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serinde4books's review against another edition
4.0
In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. Nancy Marie Brown uses science to create the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, and imagines what her life could have been. Brown shows that much of what we have taken as truth about women in the Viking Age is based not on data, but on nineteenth-century Victorian biases. Rather than holding the household keys, Viking women in history, law, saga, poetry, and myth carry weapons. Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield-maids to vivid life.
I really like the way Brown writes the chapters. With a fictional imagining of Hervor’s life then the facts that her research say is true about the era and as it applies to Viking culture in general. I really enjoy the mix of fiction and fact. I admit I know nothing of Viking culture and history, but this book really drew me in. As I said I love the format of weaving fiction and research to create a bigger picture of Viking life. I highly recommend this book .
*I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.*
I really like the way Brown writes the chapters. With a fictional imagining of Hervor’s life then the facts that her research say is true about the era and as it applies to Viking culture in general. I really enjoy the mix of fiction and fact. I admit I know nothing of Viking culture and history, but this book really drew me in. As I said I love the format of weaving fiction and research to create a bigger picture of Viking life. I highly recommend this book .
*I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.*
booknerd7820's review against another edition
4.0
The Real Valkyrie mixes history with fictional conjecture to tell the story of Hervor, a Viking age woman warrior. The discovery of the warrior jn a grave at Birka was long thought to be a prime example of a traditional viking warrior burial. However, with modern DNA sequencing, history has to rewritten as the warrior was discovered to be a woman and not a man as originally thought.
Nancy Marie Brown takes us on a fictional, yet historically based journey of this warrior woman and shows us what life was like during the 10th century in Scandinavia and beyond.
What I found most interesting was Brown’s focus on the East Way. We have all heard the Viking raids on British and Irish monasteries, but Vikings traveling the trade routes and settling parts of modern day Russia are less commonly told tales.
Definitely a must read for fans of Norse History and Womens Studies.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free advanced reader’s ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Nancy Marie Brown takes us on a fictional, yet historically based journey of this warrior woman and shows us what life was like during the 10th century in Scandinavia and beyond.
What I found most interesting was Brown’s focus on the East Way. We have all heard the Viking raids on British and Irish monasteries, but Vikings traveling the trade routes and settling parts of modern day Russia are less commonly told tales.
Definitely a must read for fans of Norse History and Womens Studies.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free advanced reader’s ebook in exchange for an honest review.
kwn's review against another edition
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I feel bad even writing this, but I couldn't finish this book. That is not to say it is not a good book! I think it is going to be positively received by many (it already is), but I couldn't do it right now.
The Real Valkyrie is a blend of extensive historical research and speculative fiction on the lives of Viking women. I love speculative fiction (I study historical imagination!), and Brown has done the work. While this book does not require the reader to know much about Viking histories, it will (obviously) help them to have decent interest in the geographies, relationships, and geopolitics of Vikings to want to follow along the story. Brown weaves snippets of Viking sagas and histories together to craft a "what could have been" for readers of this time period. However, at times it felt a bit like reading the genealogy of Abraham in Genesis "and this person begat this person who begat this person who traveled here and married this person etc etc." One of the strengths is getting to read the sagas and Brown's rhetorical criticism and historiographical analysis. As soon as it leads into more rote historical work is where I couldn't keep reading.
The Real Valkyrie is a blend of extensive historical research and speculative fiction on the lives of Viking women. I love speculative fiction (I study historical imagination!), and Brown has done the work. While this book does not require the reader to know much about Viking histories, it will (obviously) help them to have decent interest in the geographies, relationships, and geopolitics of Vikings to want to follow along the story. Brown weaves snippets of Viking sagas and histories together to craft a "what could have been" for readers of this time period. However, at times it felt a bit like reading the genealogy of Abraham in Genesis "and this person begat this person who begat this person who traveled here and married this person etc etc." One of the strengths is getting to read the sagas and Brown's rhetorical criticism and historiographical analysis. As soon as it leads into more rote historical work is where I couldn't keep reading.
arinnroberson's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating stuff. A really interesting deep dive into different aspects of viking culture, clothes and boats/ships, their trade and travel. I really enjoyed the narrative exploration that started each chapter painting Hervors possible life. The use of sagas and graves to paint this possible story was super interesting. Less on women then I thought but an interesting exploration of the effect of Victorian ideals on are expectations of what ancient cultures were like.
fionak's review against another edition
3.0
Technically I only read the introduction but it was enough to establish that this is mostly speculation and not presenting new research so I noped out, knowing that I would only find myself irritated that sexism has so coloured what the Vikings really were.
spiringempress's review against another edition
3.0
While I applaud the enthusiasm and passion of the author, the majority of this book felt like speculation. Brown attempts to uncover the story of a woman buried in a grave that was assumed to be a man for many years. Each chapter starts by retelling a saga and inserting this woman that Brown names Hervor into the narrative as it tries to imagine a possible reality for her.
This seems like an exciting idea, but it was hard to parse through the text to figure out what was intellectualized fiction from fact. At times the actual history seemed disconnected from the story that Brown was attempting to weave about Hervor and didn't establish a strong basis for her theories about the woman in the grave. I do like that the book challenged beliefs about gender roles and norms in Vikings culture, as well as, its careful evaluation of how Christian translators/writers affected the sagas handed down through the centuries.
This seems like an exciting idea, but it was hard to parse through the text to figure out what was intellectualized fiction from fact. At times the actual history seemed disconnected from the story that Brown was attempting to weave about Hervor and didn't establish a strong basis for her theories about the woman in the grave. I do like that the book challenged beliefs about gender roles and norms in Vikings culture, as well as, its careful evaluation of how Christian translators/writers affected the sagas handed down through the centuries.
echokitsune's review against another edition
5.0
This book follows the journey of Hervor, a girl who became a slave and eventually a Viking Warrior. Brown's examination of our ideas of Viking Warriors challenges the idea that the quintessential warrior was male, or that gender held any bearing in terms of future occupation for the Rus, or Vikings.
By examining a grave found at Birka that was for years assumed to be a male warrior's research now suggests that this warrior was a woman, and female warriors were not uncommon. Brown weaves historical research with sagas and poems from the period in which Hervor lived. Through following historical accounts of trade routes and examining artifacts found in the grave, as well as testing on Hervor's bones, Brown manages to theorize how Hervor's life may have been lived.
The significance of this book is not whether Hervor's speculative life was accurately theorized here, but rather challenging the idea of the Valkyrie as simply mythological creatures. We now know that in Viking culture, Sami culture, and many of the other nomadic eastern cultures Hervor could have encountered that women were valued members of society and often leaders. Victorian mores and the church's influence tainted our view of this powerful historical figures. This book is worth reading. Brown achieves a balance of speculative "fiction" based in historical facts that immerses you in the time in which Hervor lived.
By examining a grave found at Birka that was for years assumed to be a male warrior's research now suggests that this warrior was a woman, and female warriors were not uncommon. Brown weaves historical research with sagas and poems from the period in which Hervor lived. Through following historical accounts of trade routes and examining artifacts found in the grave, as well as testing on Hervor's bones, Brown manages to theorize how Hervor's life may have been lived.
The significance of this book is not whether Hervor's speculative life was accurately theorized here, but rather challenging the idea of the Valkyrie as simply mythological creatures. We now know that in Viking culture, Sami culture, and many of the other nomadic eastern cultures Hervor could have encountered that women were valued members of society and often leaders. Victorian mores and the church's influence tainted our view of this powerful historical figures. This book is worth reading. Brown achieves a balance of speculative "fiction" based in historical facts that immerses you in the time in which Hervor lived.