat Jarman's lecture on the Repton burials – she looks at isotope sampling to determine geographical origin of three Viking burial groups – Repton, Oxford and the Ridgeway and the origins are widespread, including Mediterranean – Vikings didn't all come from the same locality by any means.

As for the 'verb', 'noun' 'adjective' argument – not proven and I know at least one Viking expert who would do horrible things to you for suggesting the word is a verb!

So was the woman in the grave a viking?
Possibly, possibly not.
Woudl being Slavic preclude her being a viking?
No.
Were there female viking warriors?
?

Like TLC above, I was expecting something a bit more scientific, maybe isotope analysis of her teeth to reveal where she grew up. But having an axe from the southern Baltic coast doesn't make her a Slav, maybe it was a holiday souvenir she'd picked up when she went a-Viking; or maybe she was a local girl married to a Wendish immigrant.

An addition to the list of female graves with weapons is interesting, but it's little more than that.

So, we got no DNA research, so we've got nothing on her descent. No one's done tooth enamel to find out where she lived. But the axe buried with her came from what would at some point be Poland, so she's Slavic? If modern Americans were buried with grave goods, you could "prove" that most of us were Chinese that way.

Also, despite some later confusion, Viking warbands were not the SS: we have zero evidence that you had to prove pure Nordic descent before you were allowed to hop into the longship and go loot an Irish monastery.

We need to have a long talk with our "news" media about their fact/conjecture ratio.

Yep, what Robert said.

A bit off topic, but there were SS units for non-Germans.

Indeed SS division Wiking was specifically created to be a multi-national unit.

And then –

Additionally, there were SS units and entire SS 'Foreign Legions' consisting primarily of Indian, Arabs, Tartars/Cossacks amongst others. A special case was the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger that unofficially accepted common criminals on probation, Gypsies (Roma) and political prisoners willing to repent. Ultimately, a significant majority (approximately 60%) of men who volunteered and fought with the Waffen-SS over the course of the war were not ethnic Germans.

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As to Vikings, I would imagine that when recruiting for a raid that someone of non-Scandinavian origin who had the requisite fighting skills would be considered acceptable.

There were Slavic bands of Viking like raiders that operated in the Baltic, many with settlements along the southern shore. The used longships like the Vikings and raided the region, although not as effectively or as widespread as the Scandinavian Vikings.

Considering how the Vikings settled in Great Britain and Ireland, I would think their interactions with the locals would be an indication of possible interactions with others.

I can't recall where I read this but individual Normans joined bands and went raiding as well particularly in the first couple of generations. I suspect that if there were not language or culture issues then one could join bands. The Wends were probably and initially too different. As far as the OP I think we debated this last year, when the same body was thought to be an "viking officer." If this was a warrior then she would have suffered lots of injuries that would have left marks.