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jmkemp's review against another edition
5.0
The Real Valkyrie is the second book I've read by Nancy Marie Brown, and like The Far Traveller, it weaves together the stories from the sagas and what we've found through archaeology to tell a tale that could have been true. Neither quite fiction nor history, there's a possible story, and then a discussion of the evidence that places that possible story at the heart of what we know about the history. For me this is the best of archaeology and the old stories. Both on their own are absolutely fascinating, and in The Real Valkyrie Nancy Marie Brown has woven them both into something that makes me think about how the assumptions we bring to the facts change the interpretations of those. She shows how the way the Christian faith twisted how we saw past that came befroe it, how it shaped the assumptions that the earlier archaeogists used to interpret their findings. Only with the addition of more modern scientific analysis were we able to show that many of the viking warriors that have been found were genetically female. This, combined with an understanding of the sagas, shows that gender roles were more fluid in the viking age.
barmatron's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
4.5
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.