Viking Women: Evolution through Literature into Current Culture


This page examines what culture has preferred to think Viking women were like. If you are interested in more information about real viking women visit here: Real Women of the Viking Age

 

A link to this presentation with sound and Flash.

 

 

A few things you need to know about Flash presentation:

 

 

 

 

Here is my presentation in slideshare but it doesn't seem to want to stretch the full page and there is no music so it isn't as good as flash!!!

 

 

 

 

  

Examples of how Viking Women have been represented in  popular culture

 

 

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This is a ten-minute video which depicts Wonder Woman beating the Viking Queen.

(Sorry if I ruined it for you)

 

What interests me about this video is how the "Viking Queen" is shown. She is a burly woman, much larger than our beloved Wonder Woman. She is wearing a fur-lined bikini and boots, which seems to be all the rage for Viking women characters. She is wearing a horned helmet that, I'm sorry, Vikings did not wear. This video is a representation of a very stereotypical picture of how we understand Viking women today.                                                                                                 

This is a very funny video warning those who aren't used to Viking women how they will act if you take them out to dinner. The very attractive girl seems completely normal until the course comes, which appears to be half a head of a lamb/sheep. Still appearing very attractive, she starts biting at the head and pulling at the skin with her front teeth then proceeds to suck the eye between her lips at the bewilderment of her date. She finishes off the show with a nice burp.

 

Other than being quite funny this video shows another stereotype of  how we envision Viking women. She is very attractive but then begins to act brutish and vulgar, which feeds into the idea of Viking women being extremely hard to tame. 

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One of the most famous American Viking women movies is Viking Women and the Sea Serpent where a group of women go out looking for their men who haven't returned home. Their boat gets washed ashore where a select few of the more attractive women are captured by the same people who have their men. 

 

I love this clip because it shows everything we love about the idea of "Viking Women." A Prince gets separated from the group and has a boar on his tail. He acts as if the pig could seriously injure him, but in comes the calvary! A very attractive busty blonde comes sweeping in on her faithful steed and skewers the boar, saving the Prince. So not only do Viking Women know how to take care of wild animals, they don't need "Prince Charming." The woman saves the Prince and it could only be accomplished by a strong, untamed, beautiful woman...a Viking!

This movie is mainly for my class than anything because it makes references to many characters we have read about in the Sagas.

 

What I found most interesting in this clip is when a man buys his wife a female slave. Right afterwards, the Viking Princess decides she would also like to go back to the village with a slave of her own. She chooses a man and then goes back to her village so both can present their slaves. What this shows is the likeness between Viking men and women in popular culture, the only difference between the two is that the women are beautiful!!!!