WEBVTT 00:00:33.450 --> 00:00:36.469 of the SoulChaser Becky YouTube channel and welcome 00:00:36.469 --> 00:00:40.530 to episode 9 of Valhalla Conversations titled 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:44.329 Worthy Women of Saga and Mythology and Legends 00:00:44.329 --> 00:00:46.840 and everything else in between. And this episode 00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:49.799 is a very special episode because I'm not on 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:52.380 my own as a woman. I've got two other excellent 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:55.420 women guests joining me today, and they themselves 00:00:55.420 --> 00:00:58.320 are the hosts of a really good YouTube podcast. 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:00.880 And it's also on Spotify and all the other places 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.979 you can find good podcasts called Shield Maiden 00:01:03.979 --> 00:01:06.640 Women of the North Well, which is appropriate 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:08.439 because that is what we're going to be talking 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:11.659 about tonight. So, ladies, if you'd like to introduce 00:01:11.659 --> 00:01:16.349 yourselves, who would like to go first? I can. 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:20.030 Would you like to go? Sure. I'm Kaye S. Barton, 00:01:20.230 --> 00:01:22.650 and I'm the author of the Norse Family Trilogy, 00:01:22.930 --> 00:01:25.629 in which a young Viking woman and a Viking warrior 00:01:25.629 --> 00:01:28.790 are caught in a deadly blood feud between two 00:01:28.790 --> 00:01:31.329 brothers. And here's the first book. It's called 00:01:31.329 --> 00:01:35.430 Warrior and Weaver. Beautiful. She's the weaver. 00:01:35.469 --> 00:01:42.079 He's the warrior. But even if she's not fighting 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.819 with a sword and a shield, she's still pretty 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:50.319 fierce. That sounds fabulous. It is on my to 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:52.959 read list. I've put it on my Kindle. I just need 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:55.079 to find time to read it. Like all my other books, 00:01:55.180 --> 00:01:57.920 I need to find time to read them. I hear you. 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:00.140 OK, well, thank you for joining me tonight, Kim. 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:03.739 Well, thank you for having me. Your time zones, 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:06.879 everyone. We need to find the Doctor Who TARDIS 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:11.389 to all meet in the same spot. Okay, who else 00:02:11.389 --> 00:02:14.409 have we tonight? I'm Johanna Wittenberg, and 00:02:14.409 --> 00:02:18.069 I'm the author of the Norsewoman series, which 00:02:18.069 --> 00:02:20.889 is the story. This is my hardback that I just 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:25.310 got recently. At this point, I'm up to six books. 00:02:25.810 --> 00:02:29.150 It's the story of a real Norse queen who lived 00:02:29.150 --> 00:02:33.770 and ruled alone in early Viking Age Norway. And 00:02:33.770 --> 00:02:37.270 I'll be talking about her later on in the podcast. 00:02:37.859 --> 00:02:41.240 So nice to see you both and thank you for having 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:44.340 me, Rebecca. You're very welcome. Thank you for 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:46.639 agreeing to participate in what is actually my 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:49.979 joyride of pursuing my passion for anything Vikingy 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:52.039 and going where it goes and thankfully having 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:54.919 wonderful guests like you let me vent out that 00:02:54.919 --> 00:02:58.280 passion and follow it to wherever it may end. 00:02:59.139 --> 00:03:01.699 Okay, so for tonight's topic, dear viewers and 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:04.900 listeners, we have each picked a woman from the 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:08.159 sagas of history. and a woman figure from the 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.500 mythology of legends and so we've each got a 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:12.759 kind of a favourite kind of a female champion 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:14.919 but there's so many out there there really are 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:20.780 so many um and I shall begin so mine is a woman 00:03:20.780 --> 00:03:23.860 that probably many many many may not have heard 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:26.879 of when I can get my words right um called Ord 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:29.319 the deep -minded or she'd sometimes go by the 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:32.759 name of Unr or Unr I can't get the Icelandic 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:35.360 pronunciation right but she has been written 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.180 about in various books about women in the Viking 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:41.340 Age and so I'm not going to quote well I'm not 00:03:41.340 --> 00:03:42.960 going to talk about I'm going to read from the 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:44.840 book because they've written it a lot better 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:47.439 than I can explain it. I'm going to start off 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:49.500 with Women in the Viking Age which of course 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:54.780 was a breaking a very good book to break into 00:03:54.780 --> 00:03:56.539 for those who have an interest in women in the 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.539 in Viking Age both historically and mythologically 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:02.080 and of course it's written by the wonderful Judith 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.060 Jesch who I've met many times many years ago 00:04:05.060 --> 00:04:07.419 albeit at the University of Nottingham when I 00:04:07.419 --> 00:04:09.780 used to go to the Midlands Viking Symposium there 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:17.100 annually. So to begin, according to the Landmabok 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:21.279 which was the big tomb of sagas of Iceland, Odra 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:23.819 was the daughter of the Norwegian chieftain Kettle 00:04:23.819 --> 00:04:26.939 Flatnose. loved the Norsenik knights, who went 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.879 to the Hebrides as an agent for King Harald Finehair. 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:32.699 She married a Norse King of Dublin, not everyone 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:35.259 that can do that, who was sadly killed then in 00:04:35.259 --> 00:04:38.560 a battle in Ireland. Her son Thorstein was then 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:42.120 killed fighting in Scotland and so orders two 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:44.339 main projects were then to leave for Iceland 00:04:44.339 --> 00:04:46.660 and to marry off Thorstein's many daughters. 00:04:47.579 --> 00:04:50.399 She prepared a ship in secret, which is pretty 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.819 amazing, and 20 free men accompanied her. So 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:56.779 again, men follow the woman. Not often you count 00:04:56.779 --> 00:05:00.060 to that. She married off a granddaughter each 00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:02.779 in Orkney and the Faroes and arrived in Iceland 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:04.759 where two of her brothers were already living. 00:05:05.420 --> 00:05:08.180 Her retinue was so large that the first brother 00:05:08.180 --> 00:05:11.060 could only be able to invite half of them to 00:05:11.060 --> 00:05:13.980 stay. Offended, order when meant to stay with 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:16.720 her other brother who was obviously more obliging. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.660 The following spring she went to look for a place 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:23.139 to settle and in Breda Fjorda and the number 00:05:23.139 --> 00:05:25.180 of the place names of the area are explained 00:05:25.180 --> 00:05:28.399 by little anecdotes to do with her such as Cam's 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:31.439 Nest or Cone Headland is so called because apparently 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:33.480 she lost her comb there so if anyone finds a 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:38.540 comb there it could be hers. Ordo chose to live 00:05:38.540 --> 00:05:40.759 at Havermoor where she raised a cross because 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:43.740 she was a good Christian, although her descendants 00:05:43.740 --> 00:05:47.519 later relapsed. Interesting. In this district 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:50.420 she distributed land to her shipmates and freed 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:52.660 slaves and the remaining granddaughters were 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:55.899 married. Finally we are given a detailed description 00:05:55.899 --> 00:05:59.040 of her death. She invited all her relatives to 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:02.120 a magnificent feast and after three nights she 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.579 gave everyone gifts and good advice saying the 00:06:05.579 --> 00:06:07.500 feast should continue another three nights so 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:10.060 that it could be her funeral feast. She then... 00:06:10.189 --> 00:06:13.110 died rather promptly and conveniently and was 00:06:13.110 --> 00:06:15.230 buried on the seashore as she had not wanted 00:06:15.230 --> 00:06:19.199 to be buried in this unconsecrated earth. However 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:21.459 much we choose to believe, it is clear that Audra 00:06:21.459 --> 00:06:23.980 was an exceptional woman. I absolutely agree 00:06:23.980 --> 00:06:26.079 with that statement. Although there were probably 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:28.519 few, if any other female settlers quite like 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:31.120 her, she shows the maximum a woman could achieve 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:33.319 in the socially turbulent times of the Viking 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:36.259 age, deprived of the support of both husband 00:06:36.259 --> 00:06:39.639 and son. She had to take initiatives and undertake 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.360 a male role if she was to get her family to Iceland. 