>>18659502
There's a single instance of what may be a female warrior grave. Even if genuinely a female warrior, it's exceptional. We don't say the Medieval period was feminist just because Joan of Arc existed.

>>18659505
no one clame norse were gender equal, women did however have more rights then in christian europe

>>18659502
>>there are viking age graves of norse warrior women
Where? To my knowledge there's >one< case that's a maybe because the bones were mixed up due to poor archiving.

>>18659502
That's not true tho

>>18659610
It wasn't even that. One of the researchers commented that they were interested by the level of malnutrition shown in the skeleton, which was unusual because it was clearly a nobleman. The archaeologist made an off-hand remark 'the bones were so weakened they almost looked female'. The papers and various internet commenters took that one offhand comment and turned it into "ERMAGERD! ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONFIRM THAT 50% OF VIKANGS WERE COOL AND BADASS GIRLBOSS WARRIOR WOMEN!!!!!!!!1111"

>>18659502
>there are viking age graves of norse warrior women
There are not. Some chick getting buried with her dad's sword or husband's sword doesn't make her a warrior. The Norse were good at sailing and heavy infantry which stacks virtually every incentive possible against women fighting in their ranks.

You have something unintegrated, some shadow part of you, a weak or absent mother perhaps. War is the most morbid, fucked up and horrifying thing we do as men. Go look at the Crimean drone footage of women soldiers if you want some girlboss kino to see what happens to people in war.

I was in the military. Women are weak. They get treated special.

if there was shieldmaidens they probably never actually fought, maybe they acted like some kind of mascots/cheerleaders in order to raise troop moral by larping as valkyres

>>18659502
Nobody who fought against the vikings (or any other pre-Christian Germanics) has ever mentioned warrior women.

>>norse mythology geatures warrior women
>>norse sagas feature shieldmaidens
Those are works of fiction.

>there are viking age graves of norse warrior women
There are graves of women buried with weapons. That's not the same thing.

>>18659502
Norse sagas also mention Giants, Dwarves, Elves, magic swords, and reanimated corpses. Are you suggesting that those were historical realities as well OP? They're about as likely as a woman being able to do anything other than get absolutely and instantly dominated in Viking warfare.

>>18659915
>Norse sagas also mention Giants, Dwarves, Elves, magic swords, and reanimated corpses.
Uralics can confirm all of those things.

the way shieldmaidens are portrayed in mainstream media is a feminist psyop, yes. shieldmaidens did exist but they were extremely rare and oftentimes the result of widows. if a womans husbands was slain, she had two options; either burn herself on a funeral pyre to prove her loyalty, or go on a quest of revenge to do so.

>>18660010
>shieldmaidens did exist
They didn't

>>18660010
>or go on a quest of revenge to do so.
No. There was a whole staggered system that determined who can carry a feud and if the husband was slain and had no sons it would be up to his brothers, cousins(male) etc. etc.

Now of course you have to remember that people had emotions and shit so a woman may have wanted to avenge her husband's death regardless, but she wouldn't pick the open I grab axe and shield and try to fight my hubbies killer route because she'd get overpowered.
Also her fate after becoming a widow was more likely to be - decide if you return to your family with your dowry or stay with your husband's family.

>>18660010
>>18660195
The one vaguely plausible scenario for the existence of RL shieldmaidens is basically just:
>All the men are already dead
>The enemy is coming to loot our town
>We might as well put up a bit of a fight before the raping starts, just for our sense of self esteem

>>18659505
The french historian regine pernoud does make that argument to some degree in her writing on how the 'dark' ages are mostly a myth.
No woman would have been able been allowed to do what Joan did under the ancient romans or greeks, nor would she under the 'enlightened' societies that followed the middle age where womens rights were if anything more restricted.

the main source for the existence of shieldmaidens is a Danish Christian writing about things that happened 500 years before his birth (and clearly with his dick in his hand because every bit about shieldmaidens also goes off into a tangent about how sexually immoral they were)

>>18660010
The widow throwing herself on the funeral pyre was an Indian custom originating from a Vedic symbolic ritual, there's no record of it occurring during a Viking funeral. Most often, depending on her age, the widow would either remarry (often one of her deceased husband's male relatives) or live with her eldest son.

Female death at a Viking lord's funeral were slaves or servants who "volunteered" for the event. They weren't burned alive either, but simultaneously strangled and stabbed before having their corpse placed by their master's. At least, according to the only first-hand account we have of a Viking funeral.