Invasion of the Viking women unearthed

[Viggen]

Women may have accompanied male Vikings in those early invasions of England, in much greater numbers than scholars earlier supposed, McLeod concludes. Rather than the ravaging rovers of legend, the Vikings arrived as marriage-minded colonists. "Although the results presented here cannot be used to determine the number of female settlers, they do suggest that the ratio of females to males may have been somewhere between a third to roughly equal," the study concludes...

 

...read the full article at USA Today

[Kosmo]

Amazing. This could stir a lot of debates regarding both Danish colonization in England and the relations with the homeland.

[caesar novus]

I have a medieval england course http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/Course_Detail.aspx?cid=8410 playing on my ipod and I believe the lecturer said both the Viking and Saxon "invasion" was oftentimes more like a stream of settlers, according to the archeology. She gave specific reasons why the history was long ago spun to emphasize the wave or invasion aspect due to identity politics. I don't recall if she claimed many women came by sea - you can put Viking bangles on a Brit bride. I may have muddled some of this narrative because I play this series while walking along busy traffic.

[caldrail]

It is interesting. Studies have shown that the majority of women in viking colonies in Iceland and Greenland were british.