00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:45.500 Having done so, she clearly commanded respect. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.500 In the more settled societies of Norway, where 00:06:49.500 --> 00:06:51.759 they came from, and Iceland as it became, women 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:54.199 probably had fewer opportunities to play any 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:57.040 other role than those of wife, mother and housekeeper. 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:00.279 Audra took advantage of the greater opportunities 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.899 and fewer social constraints in the Norse colonies 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:05.699 of the British Isles, and that the later stories 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:08.759 and legends about her, however romanticised, 00:07:09.300 --> 00:07:11.560 preserve a true picture of the possibilities 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:14.339 opened up for women in the upheaval of the Viking 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:18.720 movements. Beautifully well put, Judith. I couldn't 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:23.720 agree with it more. So yes, she is a fascinating 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:25.660 woman. It's always piqued my interest when I 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:28.319 first read about her and how she, A, kind of 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.800 suffered the loss of the key male figures in 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.740 her life, both her husband and her son, but that 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:37.920 she still had enough power and respect and influence 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:40.420 over the other family members and those who served 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:42.920 and worked under their family to then migrate 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.939 everyone. To build a ship in secret? I mean, 00:07:46.019 --> 00:07:47.819 I don't know how many shipwrights would have 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:49.319 agreed to just allow a woman to come and say, 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:51.160 can you build me a ship? But don't tell anyone. 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:54.100 Like, don't think like, why isn't your husband 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:57.240 asking me to do this kind of thing? But yes, 00:07:57.319 --> 00:07:59.740 it's interesting. And of course, to do that voyage 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:03.319 to Iceland, not always going well with the turbulent 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:05.560 seas and the misdirection of the winds and whatnot. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:08.759 And just the fact that she had an influence then 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:12.160 on Iceland and the place names. And it's just... 00:08:12.009 --> 00:08:14.750 Such a fascinating, absolutely fascinating life 00:08:14.750 --> 00:08:17.910 and I want to know more. I want to know more 00:08:17.910 --> 00:08:19.810 about her. I think there should be a whole series 00:08:19.810 --> 00:08:22.370 about her. It sounds dramatic, it sounds full 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:26.910 of drama in this intrigue. it's almost a bit 00:08:26.910 --> 00:08:29.449 like it just makes me think of echoes of kind 00:08:29.449 --> 00:08:32.690 of Elizabeth the first kind of ruling alone and 00:08:32.690 --> 00:08:36.429 of course Emma of Normandy who was a much later 00:08:36.429 --> 00:08:39.049 descendant of the Vikings kind of making her 00:08:39.049 --> 00:08:43.070 own headway getting through life with sons and 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:45.490 kings and husbands dying off one after the other 00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:47.350 all around her but still kind of like clinging 00:08:47.350 --> 00:08:50.110 to the power and taking influence and that kind 00:08:50.110 --> 00:08:53.830 of thing. So what do you two think about odd? 00:08:54.750 --> 00:08:57.769 Whichever way didn't she die sitting up to like 00:08:57.769 --> 00:08:59.909 I was just gonna say that yes, she died sitting 00:08:59.909 --> 00:09:03.230 up in bed Yeah, didn't say in there. We just 00:09:03.230 --> 00:09:05.610 know that she seemed to well it does in the saga 00:09:05.610 --> 00:09:11.870 so Decided like now I'm gonna die and I'm gonna 00:09:11.870 --> 00:09:16.070 die, you know sitting up. She told her son prepare 00:09:16.070 --> 00:09:19.190 Her she said to her son in the spring. She said 00:09:19.190 --> 00:09:22.549 go find a wife So he did. He went off to find 00:09:22.549 --> 00:09:25.669 a wife and then they had a wedding feast. And 00:09:25.669 --> 00:09:28.009 she said, all right, now that you're married, 00:09:28.029 --> 00:09:30.230 I want the wedding, the feast to go on three 00:09:30.230 --> 00:09:33.870 days longer. And because I'm going to die. And 00:09:33.870 --> 00:09:36.509 she did three days. The feast continued. And 00:09:36.509 --> 00:09:38.769 then she retired to her bedroom and she was found 00:09:38.769 --> 00:09:44.210 later sitting up in bed. So, yes. There's a lot 00:09:44.210 --> 00:09:46.970 of details that didn't get included. Another 00:09:46.970 --> 00:09:51.370 thing is that her two of her granddaughters were 00:09:51.370 --> 00:09:54.450 married off. One was in the Orkney Islands and 00:09:54.450 --> 00:09:58.470 the other, Shetlands? Shetlands or the Faroes? 00:09:58.570 --> 00:10:00.549 Maybe it was the Faroes. That's right, it was 00:10:00.549 --> 00:10:03.190 the Faroes. Yeah, Orkney and the Faroes. And 00:10:03.190 --> 00:10:06.250 then she arrived in Iceland. And she did not 00:10:06.250 --> 00:10:09.009 ask those guys to build her a ship. She ordered 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:12.909 them to. She was a very wealthy, powerful woman. 00:10:12.909 --> 00:10:14.289 I was going to say she was the father of the 00:10:14.289 --> 00:10:16.929 gods as well. She was the head of the house. 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:22.759 So she took male slaves with her as well, because 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:25.840 it also says in the saga that she freed several 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:35.549 of them and awarded them land. they claimed their 00:10:35.549 --> 00:10:38.629 land was like how far you could walk in one day 00:10:38.629 --> 00:10:41.389 or something like that is how much land you could 00:10:41.389 --> 00:10:44.450 have. Was that in that one or something? I'm 00:10:44.450 --> 00:10:46.909 maybe thinking of a different one. That was a 00:10:46.909 --> 00:10:51.629 legend about a goddess. Remember we talked about 00:10:51.629 --> 00:10:57.230 her? And she could plow in one day. But the other 00:10:57.230 --> 00:11:00.149 thing about in one of the sagas about Aod is 00:11:00.149 --> 00:11:04.519 she threw her pillars. her high seat pillars 00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:08.440 which was a tradition and it was just kind of 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:11.139 mentioned it wasn't really made a big deal of 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:14.299 but she they didn't even say she threw her pillars 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:17.620 overboard they said she found her pillars and 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:21.039 that's why she decided to make her homestead 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:24.100 where she did but it was a tradition when you 00:11:24.100 --> 00:11:27.000 approached Iceland to throw your high seat pillars 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:29.440 overboard and then wherever they turned up that's 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:34.029 where the gods meant you to settle. Although 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:36.029 she may have been a Christian by this time, she 00:11:36.029 --> 00:11:43.049 still went by the old traditions. Whenever I 00:11:43.049 --> 00:11:44.710 read that story or hear that story, I think, 00:11:44.950 --> 00:11:48.070 how in the world did she keep that ship being 00:11:48.070 --> 00:11:51.529 built a secret? Because that's not a small feat 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:55.570 to build a Viking ship. especially if it's enough 00:11:55.570 --> 00:11:58.009 to fit the people and her and all their belongings 00:11:58.009 --> 00:11:59.509 that she was taking with them and presumably 00:11:59.509 --> 00:12:03.830 some distance maybe at some harbour or river 00:12:03.830 --> 00:12:06.990 opening, river mouth, because I'm not sure where 00:12:06.990 --> 00:12:11.149 she was based when she was in the UK before that 00:12:11.149 --> 00:12:14.129 ship then set sail. It must have been kind of 00:12:14.129 --> 00:12:16.190 near my side of the world to be on the west and 00:12:16.190 --> 00:12:19.639 then go to the Orkneys and then the Faroes. Oh 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:22.740 no, Orkney's on the other way. That's the Shetland. 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.659 Orkney's up that way, isn't it? I'm rubbish with 00:12:25.659 --> 00:12:30.159 geography, ladies and gentlemen. GCFC, never 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:35.980 again. Orkney and Farrow's, that's the route 00:12:35.980 --> 00:12:39.840 to Iceland. Those are like the traditional stops. 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:44.940 And she married her granddaughters off to highborn 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:50.159 men. Yes. Many worthy of them. Weren't her descendants, 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:54.120 I think they were also like, you know, pretty 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:58.000 like kings and stuff of those places too. They 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:03.120 were Yarles anyway, yeah. Yarles, yeah. Yes, 00:13:03.399 --> 00:13:07.639 I wasn't messing around. No, no, I mean, there's 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:09.340 another book that does mention and again, it's 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:11.799 another recommended read of mine and to any viewers 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:13.759 and this is watching is Valkyrie the Women of 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:17.419 the Viking World by Johanna Catherine Friedrichsdottir. