The Hidden Lives of Viking Women

REVIEW BY EMMA LOUISE THOMPSON From Norwegian courts to Icelandic households and British burial grounds, the lives of Viking women were as intricate as the worlds they inhabited. The Hidden Lives of Viking Women offers a ‘kaleidoscopic review’ drawing on archaeology, literature, and law to move beyond reductive binaries, giving women a platform as active agents negotiating power, identity, and survival across the Viking world. Nine thematic chapters explore topics including violence, migration, household management, trade, ritual(s), and cult leadership, across Scandinavia, Britain, and Iceland. The editors reject portrayals of women as passive or inherently confined to domesticit