Fake News, Medieval Style: The Truth about Auðr

Last week I attended the IMC in Leeds, Britain — I was getting back in the PhD saddle after an 8-month hiatus caused by life, health problems, etc. The IMC, short for International Medieval Congress, is the largest conference on all things medieval in Europe. The main theme of this year’s IMC was ‘Memory.’ For me personally, this was the second time I attended the IMC. I presented a paper in the Old Norse Studies and Collective Memory Strand (shortened to #ONSCOM), sponsored by the editors of the Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies and chairs of the Memory & the Pre-Modern North Research Network, Jürg Glauser, Pernille Hermann and Stephen Mitchell, and organized by Simon Nygaard and Yoav Tirosh.

Session 1621 of the Old Norse Studies & Collective Memory Strand. — Drawing by Yoav Tirosh @RealMundiRiki

Awesome Medieval Nordic Women

A recent article on “A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics” set off a storm of controversy among Medieval Nordic scholars. In the midst of this storm, the Symposium “Gender and Sexuality during the Nordic Middle Ages,” organized by the Nordic research network Medieval Gender History, was held from 15th to 17th September in Stockholm, Sweden. Being bombarded with questions relating to the discovery of a female Viking warrior, the symposium was the calm in the storm for its participants — a meeting of equal minds … a meeting of awesome (wo)men on awesome medieval Nordic women.

“On Viking Expeditions of Highborn Maids” (Book 5, Ch. 27) in Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus by Olaus Magnus (1555).

Viking women here, Viking women there … Viking women everywhere!*

Last week I attended the 18th Viking Congress, which took place in Denmark alternating between Copenhagen and Ribe. During the congress, we were fortunate enough to visit a number of places that were connected with Vikings. We travelled around Denmark, taking in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, the Viking Fortress at Trelleborg, the home of the Viking Kings at Jelling, the Viking Center and the Viking Museum in Ribe, and we even ventured across the border to Germany to visit the Viking Museum Haithabu, also known as Hedeby. A central part of the museums’ exhibitions are the strong Viking Age women. In each of these places, reenactors brought to life what was happening in and around these locations during the Viking Age. Numerous Viking female reenactors give new voices to these strong female characters from history and literature.

I need a hero(ine)!

A long time ago Bonny Tyler sang the lyrics of Holding out for hero at the top of her lungs and screamed out:

I need a hero, I’m holding out for a hero …

’Til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life …

Now, more than ever it seems, I could do with a hero. Better still, I need a heroine! And, let’s be honest, we could all do with one. We all need a hero(ine)! I have just the candidate for this position: Auðr, aka Unnr, djúp(a)uðga Ketilsdóttir.