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.860 I had the pleasure of meeting her in person at 00:13:19.860 --> 00:13:25.580 my academic debut at the, oh my god, I've got 00:13:25.580 --> 00:13:27.559 the name of it, the conference, the symposium 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:32.240 in. Stavanger in Norway. I can't remember the 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:33.679 name of it now that's really embarrassing it 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:36.259 was only in late August shows how bad my memory 00:13:36.259 --> 00:13:39.299 is generally um but yeah she's got a nice section 00:13:39.299 --> 00:13:42.740 in here more or less saying the same thing that 00:13:42.740 --> 00:13:48.220 Judith does in her book um but there's a little 00:13:48.220 --> 00:13:51.139 bit in here where as it says Be 'una is resourceful 00:13:51.139 --> 00:13:53.820 and she manages to get a ship built and presumably 00:13:53.820 --> 00:13:55.899 a sail woven or purchased because of course women 00:13:55.899 --> 00:14:00.100 were vital in the sail industry in secret and 00:14:00.100 --> 00:14:02.320 sails off to Iceland with a large following and 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:05.000 whatever movable property they could muster. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:08.299 The narrator assures us that People say it is 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:11.159 hard to find another example of a woman managing 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:14.320 to escape from such a hostile situation with 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:17.600 as much wealth and as so many followers. It shows 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:21.179 what an exceptional woman Una was and yeah it's 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:23.639 just like even the sagas just can't praise her 00:14:23.639 --> 00:14:26.519 highly enough and I just love that. I love that 00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:27.860 because they're always thinking places about 00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:30.299 so and so and so and they're always men, always 00:14:30.299 --> 00:14:33.559 men, but it's nice that there are such women 00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:39.779 coming through in the sagas. And one of the things 00:14:39.779 --> 00:14:43.340 that I think I read about in this one, a real 00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:47.500 Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown. Oh, I'm halfway 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:50.539 through that one. That's a great one too. She 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:55.960 talks about that there were actually 13 women 00:14:55.960 --> 00:15:01.679 settlers in Iceland in the La Nama book that 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:05.000 settled without men. I mean, they didn't have 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.259 men with them. They just came on their own volition 00:15:07.259 --> 00:15:10.600 and claimed land on their own. Nothing else is 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:12.759 known about them except their names. They're 00:15:12.759 --> 00:15:15.340 listed in the book. And then there were other 00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:17.860 women who came with their husbands or with men 00:15:17.860 --> 00:15:22.940 in their family who were later widowed. So there 00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:26.379 were a number of women homesteaders, but there 00:15:26.379 --> 00:15:30.500 were over 400 men homesteaders, and there were 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:34.970 13 women. They were definitely in a minority, 00:15:35.289 --> 00:15:38.990 but they were there. They did do it. It must 00:15:38.990 --> 00:15:44.250 have been incredibly difficult. Yeah, definitely. 00:15:44.710 --> 00:15:47.850 Well, that is my nomination for my favorite woman 00:15:47.850 --> 00:15:51.970 of history and sagas. Who was it? It's a good 00:15:51.970 --> 00:15:57.610 choice. I love odd two. She's great. All right. 00:15:57.669 --> 00:16:03.980 So now over to me. And I chose Lagertha. So any 00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:07.799 listeners or viewers who are here will probably 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:10.279 at least recognize that name from the TV show 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:14.259 Vikings. She was the shield maiden wife of Ragnar 00:16:14.259 --> 00:16:19.899 Lothbrok. And her story comes from Saxo Grammaticus, 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:24.639 his early work from the 13th century, the Jesta 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:28.509 Donorum. Is it Jesta or Gesta? I don't know. 00:16:29.490 --> 00:16:31.950 I don't know if it's a soft G or a hard G. Anyway, 00:16:32.029 --> 00:16:34.110 I think it's just the norm. It means the deeds 00:16:34.110 --> 00:16:38.370 of the Danes. So yeah, so he's got a bit about 00:16:38.370 --> 00:16:41.649 her. It's mostly, the story's mostly about Ragnar 00:16:41.649 --> 00:16:46.570 as she shows up a few times. So the story starts 00:16:46.570 --> 00:16:50.509 with the fall of Ragnar's grandfather. He was 00:16:50.509 --> 00:16:53.960 a Norwegian king named Seward. by another Swedish 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:57.460 king whose name I can't pronounce. It's Fro. 00:16:57.700 --> 00:17:01.740 I'm not sure how. And this conquering king put 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:05.339 all of King Seward's female family members into 00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:10.140 a brothel. And when word of this reached Ragnar 00:17:10.140 --> 00:17:12.859 that his grandfather had been conquered and they 00:17:12.859 --> 00:17:16.119 were mistreating the women this way, he decided 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:20.319 to go and do something about it. Ragnar was the 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:24.660 king of Jutland and Denmark at this time. And 00:17:24.660 --> 00:17:28.480 when Ragnar arrived in Norway, he was met by 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.559 a group of women, all these women who had been 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:32.980 put in the brothel and had been mistreated and 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:37.579 abused. They all met him and a lot of them were 00:17:37.579 --> 00:17:42.619 dressed up as men. So yeah, because these women, 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:46.109 they were ready to get a little revenge. on this 00:17:46.109 --> 00:17:51.450 Swedish king. And I don't blame them. And so 00:17:51.450 --> 00:17:54.849 they had a big battle with Ragnar and this Swedish 00:17:54.849 --> 00:18:01.109 king Fro. And during this battle, the women fought 00:18:01.109 --> 00:18:04.549 just alongside the men and they were particularly 00:18:04.549 --> 00:18:09.109 brave, especially one woman who turned out to 00:18:09.109 --> 00:18:13.829 be Lagertha. And Ragnar even claimed that she 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:17.180 turned the tide of the battle. This is a shield 00:18:17.180 --> 00:18:21.319 marry. Yeah. And here's how Saxo described her. 00:18:22.099 --> 00:18:25.720 A skilled Amazon who though a maiden had the 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:28.660 courage of a man and fought in front among the 00:18:28.660 --> 00:18:31.619 bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders, 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:35.640 all marveled at her matchless deeds for her locks 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:38.779 flying down her back betrayed that she was a 00:18:38.779 --> 00:18:43.329 woman. So she was in the front. lines, which 00:18:43.329 --> 00:18:46.130 is particularly brave. But I thought it was kind 00:18:46.130 --> 00:18:49.890 of interesting that her long hair down her back 00:18:49.890 --> 00:18:52.730 betrayed the woman, according to him. So I was 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:57.009 like, does that mean that Viking men didn't typically 00:18:57.009 --> 00:19:01.349 wear their hair long? I thought that was kind 00:19:01.349 --> 00:19:04.349 of an interesting little detail. That's a good 00:19:04.349 --> 00:19:08.339 question, yeah. because we have this image of 00:19:08.339 --> 00:19:11.079 viking men with long hair often sounds like yep 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:13.599 did they not you would think you'd pull it back 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:16.019 at least because i would get in the way and be 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:20.660 a you know a hindrance anyway so but not only 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:24.319 was she brave she was also of noble birth which 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:28.140 was a bonus for ragnar because there's often 00:19:28.140 --> 00:19:32.240 classist tones overtones and norse stories they 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:35.880 really yeah so if she'd just been some regular 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:39.279 woman I don't think Ragnar would have been interested. 00:19:40.619 --> 00:19:45.279 So then he returned home, but he was smitten 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.779 by this courageous shield maiden. So he started 00:19:48.779 --> 00:19:52.579 sending her messages. And according to Saxo, 00:19:52.599 --> 00:19:57.500 she was not interested in Ragnar, but she led 00:19:57.500 --> 00:20:02.440 him on, let him think she was interested. gave 00:20:02.440 --> 00:20:05.400 him some confidence that he'd won over this woman. 