It’s Erica the Red! Viking warrior who was a woman

WHEN one thinks of a Viking, the image of a tough Norseman at the helm of a longship comes to mind, no doubt on his way to do a spot of pillaging.

But the historical picture will have to be rewritten after one of the best-preserved graves of a Viking warrior buried with full honours – including two horses, a sword and armourpiercing arrows – was found to contain a woman.

For years the warrior was assumed to be a man – until DNA analysis by researchers at Stockholm and Uppsala universities proved otherwise.

Researcher Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson said the woman was ‘someone who worked with tactics and strategy and

could lead troops in battle’. Also in the grave was a set of gaming pieces and a gaming board. The researchers said the items suggested she was an expert tactician.

Although women did accompany men on voyages, especially to colonise new lands, they were usually buried with household items such as needlework and jewellery.

The warrior was buried in Birka – known as Sweden’s first city – during the tenth century.

Isotope analysis confirmed an itinerant lifestyle, well in tune with the warlike society that dominated northern Europe at the time. Jan Stora, who led the study, said the burial site had been excavated in the 1880s. He added it had just been assumed the warrior was a man.

‘Led troops in battle’