![]() Ward, Ph.D., executive director of Los Altos History Museum, Norse literature scholar and Smithsonian Journeys guest lecturer. In some ways, Viking women had a greater sense of agency over their European peers, such as the right to divorce their husbands and the right to own property, explains Elisabeth I. Many women were housewives, fulfilling the complex task of managing a home, while others were entrepreneurs, creating and selling crafts including textiles. The role of women in Viking culture is layered and nuanced. But is that really what happened in Viking times? Viking women’s roles, private and public Throughout the series, women warriors fight alongside their male counterparts. Women like Viking explorer Freydís Eiríksdóttir (played by Frida Gustavsson) and rulers Queen Emma of Normandy and the fictional Jarl Estrid Haakon ( Caroline Henderson) play critical roles in the show. Vikings: Valhalla, Netflix’s epic historical-fiction adventure series, features fierce women who demonstrate grit, wisdom and killer strategy - both on and off the battlefield. It’s said that the Irish pirate queen commanded so much respect among her own people - and her English enemies - that she garnered an audience with Queen Elizabeth I of England. Some of the fiercest pirates to rule the seas were women, like 19th-century China’s Ching Shih and 16th-century Ireland’s Grace O’Malley. The historical record tells us differently, however there’s Queen Boudicca of the Celtic Iceni tribe, who avenged a savage attack on her daughters, and in the year 60 reportedly massacred upwards of 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Brits. But the image of warriors and armies tends to be solely male. Many learn in school about the authoritative and mighty queens of Egypt, Cleopatra and Nefertiti, and the main figures of the Renaissance era, Catherine de Medici and England’s Elizabeth I. In the late Middle Ages, the shield was abandoned in favor of polearms carried with both hands, giving rise to pike square tactics.Powerful women, and their stories, have existed throughout history. Once the wall was breached, it could prove difficult or impossible to re-establish a defensive line, and panic might well set in among the defenders.Īlthough the importance of cavalry in the Battle of Hastings saw the end of the shield wall tactic, massed shield walls would continue to be employed right up to the end of the 12th Century, especially in areas that were unsuitable for large scale mounted warfare, such as Scandinavia, and Scotland. Relatively lightly trained fyrdmen gained morale from being shoulder-to-shoulder with their comrades, but often fled once this was compromised. ![]() The drawback of the shield-wall tactic was that, once breached, the whole affair tended to fall apart rather quickly. The Vikings were not wearing as much armor, having left their chain mail behind on the ships and wearing only their helmets, and after a bloody shield wall battle, they broke and fled in panic. The tactic was used at the Battle of Stamford Bridge where the relatively well-armed Saxon army attacked the army of King Harald Sigurdsson of Norway. Short weapons such as the ubiquitous seax could also be used in the tight quarters of the wall. Often soldiers would use their weapons to support each other by stabbing and slashing to the left or the right, rather than just ahead. The vast majority of opponents were armed with spears, which they used against the unprotected legs or faces of their opponents. The first three ranks of the main wall would have been made up of select warriors, such as Huscarls and Thengs, who carried heavier weapons and wore armor. The shield-wall tactic suited inexperienced troops such as the English Fyrd or free peasant, as it did not require extraordinary skill, being essentially a shoving and fencing match with weapons. ![]() Each warrior benefited from the protection of his neighbours’ shields as well as his own. There were many slight variations of this tactic, but in general, a shield wall was a “wall of shields” formed by warriors standing in formation shoulder to shoulder, holding their shields so that they abut or overlap. VIK-262728A John Jenkins DesignsThe formation of a shield wall (Skjaldborg in Old Norse) was a popular military tactic that was commonly used in many parts of Northern Europe, especially England and Scandinavia.
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