00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:09.759 So he went to Norway to claim her. But he was 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:11.960 in for a shock. And I can tell from Johanna's 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:18.319 face that she knows. So out front of her house, 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:22.839 Lagertha had positioned two guardians, a dog 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:26.619 and a bear. And I like to imagine that this dog 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:30.819 was. very large, like some giant wolfhound or 00:20:30.819 --> 00:20:36.299 something like that. And then Ragnar, because 00:20:36.299 --> 00:20:40.619 he's this particular story's hero, defeats both 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:46.019 of these guardians. And one he killed by killing 00:20:46.019 --> 00:20:49.119 it with a spear and the other he choked to death 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:53.599 with his bare hands. That must have been the 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:59.099 bear. Yeah. Of course. Saxo doesn't say which 00:20:59.099 --> 00:21:02.819 one was which. Yeah. And that makes me think 00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:06.779 of Beowulf, you know him. Didn't he? Was it Grendel's 00:21:06.779 --> 00:21:09.220 mother he strangled with his bare hands? I don't 00:21:09.220 --> 00:21:13.559 remember. I think it was. So and then according 00:21:13.559 --> 00:21:17.000 to Saxon, thus he had the maiden as the prize 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:21.170 of the peril he had overcome. So he won the fair 00:21:21.170 --> 00:21:25.109 maiden, like a fairy tale. Except this doesn't 00:21:25.109 --> 00:21:29.849 have a happily ever after. But this is the Viking 00:21:29.849 --> 00:21:33.029 age, so there isn't a happily ever after. So 00:21:33.029 --> 00:21:36.869 they did marry and they had two daughters who 00:21:36.869 --> 00:21:41.349 were unnamed, of course, and then a son named 00:21:41.349 --> 00:21:44.750 Fridleaf. And they lived together in Norway for 00:21:44.750 --> 00:21:48.049 three years. But then there was some unrest back 00:21:48.049 --> 00:21:51.440 home in Denmark. that drove Ragnar back. And 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:54.960 then Lagertha stayed in Norway. And then during 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.839 this time period is when Ragnar kind of stepped 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:02.759 out on Lagertha. It's when he gets his nickname 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:07.680 Harry Breaches during this time. And he decided 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:11.799 to marry another woman named Thora. So and according 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:17.099 to Saxo, Saxo, Ragnar began to think ill. of 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:21.519 Lagertha's, her trustworthiness because she had 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:24.640 set those two guardians up and led him on and 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:28.680 everything. To me, it sounds like your typical 00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:31.799 justification of a king who simply wants to get 00:22:31.799 --> 00:22:34.680 rid of this inconvenient wife and get another 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:38.019 one. I'm sure Henry VIII had exactly the same 00:22:38.019 --> 00:22:43.359 mindset. That went through my mind. I think I 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:46.799 want this wife now. Yeah. So then Lagertha, she 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:49.279 remarried too, because they did get a divorce, 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:51.940 which was not as difficult in the Viking age 00:22:51.940 --> 00:22:57.099 as it was later. And then Ragnar back in Denmark, 00:22:57.720 --> 00:23:00.579 he ran into some trouble again. Some of his people 00:23:00.579 --> 00:23:03.519 or people were rising up against him. So he called 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.960 for assistance from his Norwegian allies, including 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:12.920 Lagertha. Yeah, and apparently the love she had 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:19.200 for him still flowed deep and steadfast. So she 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:24.220 and her husband and her son sailed with 120 ships 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:27.099 to help out right now. That's pretty impressive. 00:23:27.900 --> 00:23:31.039 That's pretty huge. That's almost too big, I'm 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:34.200 thinking. That's a real exaggeration. It makes 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:36.940 me think of Harold Harada's fleet when he first 00:23:36.940 --> 00:23:39.890 came and then how few he left. Well, his son 00:23:39.890 --> 00:23:46.849 left with yeah and so here's here and of course 00:23:46.849 --> 00:23:51.069 just like when regnar attacked the king that 00:23:51.069 --> 00:23:54.930 had put her in a brothel lagratha saves the day 00:23:54.930 --> 00:23:58.210 and this is what saxo has to say lagratha who 00:23:58.210 --> 00:24:01.789 had a matchless spirit though a delicate form 00:24:01.789 --> 00:24:05.759 frame covered by her splendid bravery the inclination 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:08.779 of the soldiers to waver for she made a sally 00:24:08.779 --> 00:24:11.880 about and flew round to the rear of the enemy 00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:15.079 taking them unawares and thus turned the panic 00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:18.319 of her friends into the camp of the enemy at 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:20.980 the at last the lines of herald became slack 00:24:20.980 --> 00:24:24.059 and herald himself was routed with a great slaughter 00:24:24.059 --> 00:24:29.480 of his men Yay Lagertha! And I love that he used 00:24:29.480 --> 00:24:32.240 the phrase flew round to the rear of the enemy 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:34.859 because it makes me think of a Valkyrie and how 00:24:34.859 --> 00:24:38.980 they would fly over the battlefield. And she 00:24:38.980 --> 00:24:42.500 might also have been inspired by a Norwegian 00:24:42.500 --> 00:24:46.259 goddess named Ørgerd who did something similar 00:24:46.259 --> 00:24:51.029 to... Hack on Sigurdsson during a sea battle. 00:24:51.029 --> 00:24:58.549 He had sacrificed his son to her earlier And 00:24:58.549 --> 00:25:01.269 but when they had the sea battle she like turned 00:25:01.269 --> 00:25:06.210 the wind against the enemy and then she also 00:25:06.210 --> 00:25:09.630 Threw and arrows at the end. She shot arrows 00:25:09.630 --> 00:25:12.730 at the enemy and killed them all and helped out 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:16.220 hack on just that like this woman coming in and 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:18.539 kind of saving the day at the sea battle reminded 00:25:18.539 --> 00:25:21.019 me a little bit so she could be linked Thorgaard. 00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:26.019 There's always a like bit of legend in with all 00:25:26.019 --> 00:25:32.019 these historical stories too. But unfortunately, 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:39.119 but not surprisingly for our hero Lagertha Saxo 00:25:39.230 --> 00:25:43.750 did not have kind words for her in the end. So 00:25:43.750 --> 00:25:46.589 when she returned to Norway, she murdered her 00:25:46.589 --> 00:25:51.529 husband while he was asleep with a spearhead 00:25:51.529 --> 00:25:56.309 that she hid in her nightgown. And this is what 00:25:56.309 --> 00:25:59.450 he said about her. Then she usurped the whole 00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:02.970 of his name and sovereignty for this most presumptuous 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:06.900 dame thought it or damn dame thought it pleasanter 00:26:06.900 --> 00:26:09.500 to rule without her husband than to share the 00:26:09.500 --> 00:26:15.599 throne with him so boo saxo but and i've never 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.119 read anything i don't know if there was somebody 00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:21.599 you know but anyway but it's a very frustrating 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:25.490 end to this pretty glorious story of this woman, 00:26:25.750 --> 00:26:28.549 this shield maiden woman who came to Ragnar's 00:26:28.549 --> 00:26:32.269 help twice and basically bailed him out. And 00:26:32.269 --> 00:26:34.869 then Saxo had to go and just cut her down at 00:26:34.869 --> 00:26:38.710 the very end. So. And it wasn't like it wasn't 00:26:38.710 --> 00:26:42.670 common to, you know, knock off your rival for 00:26:42.670 --> 00:26:45.029 the throne, which is what her husband had apparently 00:26:45.029 --> 00:26:48.769 turned into. Yeah, true. She wanted the throne 00:26:48.769 --> 00:26:53.660 herself like many, many other men. Right? It 00:26:53.660 --> 00:26:59.740 reminds me a little bit of the way Gunhild, the 00:26:59.740 --> 00:27:03.859 mother of kings. Wait, is it Gunhild? Yeah, the 00:27:03.859 --> 00:27:09.160 way she was treated in history. Yes, very much 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:17.200 so. The TV show, The Vikings, that first season... 00:27:17.210 --> 00:27:20.509 they really do a good job with they don't stick 00:27:20.509 --> 00:27:22.769 exactly to the facts but they really stick to 00:27:22.769 --> 00:27:26.049 the spirit of you know of their the marriage 00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:32.769 between Ragnar and and Lagertha and their divorce 00:27:32.769 --> 00:27:38.049 and and then her coming to his aid not with a 00:27:38.049 --> 00:27:42.269 fleet of 120 ships but and also offing her husband 00:27:42.509 --> 00:27:45.369 but she's a little more justified in the TV show. 00:27:45.509 --> 00:27:47.230 So I thought they did a really good job with 00:27:47.230 --> 00:27:50.049 that. Later on, they kind of go off the rails, 00:27:50.109 --> 00:27:55.190 but the first season or two were pretty good. 00:27:56.430 --> 00:28:00.230 And it was very cool just to see, you know, they 00:28:00.230 --> 00:28:04.329 did also a very good job of portraying what Viking 00:28:04.329 --> 00:28:07.230 life was like and their buildings and how they 00:28:07.230 --> 00:28:11.529 dressed. got a little hollywoody on us but they 00:28:11.529 --> 00:28:13.670 did yeah they really did a pretty good job that 00:28:13.670 --> 00:28:17.329 first couple seasons i really liked it and lagert 00:28:17.329 --> 00:28:19.950 that was a main main character throughout this 00:28:19.950 --> 00:28:23.930 series and she was treated as a heroine in that 00:28:23.930 --> 00:28:27.369 was good that was i like their treatment of her 00:28:27.369 --> 00:28:30.109 well she was for the most part in this until 00:28:30.109 --> 00:28:35.750 the very very end as long as she was uh you know 00:28:35.750 --> 00:28:42.650 not taking her own part Yeah, that's true. She's 00:28:42.650 --> 00:28:46.170 another very inspiring heroine. Yeah, I must 00:28:46.170 --> 00:28:49.569 admit I've not seen all of the Vikings series. 00:28:49.670 --> 00:28:54.630 I think I stopped at season four. That's probably 00:28:54.630 --> 00:28:59.849 a good place to stop. I think it was when his 00:28:59.849 --> 00:29:03.450 sons had grown up, so there was Ivar, Snake, 00:29:03.549 --> 00:29:06.400 and the Eye. And then there was Bjorn, who would 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:08.660 eventually become Ironside. And of course, I 00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:10.859 follow it up to the point of keeping an eye on 00:29:10.859 --> 00:29:13.759 how Rollo then took over Normandy and Stendatta, 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:16.960 because so many, so few realize that Normandy 00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:21.240 means land of the Northman. It has, it has strong 00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:23.339 Viking roots. And Rollo was not Ragnar's brother, 00:29:23.339 --> 00:29:26.940 but in the series he's Ragnar's brother. I don't 00:29:26.940 --> 00:29:29.519 think they were, I think they may have been contemporaries, 00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:33.019 but he wasn't the brother. Wasn't Rollo a little 00:29:33.019 --> 00:29:37.950 later? maybe later yeah yeah it's netflix and 00:29:37.950 --> 00:29:40.470 just tv in general they like to blend timelines 00:29:40.470 --> 00:29:43.529 um especially what they've done with viking solhalla 00:29:43.529 --> 00:29:46.490 which is a complete spaghetti of history they 00:29:46.490 --> 00:29:48.849 really do it there i actually had to check out 00:29:48.849 --> 00:29:51.470 of that one because i was like i can't have these 00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:54.619 people who weren't even like in the same alive 00:29:54.619 --> 00:29:57.480 at the same time like talking to each other. 00:29:57.680 --> 00:29:59.740 They're really really old or they're really young 00:29:59.740 --> 00:30:02.799 to not even like walk or talk yet. Right I'm 00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:04.819 thinking okay Canute would have been like eight 00:30:04.819 --> 00:30:10.400 years old when this guy was like And like Leif 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:13.440 Erikson was in, but anyway, I was just like, 00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:16.500 these people weren't intersecting. So I had a 00:30:16.500 --> 00:30:17.940 hard time with that one. I made it through the 00:30:17.940 --> 00:30:19.839 first couple. I liked the first couple of seasons 00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:22.500 of Vikings. And then I just kind of ran out of 00:30:22.500 --> 00:30:24.700 steam. So now it's good to know that maybe it 00:30:24.700 --> 00:30:28.940 was a good time to stop. It was interesting that 00:30:28.940 --> 00:30:32.779 I will say that for them. They really gave Freydis 00:30:32.779 --> 00:30:36.519 her own kind of spotlight. in the series as a 00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:38.740 female leader not just kind of like making her 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:41.599 kind of like the chosen one of all pagans but 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:43.920 throwing challenge after challenge at her kind 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.160 of like both in military kind of like with men 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:49.000 trying to usurp her and take over a little settlement 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:51.180 of Jomsberg but kind of giving her the challenge 00:30:51.180 --> 00:30:55.319 of finding safety, finding food, getting trade, 00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:58.369 kind of like that kind of thing. because in season 00:30:58.369 --> 00:31:00.509 three, and I'm sorry if I'm going to spoil for 00:31:00.509 --> 00:31:03.150 you ladies, she makes it all the way back to 00:31:03.150 --> 00:31:05.250 Greenland where she meets her dad, of course, 00:31:05.390 --> 00:31:10.529 Eric the Red, and he himself is not quite a nice 00:31:10.529 --> 00:31:13.210 heroic figure. He's quite controlling, quite 00:31:13.210 --> 00:31:15.369 dominant. He knows his people are starving and 00:31:15.369 --> 00:31:17.910 they're suffering and then they're living literally 00:31:17.910 --> 00:31:20.930 off rotten meat found up on the shore. That was 00:31:20.930 --> 00:31:25.029 a lovely scene. But he won't let Freydis and 00:31:25.029 --> 00:31:27.210 her people go because he needs these people to 00:31:27.210 --> 00:31:29.490 keep the settlement going. He needs their supplies 00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:32.750 and he even kills her own captain and takes over 00:31:32.750 --> 00:31:35.250 a ship so she literally cannot leave. She has 00:31:35.250 --> 00:31:38.470 to escape through subterfuge to go back to Kasiget, 00:31:38.549 --> 00:31:40.690 of course, the fictional settlement in Norway, 00:31:41.109 --> 00:31:43.410 to try and recruit a captain. And of course, 00:31:43.609 --> 00:31:45.089 rather ironically, she bumps into her brother, 00:31:45.190 --> 00:31:47.890 who has come all the way back from Constantinople, 00:31:47.950 --> 00:31:54.299 of course, where he's been all this time. Did 00:31:54.299 --> 00:31:57.869 you say she was part of the Joms Vikings? she 00:31:57.869 --> 00:32:01.289 was not she never was in the show in the show 00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:03.730 yeah i know she was not not quite the joms vikings 00:32:03.730 --> 00:32:05.549 they kind of like they don't have an elite warrior 00:32:05.549 --> 00:32:07.569 cast there but it's kind of like the last remaining 00:32:07.569 --> 00:32:09.650 settlement of pagans because of course canute 00:32:09.650 --> 00:32:11.990 is christian therefore norway's christian denmark 00:32:11.990 --> 00:32:14.789 becomes christian so it's it's showing the lens 00:32:14.789 --> 00:32:17.269 of kind of like the dying out of the old ways 00:32:17.269 --> 00:32:19.089 and the rising of christianity i mean in the 00:32:19.089 --> 00:32:21.630 very first episode of season three canute is 00:32:21.630 --> 00:32:25.180 meeting the pope and canute is not liking how 00:32:25.180 --> 00:32:28.279 he has to act inferior towards the pope and he 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:29.640 doesn't understand why the pope won't talk to 00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:31.460 him it's got to be his clergy even though the 00:32:31.460 --> 00:32:33.480 pope is sat right there he's like why can't he 00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:35.220 talk to me he's right there the clerk's like 00:32:35.220 --> 00:32:37.440 no you do not address the pope we speak for the 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:40.900 pope he was like why i'm the i'm the greatest 00:32:40.900 --> 00:32:43.200 king of the north why can i not speak directly 00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:45.940 to him um it was it there's some interesting 00:32:45.940 --> 00:32:48.950 things some interesting things um And if you 00:32:48.950 --> 00:32:50.569 ever have the time, me and a couple of other 00:32:50.569 --> 00:32:52.670 special guests did a whole review of that season. 00:32:53.309 --> 00:32:55.329 Patricia Bracewell and Sharon Bennett Connolly, 00:32:55.430 --> 00:32:57.910 who of course is a great historian on women of 00:32:57.910 --> 00:32:59.690 history. I know she's got a really exciting book 00:32:59.690 --> 00:33:02.730 about Scottish queens coming out in the new year. 00:33:04.089 --> 00:33:09.170 But anyway, slightly off topic. The one thing 00:33:09.170 --> 00:33:12.869 that did ring my mind in the Vikings TV series 00:33:12.869 --> 00:33:16.230 about Ligatha was her scenes when she tried to 00:33:16.230 --> 00:33:18.170 kind of like run the settlement that they tried 00:33:18.170 --> 00:33:21.569 to find found in what would be eventually the 00:33:21.569 --> 00:33:25.309 Danelaw and I think it was King Guthrum, Alfred's 00:33:25.309 --> 00:33:28.710 dad or Alfred the Great -to -be's dad and how 00:33:28.710 --> 00:33:30.910 she kind of uses her womanly wiley way to kind 00:33:30.910 --> 00:33:33.089 of like canoodle up with him but then kind of 00:33:33.089 --> 00:33:35.029 like keep her distance and keep her own little 00:33:35.029 --> 00:33:37.509 settlement and do their pagan things. I thought 00:33:37.509 --> 00:33:41.309 that was interesting. Was it not Alfred the Great's 00:33:41.309 --> 00:33:45.730 dad? No. No, he was he was a leader of the great 00:33:45.730 --> 00:33:49.849 Viking army. Oh, that's right. I'm getting my 00:33:49.849 --> 00:33:53.390 names muddled up. Yeah. Oh, I can't remember 00:33:53.390 --> 00:33:56.130 his name. He was dead way before this started. 00:33:56.230 --> 00:33:58.869 I can't remember his father's name. He took Alfred 00:33:58.869 --> 00:34:01.450 the Great. The king of Wessex Sea area at the 00:34:01.450 --> 00:34:04.049 time. Yeah, yeah. She canoodled up with him. 00:34:04.630 --> 00:34:07.930 And I think Guthrum was a co -king of England 00:34:07.930 --> 00:34:09.989 at one point. So that might be what you're thinking 00:34:09.989 --> 00:34:14.409 of. Maybe. maybe. It's been a while and parenthood 00:34:14.409 --> 00:34:17.349 has permanently abled my brain so I'm good if 00:34:17.349 --> 00:34:20.289 I can remember names on most days, let alone 00:34:20.289 --> 00:34:23.750 historical names. Okay so I think that's a really 00:34:23.750 --> 00:34:26.130 nice selection of historical coming that of course 00:34:26.130 --> 00:34:28.309 you dear viewers and listeners please do go research, 00:34:28.610 --> 00:34:31.210 find good books like these ones and the ones 00:34:31.210 --> 00:34:33.809 that our lovely guests have showcased they are 00:34:33.809 --> 00:34:36.840 really worth the read. They're not that laboriously 00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:40.539 academic, and the pictures they create and the 00:34:40.539 --> 00:34:42.360 sources they mention are all genuine, so you 00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:45.139 can trust these books. Don't trust Netflix and 00:34:45.139 --> 00:34:47.159 TV jammers. They're kind of like, take them to 00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:50.739 a big, they keep assaults, basically. But they 00:34:50.739 --> 00:34:54.119 are, the Netflix shows are nice because you do 00:34:54.119 --> 00:35:00.099 get a picture of Viking, Viking lifestyle that 00:35:00.099 --> 00:35:02.480 in some ways is accurate, especially the first 00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:05.900 couple seasons. Sorry, yes, please do divulge 00:35:05.900 --> 00:35:08.900 us with your wonderful female figure. So Queen 00:35:08.900 --> 00:35:14.340 Osa is mentioned in the Inglinger Tal, and that's 00:35:14.340 --> 00:35:19.219 an ancient Scandinavian poem, and Snorri Sturluson 00:35:19.219 --> 00:35:21.780 imported that into his book, The Heimskringle, 00:35:21.860 --> 00:35:27.179 which is kind of the Bible of the sagas of the 00:35:27.179 --> 00:35:31.460 kings. So all the kings of Norway are in our 00:35:31.420 --> 00:35:34.960 mentioned in here, and Queen Osa is in one of 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:42.199 the earliest chapters. So Snorri was writing 00:35:42.199 --> 00:35:46.739 in the early 1200s, like 1220, and Queen Osa 00:35:46.739 --> 00:35:49.679 lived in the early 800s, which was the dawn of 00:35:49.679 --> 00:35:54.139 the Viking Age. And she was the daughter of a 00:35:54.139 --> 00:35:58.139 petty king. At that time, Norway was completely 00:35:58.139 --> 00:36:01.539 divided into at least 30 warring kingdoms. In 00:36:01.539 --> 00:36:04.860 fact, almost all of Europe was this way. England, 00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:07.340 you know, almost every country you can think 00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:09.179 of was this way. But there were all these petty 00:36:09.179 --> 00:36:13.000 kingdoms and all these warlords who called themselves 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:16.380 kings or jarls. If they were subservient to a 00:36:16.380 --> 00:36:19.619 king, then they were a jarl. If they had people 00:36:19.619 --> 00:36:21.500 reporting to them, then they called themselves 00:36:21.500 --> 00:36:24.840 a king. And her father was a petty king of Agder, 00:36:25.159 --> 00:36:27.460 which is southern Norway. It's the southern part 00:36:27.460 --> 00:36:32.380 of Norway. And his name was Harold Redbeard. 00:36:33.699 --> 00:36:37.820 And the king was up above them in the north, 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:40.300 a little north of them in Vestfold was called 00:36:40.300 --> 00:36:44.659 Gudred. And he had lost his wife. He had a grown 00:36:44.659 --> 00:36:48.739 son and he had lost his wife. And he went to 00:36:48.739 --> 00:36:50.860 Harold and said, I'd like to marry your daughter. 00:36:51.480 --> 00:36:54.739 And nobody knows for sure what the story is. 00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:57.760 but a lot of people think that Ossus said no 00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:03.500 and so Harald said no and he didn't like that 00:37:03.500 --> 00:37:06.440 very much so Gudrid gathered all his men and 00:37:06.440 --> 00:37:10.219 launched an attack on Agder and supposedly their 00:37:10.219 --> 00:37:12.539 headquarters was on the island of Tramøy which 00:37:12.539 --> 00:37:17.119 is a very large island on the east coast of Norway 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:21.420 and they attacked at night and they defeated 00:37:21.420 --> 00:37:25.239 Harald and his son Gerd, who's Osa's brother, 00:37:25.460 --> 00:37:29.659 and they took Osa captive. So they took her back 00:37:29.659 --> 00:37:34.639 to Bore, which is where he had his kingdom, and 00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:41.000 she had a baby about a year later, and everything 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:43.500 seemed to be going just very well for Gudrid 00:37:43.500 --> 00:37:48.559 until about a year later. And one night he was 00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:51.260 very, very drunk and he was getting off a ship 00:37:51.260 --> 00:37:56.079 and someone killed him with a spear. Oh, no. 00:37:56.739 --> 00:37:59.500 Yes. And that person, his assassin was immediately 00:37:59.500 --> 00:38:03.199 killed. And in the morning when it was light, 00:38:03.340 --> 00:38:06.679 they discovered it was Queen Osa's shoe boy. 00:38:07.420 --> 00:38:11.340 So she had apparently commanded him to kill her 00:38:11.340 --> 00:38:17.800 husband. And he did. So. As soon as that happened, 00:38:17.800 --> 00:38:21.039 she said, yes, it was done by my bidding. She 00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:23.619 took her son and she got on a ship and went back 00:38:23.619 --> 00:38:26.900 to her father's kingdom where she ruled it for 00:38:26.900 --> 00:38:30.679 the next 18 years until he turned, her son was 00:38:30.679 --> 00:38:33.739 18, so at least 17 years. But she ruled alone. 00:38:34.679 --> 00:38:37.719 So in my book, I do change the facts a little 00:38:37.719 --> 00:38:41.420 bit because I just could not have a main character 00:38:41.420 --> 00:38:45.869 who would sacrifice a slave or a servant to kill 00:38:45.869 --> 00:38:48.809 her husband. So in my book, she kills him herself. 00:38:49.449 --> 00:38:54.070 And it goes through a long, long story about 00:38:54.070 --> 00:38:57.250 how that came about. And she essentially kills 00:38:57.250 --> 00:39:00.849 him in order to save her son. And she does go 00:39:00.849 --> 00:39:04.570 back to Agder and she takes up the reins. And 00:39:04.570 --> 00:39:08.050 then nothing else is heard of her. Her son was 00:39:08.050 --> 00:39:10.750 half down the black who was the father of Harold 00:39:10.750 --> 00:39:15.940 Fairhair. And those kings are historical. She's 00:39:15.940 --> 00:39:18.860 historical as Harold Fairhair's grandmother. 00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:22.099 We don't hear another word about her, even though 00:39:22.099 --> 00:39:25.940 we know pretty sure that she ruled alone for 00:39:25.940 --> 00:39:30.639 17, 18 years until her son was of age in the 00:39:30.639 --> 00:39:35.320 Viking age. So I thought, wow, this is a very 00:39:35.320 --> 00:39:36.940 interesting woman. I'm going to have to write 00:39:36.940 --> 00:39:40.599 about her. So I have, at this point, after the 00:39:40.599 --> 00:39:42.920 first book, which does follow history to a certain 00:39:42.920 --> 00:39:46.559 point, I'm imagining in six, and now I'm working 00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:50.199 on book seven, what life must have been like 00:39:50.199 --> 00:39:54.500 for her. It's very, it's been very fun. I still 00:39:54.500 --> 00:39:59.300 have not run out of stories about her. And I've 00:39:59.300 --> 00:40:02.099 also brought in a lot of the mythology of the 00:40:02.099 --> 00:40:04.360 time period, because they were definitely not 00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:06.400 Christian. They meet Christians, but they are 00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:08.900 not Christian. And they're not even close to 00:40:08.900 --> 00:40:11.789 being converted at this point. Norway doesn't 00:40:11.789 --> 00:40:16.929 convert until the 900s when um when they get 00:40:16.929 --> 00:40:20.090 a Christian and the good and they only convert 00:40:20.090 --> 00:40:23.730 for a little while yeah they all talk on and 00:40:23.730 --> 00:40:25.730 they because the crops are bad and they go back 00:40:25.730 --> 00:40:28.130 to their pagan ways so it's really around the 00:40:28.130 --> 00:40:31.250 year 1000 that they become truly christian but 00:40:31.250 --> 00:40:35.610 anyway osa lived in the early 800s we don't know 00:40:35.610 --> 00:40:40.090 the exact year But there is a lot of belief that 00:40:40.090 --> 00:40:43.289 she may be the person who's buried in the Osberg 00:40:43.289 --> 00:40:46.789 burial ship. Which is one of the reasons they 00:40:46.789 --> 00:40:50.010 call it the Osberg burial ship. And nobody knows 00:40:50.010 --> 00:40:52.269 for sure who that person, there are two women 00:40:52.269 --> 00:40:54.989 buried there. No men, just two women. And it 00:40:54.989 --> 00:40:59.909 is the most resplendent ship burial in all of 00:40:59.909 --> 00:41:04.750 Scandinavia. It's a beautifully carved ship with 00:41:04.750 --> 00:41:09.730 30 oars. It's 70 feet long. It was loaded with 00:41:09.730 --> 00:41:15.909 ornately carved slaves, a very, very old carved 00:41:15.909 --> 00:41:20.150 cart that they believe may have belonged to a 00:41:20.150 --> 00:41:26.670 sorceress or a priestess. There were tapestries 00:41:26.670 --> 00:41:29.269 that show us, they're actually the only real 00:41:29.269 --> 00:41:33.050 pictures that we know of that show us what people 00:41:33.050 --> 00:41:35.530 might have looked like. Now they're very cartoonish. 00:41:35.710 --> 00:41:40.730 but we can see how they dress. The men wore these, 00:41:41.550 --> 00:41:44.349 they're almost like kilts, but they're divided, 00:41:44.769 --> 00:41:47.909 wide -legged pants, and they are patterned. They 00:41:47.909 --> 00:41:52.230 look like they have some very fancy woven patterns 00:41:52.230 --> 00:41:56.289 on them. And the women all wear these shawls 00:41:56.289 --> 00:42:00.150 that are also ornate, and they wear these long 00:42:00.150 --> 00:42:07.099 dresses with trains. And there are over 20 shield 00:42:07.099 --> 00:42:11.019 maidens portrayed on these weavings. And the 00:42:11.019 --> 00:42:14.480 weavings date back to around, you know, 830, 00:42:14.920 --> 00:42:18.739 somewhere in that time period. So we did show 00:42:18.739 --> 00:42:22.880 them as having women in these tapestries are 00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:25.639 portrayed as sorceresses, they're portrayed as 00:42:25.639 --> 00:42:29.480 warriors, they're portrayed as shamans, there 00:42:29.480 --> 00:42:31.800 are men and women portrayed as shamans and warriors. 00:42:32.700 --> 00:42:35.860 They all wear, there's a man in a bear costume, 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:38.559 two men in bear costumes. There's two women in 00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:41.559 boar costumes. They both are carrying weapons. 00:42:42.739 --> 00:42:47.099 There's two shield walls of women as well as 00:42:47.099 --> 00:42:51.139 shield walls of men. So we don't know what these 00:42:51.139 --> 00:42:53.320 tapestries are telling a story, but we just don't 00:42:53.320 --> 00:42:57.219 know what the story is yet. We may never know. 00:42:58.190 --> 00:43:01.469 of a archaeologist, Marianne Bedeller, who's 00:43:01.469 --> 00:43:04.230 from the University of Oslo. She wrote a book 00:43:04.230 --> 00:43:09.150 called the Osberg Tapestries and she goes into 00:43:09.150 --> 00:43:12.449 a lot of what we know about what they're telling 00:43:12.449 --> 00:43:15.110 us in these tapestries. It's a fascinating read 00:43:15.110 --> 00:43:16.889 and unfortunately you can't get it in the United 00:43:16.889 --> 00:43:20.949 States. You can get it in the Scandinavian countries 00:43:20.949 --> 00:43:24.010 and that's about it. So I've been able to borrow 00:43:24.010 --> 00:43:27.429 a copy from interlibrary loan, but I haven't 00:43:27.429 --> 00:43:31.769 been able to buy a copy, maybe someday. Anyway, 00:43:32.010 --> 00:43:35.769 it's a fascinating, the Osberg ship is fascinating, 00:43:35.909 --> 00:43:39.849 whether it was her burial or not. I, you know, 00:43:39.869 --> 00:43:42.269 there's some quibbling about the dates, which 00:43:42.269 --> 00:43:45.289 I understand, but to tell you the truth, I think 00:43:45.289 --> 00:43:49.050 it really is her, because who else could it be? 00:43:49.239 --> 00:43:52.679 There isn't anybody else in any stories that 00:43:52.679 --> 00:43:56.239 it could be. So we don't know. That's a very 00:43:56.239 --> 00:44:01.119 good point. Yeah, the Gokstad ship is probably 00:44:01.119 --> 00:44:05.239 Olaf, who was Gudrid's son. And he became the 00:44:05.239 --> 00:44:12.219 king of Vestfold once his father died. Or it 00:44:12.219 --> 00:44:16.579 could also be Olaf's son. which is Roanvald the 00:44:16.579 --> 00:44:18.880 Mountain High, and he became a mighty king as 00:44:18.880 --> 00:44:21.579 well. And depending on the dating, it might be 00:44:21.579 --> 00:44:26.760 his Olaf's son, not Olaf himself. Anyway, I love 00:44:26.760 --> 00:44:29.880 archaeology. I can't really carry it away with 00:44:29.880 --> 00:44:34.699 it. It's a very good point because history is 00:44:34.699 --> 00:44:38.320 full of stories of kings, their lives, their 00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:42.489 deaths, how they're remembered. good or bad, 00:44:42.909 --> 00:44:45.030 like Ethelred, the unready, the unadvised, for 00:44:45.030 --> 00:44:48.250 example. But nothing much about the queens, because 00:44:48.250 --> 00:44:50.730 I know I've got a book on my bookshelf in the 00:44:50.730 --> 00:44:54.969 lounge about Ethelred's mum. I know I've got 00:44:54.969 --> 00:44:57.090 like Sharon Bennet Cotley, my previous guest 00:44:57.090 --> 00:44:59.530 in a previous episode, she's written about the 00:44:59.530 --> 00:45:01.769 women behind the Norman Conquest, so she looks 00:45:01.769 --> 00:45:04.949 at William the Conqueror's wife, Matilda, and 00:45:04.949 --> 00:45:08.170 of course, Harold Godwinson's and Harold Hadarada's 00:45:08.170 --> 00:45:12.090 one or two wives, I think. um but yes in terms 00:45:12.090 --> 00:45:14.670 of Scandinavian queens certainly kind of like 00:45:14.670 --> 00:45:17.349 we considering we're literally across their next 00:45:17.349 --> 00:45:20.949 -door neighbors via the sea we know zero zero 00:45:20.949 --> 00:45:23.809 we know all about the king held hadrada and swain 00:45:23.809 --> 00:45:27.969 forkford and king canute but nothing nothing 00:45:27.969 --> 00:45:29.429 about the queens and of course the daughters 00:45:29.429 --> 00:45:32.429 are always married off to anywhere else and that 00:45:32.429 --> 00:45:35.550 we don't hear from them again which is a real 00:45:35.550 --> 00:45:39.539 shame because they didn't write down their history 00:45:39.539 --> 00:45:43.920 until after the year 1000 when they became Christian. 00:45:44.260 --> 00:45:47.780 So by the time, you know, they didn't write much 00:45:47.780 --> 00:45:50.619 history at all. And when Snorri Sturluson came 00:45:50.619 --> 00:45:54.340 along, it was 1220 when he wrote this book. So 00:45:54.340 --> 00:45:58.199 it was 400 years later. And they were thoroughly 00:45:58.199 --> 00:46:01.019 Christianized. He was in Iceland. He wasn't Norwegian. 00:46:01.139 --> 00:46:04.630 He was writing it for the Norwegian king. But 00:46:04.630 --> 00:46:06.650 of course they left women out because by that 00:46:06.650 --> 00:46:08.989 time women were kind of an afterthought in their 00:46:08.989 --> 00:46:14.110 society. Things had changed drastically for women 00:46:14.110 --> 00:46:20.190 after the year 1000. Just like it did in Anglo 00:46:20.190 --> 00:46:23.929 -Saxon England, but Anglo -Saxon England was 00:46:23.929 --> 00:46:27.869 Christianized long before the conquest. They 00:46:27.869 --> 00:46:32.309 were not Roman Catholic to begin with. They wrote 00:46:32.309 --> 00:46:34.969 a lot, but they also showed us women's rights 00:46:34.969 --> 00:46:40.250 in Anglo -Saxon England were much different than 00:46:40.250 --> 00:46:42.630 they were after the conquest. In fact, I wrote 00:46:42.630 --> 00:46:45.829 a whole paper about that. We have a whole podcast 00:46:45.829 --> 00:46:49.110 about that. We do. Do we have two episodes or 00:46:49.110 --> 00:46:51.329 one? It was so long, it turned into two podcasts. 00:46:52.510 --> 00:46:55.050 All your episodes are fascinating. I know when 00:46:55.050 --> 00:46:58.389 I was preparing for my academic debut at the 00:46:58.389 --> 00:47:00.769 Marie Symposium. I remembered it. It returns 00:47:00.769 --> 00:47:02.869 to my brain, ladies and gentlemen, the Marie 00:47:02.869 --> 00:47:04.849 Symposium at Stavanger, which was looking at 00:47:04.849 --> 00:47:10.650 the medieval middle ages, relevance, retelling 00:47:10.650 --> 00:47:13.630 and inspiration in the 20th and 21st century. 00:47:13.690 --> 00:47:15.969 And I was, of course, I've always been curious 00:47:15.969 --> 00:47:18.210 about the figures of Valkyries. And we will get 00:47:18.210 --> 00:47:20.070 on to the mythology side. Don't worry, Davey 00:47:20.070 --> 00:47:22.730 was in this as we're getting there. Of Valkyries, 00:47:22.769 --> 00:47:24.869 and of course, one Valkyrie in particular, of 00:47:24.869 --> 00:47:28.449 course, is Brunhild. of Sigurd and Fafnir fame. 00:47:28.449 --> 00:47:30.550 And of course, I listened to your wonderful first 00:47:30.550 --> 00:47:33.909 debut podcasts about Brynhildr and her different 00:47:33.909 --> 00:47:37.789 interpretations in the sagas and the cortex. 00:47:38.510 --> 00:47:40.909 Because of course, not many people know about 00:47:40.909 --> 00:47:43.090 that source material. Most people think either 00:47:43.090 --> 00:47:46.190 Richard Wagner in the Ring Cycle or the infamous 00:47:46.190 --> 00:47:49.050 Bugs Bunny episode where the hunter is Sigurd 00:47:49.050 --> 00:47:51.909 and Bunny dresses up as Brynhildr supposedly 00:47:51.909 --> 00:47:56.909 and a horse with long plaits and a hat. The one 00:47:56.909 --> 00:48:00.809 fascinating interpretation. But yes, it was interesting 00:48:00.809 --> 00:48:04.130 learning more about her background and how she 00:48:04.130 --> 00:48:06.070 appears as this kind of mythological character. 00:48:06.110 --> 00:48:08.670 And then she magically transforms into kind of 00:48:08.670 --> 00:48:10.809 like a maiden in a tower in a keep where he goes 00:48:10.809 --> 00:48:12.570 and falls in love with her because his eagle 00:48:12.570 --> 00:48:14.789 flies up to a tower or hawk, whatever it's flying 00:48:14.789 --> 00:48:18.690 around. And it's kind of like, oh, Rapunzel very 00:48:18.690 --> 00:48:21.849 much. That kind of romanticized, even kind of 00:48:21.849 --> 00:48:25.019 back then when it was being recorded. But yes, 00:48:25.159 --> 00:48:26.800 absolutely fascinating. And of course, Snorri 00:48:26.800 --> 00:48:30.800 does have a lot of influence in terms of the 00:48:30.800 --> 00:48:33.059 women and how they're portrayed in the mythology 00:48:33.059 --> 00:48:37.820 side. So that is where we will go next. So my 00:48:37.820 --> 00:48:40.559 goddess, Lifetrisen, because you can, well, you 00:48:40.559 --> 00:48:44.079 can pick other female deities and beings. There's 00:48:44.079 --> 00:48:46.019 Norns, there's Witches, there's Bulbers, there's 00:48:46.019 --> 00:48:52.050 Giantesses. Other spirits galore is Freya. because 00:48:52.050 --> 00:48:55.730 of course she's awesome. And the name is still 00:48:55.730 --> 00:48:59.210 popular in the 21st century and I got this beautiful 00:48:59.210 --> 00:49:03.329 book, Dawling Kindersley, their books are just 00:49:03.329 --> 00:49:06.090 gorgeous. I found it in the children's section 00:49:06.090 --> 00:49:07.969 to do with folklore and fairy tales and I said 00:49:07.969 --> 00:49:12.530 it's coming home, it's coming home with me. And 00:49:12.530 --> 00:49:15.429 the artwork is very simple but abstract. And 00:49:15.429 --> 00:49:18.650 there's Freya and her twin brother Frey. But 00:49:18.650 --> 00:49:21.110 there she is with her big cats. And they're not 00:49:21.110 --> 00:49:23.010 house cats, Davey was in listeners. She never 00:49:23.010 --> 00:49:24.969 had a chariot pulled by house cats. They were 00:49:24.969 --> 00:49:33.349 fearsome felines. So in this one, it says Raya 00:49:33.349 --> 00:49:36.510 is a goddess of the Vanir tribe. She is associated 00:49:36.510 --> 00:49:40.690 with love, beauty, fertility and magic. She rules 00:49:40.690 --> 00:49:43.369 over a place in the afterlife, a meadow called 00:49:43.369 --> 00:49:46.989 Folkvanger and half of all warriors who die in 00:49:46.989 --> 00:49:49.980 battle. go to her, which is why I think she's 00:49:49.980 --> 00:49:52.300 awesome, because that's level pegging with Odin 00:49:52.300 --> 00:49:56.920 there, folks. The rest stay with Odin, so considering 00:49:56.920 --> 00:50:00.000 how power -hungry and paranoid Odin is just about 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:02.320 the end of everything, and not knowing enough, 00:50:02.420 --> 00:50:04.480 you'd think he wouldn't give a soul away, but 00:50:04.480 --> 00:50:08.719 no, he does, he gives half to her. Apparently 00:50:08.719 --> 00:50:11.960 in this book, her parents are Njord and possibly 00:50:11.960 --> 00:50:15.190 Nerthas. who I've not heard of before, and her 00:50:15.190 --> 00:50:19.250 children, uh, Hanos and Josemi. Again, I don't 00:50:19.250 --> 00:50:20.789 know much about them, so that'll be interesting 00:50:20.789 --> 00:50:23.570 for me to look up. Um, she's got a few sacred 00:50:23.570 --> 00:50:26.349 items. She's got her Brisinghamen amber necklace. 00:50:26.829 --> 00:50:30.050 It's her most prized possession, kind of as Odin 00:50:30.050 --> 00:50:32.250 covers knowledge, Freyja covers pretty things. 00:50:32.789 --> 00:50:35.150 She has falcon feather cloak, which allows her 00:50:35.150 --> 00:50:37.190 to change into a bird and fly all over the place, 00:50:37.210 --> 00:50:39.369 and that gets used quite a lot in the myths. 00:50:39.599 --> 00:50:41.559 not often by her but usually by the other gods 00:50:41.559 --> 00:50:43.460 because they get in trouble and need her help. 00:50:44.219 --> 00:50:47.679 She does have a chariot which is pulled by two 00:50:47.679 --> 00:50:50.360 cats and I do refuse to think of them as house 00:50:50.360 --> 00:50:53.960 cats, they won't be big cats, but she does also 00:50:53.960 --> 00:50:58.360 have a giant boar called Hildesvini which means 00:50:58.360 --> 00:51:01.519 battle swine. but she is most commonly described 00:51:01.519 --> 00:51:05.079 as an enchantress. She is well practiced in magical 00:51:05.079 --> 00:51:08.019 arts called sida, which is a very female, feminine 00:51:08.019 --> 00:51:12.019 art form of magic. She teaches Odin spells and 00:51:12.019 --> 00:51:14.219 potions and how to see into the features. So 00:51:14.219 --> 00:51:17.719 again, Odin is gaining a lot from her. He doesn't 00:51:17.719 --> 00:51:21.639 know it all, she does. And close to nature, Freyja 00:51:21.639 --> 00:51:24.420 has animal familiars, or friga, including the 00:51:24.420 --> 00:51:27.429 boar, Hildesvini, and there's and these help 00:51:27.429 --> 00:51:30.349 or guide her. So that's one book that covers 00:51:30.349 --> 00:51:32.690 her. It's a beautiful book, beautiful artwork. 00:51:32.869 --> 00:51:34.809 It does actually have a nice couple of pages 00:51:34.809 --> 00:51:37.929 about Bryn Hilda the Valkyrie as well. Another 00:51:37.929 --> 00:51:40.929 book, which again is another print to read, is 00:51:40.929 --> 00:51:45.420 this one. 50 goddesses, spirits and saints and 00:51:45.420 --> 00:51:47.360 other female figures that have shaped belief. 00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:50.320 And this is written by the wonderful Dr. Unina 00:51:50.320 --> 00:51:53.059 Ramirez who champions Queen Emma. So I salute 00:51:53.059 --> 00:51:55.699 her because Queen Emma for the win all the time. 00:51:55.880 --> 00:51:57.920 And it's by the always awesome British Museum. 00:51:58.320 --> 00:52:01.039 So again, beautiful institute. Didn't that author 00:52:01.039 --> 00:52:04.880 write the book Femina? She did. I haven't read 00:52:04.880 --> 00:52:09.059 it yet. It's on my bookshelf. huge chapters yeah 00:52:09.059 --> 00:52:11.219 it was very good it's very good i recommended 00:52:11.219 --> 00:52:13.860 it to one of my mum friends who teaches sociology 00:52:13.860 --> 00:52:15.880 to a degree at university and she listened to 00:52:15.880 --> 00:52:18.500 an audiobook and she just kept writing loads 00:52:18.500 --> 00:52:20.340 of it into her seminars and that just because 00:52:20.340 --> 00:52:23.219 it said it so well yeah i just need more time 00:52:23.219 --> 00:52:27.000 to read that's what i need i know so this is 00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:30.000 the wonderful two -bed spread on friar And again, 00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:32.059 she has two cats. And again, I think they should 00:52:32.059 --> 00:52:35.619 be a lot bigger, like lion sized. Yeah. I'm not 00:52:35.619 --> 00:52:37.260 going to read all of it because there's a lot. 00:52:37.679 --> 00:52:40.099 And it covers a few of her key legends and how 00:52:40.099 --> 00:52:42.920 her different magical items have helped. But 00:52:42.920 --> 00:52:46.739 it says she is no one's fool. Of all the women 00:52:46.739 --> 00:52:49.599 in the Norse or Viking religion, Viking with 00:52:49.599 --> 00:52:53.039 exclamation marks, Freya is one of the most important. 00:52:53.219 --> 00:52:55.880 Wherever the Vikings reached on the extraordinary 00:52:55.880 --> 00:52:58.199 long ships, the goddess and her stories traveled 00:52:58.199 --> 00:53:01.519 with them. Symbolic of love, springtime, beauty, 00:53:01.760 --> 00:53:06.139 gold, and magic, Freya is fearless, feisty, and 00:53:06.139 --> 00:53:09.000 temperamental. She's also a woman at home on 00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:11.739 the battlefield. She moves among the dead, and 00:53:11.739 --> 00:53:15.699 her assistants, the feared Valkyries, choose 00:53:15.699 --> 00:53:17.960 half of all the warriors killed in battle to 00:53:17.960 --> 00:53:20.059 live with her in the field of the people, known 00:53:20.059 --> 00:53:22.980 as Folkfang. Freya can travel across the nine 00:53:22.980 --> 00:53:25.579 realms on her chariot, pelled by two dark grey 00:53:25.579 --> 00:53:28.639 cats, or she rides a powerful boar -hill swinney. 00:53:28.679 --> 00:53:31.179 She also has a cloak of falcon feathers that 00:53:31.179 --> 00:53:35.059 allows her to fly. And again, it's just quite 00:53:35.059 --> 00:53:38.360 a magnificent, almost buddhica -esque representation 00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:41.280 of her there. But it's interesting that at least 00:53:41.280 --> 00:53:44.199 Dr. Inina Ramirez suggests that she visited the 00:53:44.199 --> 00:53:47.500 battlefield directly and that the Valkyries are 00:53:47.500 --> 00:53:50.179 subservient to her as well as Odin, which is 00:53:50.179 --> 00:53:53.119 interesting. Because that's one issue I've always 00:53:53.119 --> 00:53:54.960 been curious about. It's like, how much agency 00:53:54.960 --> 00:53:57.539 did the Valkyries have? Were they always following 00:53:57.539 --> 00:54:00.460 Odin's orders, or were they kind of like always 00:54:00.460 --> 00:54:03.559 wanting to do their own thing? Isn't there some 00:54:03.559 --> 00:54:09.659 name for Freya that calls for the goddess of 00:54:09.659 --> 00:54:12.719 the Valkyries? I can't remember. That sounds 00:54:12.719 --> 00:54:16.820 right. Seems like I'd have to look it up. And 00:54:16.820 --> 00:54:21.010 the stories that... And the stories that the 00:54:21.010 --> 00:54:24.190 Valkyries have changed too. So there's that that 00:54:24.190 --> 00:54:29.369 story in Ireland where the guy comes across those 00:54:29.369 --> 00:54:33.849 12 women who are in that hut and they're using 00:54:33.849 --> 00:54:37.690 the skulls as the warp weights and you know all 00:54:37.690 --> 00:54:40.570 that kind of stuff. Perfect Halloween scene. 00:54:43.369 --> 00:54:47.030 I need to add that to my list as well. But then 00:54:47.030 --> 00:54:50.059 there's later stories where they're They fall 00:54:50.059 --> 00:54:52.400 in love with humans and things like that. So 00:54:52.400 --> 00:54:56.119 they changed. The stories have changed over time, 00:54:56.539 --> 00:55:00.400 too. They do. I was remembering you were talking 00:55:00.400 --> 00:55:02.480 about cats. And I don't know if you can see this 00:55:02.480 --> 00:55:08.039 picture or not, but this is the stern of the 00:55:08.039 --> 00:55:10.880 cart on the Osberg burial ship. And it's carved 00:55:10.880 --> 00:55:15.460 with cats. They're all cats. That's amazing. 00:55:15.980 --> 00:55:18.480 Some of them are wiping their little kitty eyes. 00:55:20.070 --> 00:55:23.869 We don't know what it was. We think it has something 00:55:23.869 --> 00:55:27.309 to do with Freya and maybe one of the women in 00:55:27.309 --> 00:55:31.389 the burial was a priestess of Freya. But this 00:55:31.389 --> 00:55:33.650 heart was very old. It was quite a bit older 00:55:33.650 --> 00:55:38.150 than the ship. So anyway, the cat thing just 00:55:38.150 --> 00:55:40.329 made me think of that. It's such an amazing, 00:55:40.690 --> 00:55:44.130 the wagon itself, it's not very big, but it's 00:55:44.130 --> 00:55:48.250 elaborately carved. That's a fascinating connection. 00:55:48.610 --> 00:55:51.650 Thank you for sharing. I've heard, of course, 00:55:51.789 --> 00:55:53.449 of the Osberg burial, but I've never really read 00:55:53.449 --> 00:55:57.349 that much into it, but it's just always sounded 00:55:57.349 --> 00:55:59.409 fascinating. I'd love to get to see any of it 00:55:59.409 --> 00:56:01.769 in the actual museum. I think it's still in one 00:56:01.769 --> 00:56:05.050 of the museums. Is it in Oslo? Right now it's 00:56:05.050 --> 00:56:08.769 in storage because they're building a new museum 00:56:08.769 --> 00:56:11.429 for it. Oh, yes, they are, aren't they? Yeah, 00:56:11.570 --> 00:56:15.260 it'll open in 2027. And the reason they're building 00:56:15.260 --> 00:56:20.380 a new museum is that the vibration from people's 00:56:20.380 --> 00:56:24.159 footsteps was starting to make it disintegrate. 00:56:24.159 --> 00:56:27.480 Blimey. That and the Goxtead ship as well. So 00:56:27.480 --> 00:56:30.280 they had to, that's the reason they absolutely 00:56:30.280 --> 00:56:34.099 had to make a new museum, a new place for it. 00:56:34.400 --> 00:56:39.820 So. Wow, that is fragile. Yeah, well they all 00:56:39.820 --> 00:56:43.340 the I was just watching a special on on it and 00:56:43.340 --> 00:56:47.500 they The wood had been preserved with alum on 00:56:47.500 --> 00:56:49.500 the ship and all the things that came off of 00:56:49.500 --> 00:56:54.039 it And if you you can crumble it, it's barely 00:56:54.039 --> 00:56:58.159 holding together So it's very very fragile. I 00:56:58.159 --> 00:57:00.440 mean when you realize it's you know more than 00:57:00.440 --> 00:57:04.190 1200 years old and I just feel really I'm fortunate 00:57:04.190 --> 00:57:08.750 that I've seen it three times. Maybe I'll make 00:57:08.750 --> 00:57:12.230 it back for 2027. That would be great. We'll 00:57:12.230 --> 00:57:14.190 have to make a group trip, ladies. We'll have 00:57:14.190 --> 00:57:16.250 to make a group trip because I remember being 00:57:16.250 --> 00:57:20.170 at the Yelvika Festival Symposium, the Richard 00:57:20.170 --> 00:57:23.059 Hall Symposium. as it's known and I remember 00:57:23.059 --> 00:57:25.280 the director of the museum coming and talking 00:57:25.280 --> 00:57:27.380 to us about the plans and showing us the concept 00:57:27.380 --> 00:57:29.900 art and and how it's still keeping the cross 00:57:29.900 --> 00:57:32.159 section but they're just making a big curve and 00:57:32.159 --> 00:57:35.739 interior looked amazing and I oh I was like I'm 00:57:35.739 --> 00:57:37.739 glad it's happening I'm glad it's happening I'm 00:57:37.739 --> 00:57:40.300 glad COVID and pandemic and finances haven't 00:57:40.300 --> 00:57:44.380 stopped it. During COVID they did put a moratorium 00:57:44.380 --> 00:57:47.969 on the finances and now it's back up. But it 00:57:47.969 --> 00:57:50.889 was pretty dire there during the during the pandemic. 00:57:51.010 --> 00:57:52.610 It was a really dire situation. Didn't they do 00:57:52.610 --> 00:57:54.809 a fundraiser? I think I remember them doing a 00:57:54.809 --> 00:57:59.050 fundraiser But there is a they have a facebook 00:57:59.050 --> 00:58:01.769 page and every now and then they'll post an update 00:58:01.769 --> 00:58:05.309 on there so I'll have to go look better. I will 00:58:05.309 --> 00:58:07.349 try and add the link in the description below 00:58:07.349 --> 00:58:10.949 dear viewers once this video goes live Okay, 00:58:10.949 --> 00:58:15.269 but yes, she is my favorite character when I 00:58:15.269 --> 00:58:18.420 used to double in creative writing I distinctly 00:58:18.420 --> 00:58:20.300 remember writing a particular scene where she 00:58:20.300 --> 00:58:23.760 was walking around the battlefield and Odin was 00:58:23.760 --> 00:58:27.420 choosing who he wanted and I took the most delight 00:58:27.420 --> 00:58:31.659 in having her kind of like lick some blood off. 00:58:32.280 --> 00:58:34.900 of what we saw and just kind of I look at it 00:58:34.900 --> 00:58:37.059 like kind of like seductively naughtily, oh I 00:58:37.059 --> 00:58:40.360 think I'll have this one kind of thing just to 00:58:40.360 --> 00:58:42.400 make it kind of seem a bit darker a bit more 00:58:42.400 --> 00:58:45.599 almost like more powerful but in a naughty way. 00:58:46.360 --> 00:58:49.099 It didn't go very far that scene at all and I 00:58:49.099 --> 00:58:53.360 just had fun writing it but the fact that she 00:58:53.360 --> 00:58:56.659 a is not from the Azir tribe she is an outsider 00:58:56.659 --> 00:59:01.579 to Odin in his particular clan but also she's 00:59:01.579 --> 00:59:04.639 been in reinterpreted and re -presented in so 00:59:04.639 --> 00:59:07.380 many different ways in different mediums in our 00:59:07.380 --> 00:59:10.639 current century. Of course the cat thing is still 00:59:10.639 --> 00:59:13.519 very much there, everyone matches Freya instantly 00:59:13.519 --> 00:59:18.920 equals cats. I know when I played the... Assassin's 00:59:18.920 --> 00:59:21.800 Creed Vikings Valhalla history tour which is 00:59:21.800 --> 00:59:23.860 a lovely kind of like play through without the 00:59:23.860 --> 00:59:25.820 combat and the stealth and the stabby stabby 00:59:25.820 --> 00:59:27.739 you just kind of like learn and role play through 00:59:27.739 --> 00:59:29.719 history both on the north side and as a Christian 00:59:29.719 --> 00:59:32.119 monk which was an interesting mix. You do eventually 00:59:32.119 --> 00:59:34.599 find your way to Valhalla sorry spoilers and 00:59:34.599 --> 00:59:37.480 you do meet Freya and she's there carving turnips. 00:59:37.760 --> 00:59:39.619 instead of pumpkins, which was an interesting 00:59:39.619 --> 00:59:42.239 thing. And she's surrounded by huge giant fluffy 00:59:42.239 --> 00:59:44.980 cats, which you can reach down and pet in character, 00:59:45.059 --> 00:59:48.440 which is the story. But she seems more like kind 00:59:48.440 --> 00:59:53.159 of like a nice innkeeper of a woman, more than 00:59:53.159 --> 00:59:55.840 kind of like a fierce goddess who can do magic 00:59:55.840 --> 00:59:58.960 or anything. So she was very tamed down in that 00:59:58.960 --> 01:00:02.969 representation. But she's... I know there's been 01:00:02.969 --> 01:00:05.349 a recent series called Twilight of the Gods with 01:00:05.349 --> 01:00:08.510 a certain Zack Snyder involved on Netflix and 01:00:08.510 --> 01:00:11.369 Freya isn't that one. She's got very strong veneer 01:00:11.369 --> 01:00:15.070 ties and she's definitely got prophetic abilities 01:00:15.070 --> 01:00:17.570 which she claims to have given up when she was 01:00:17.570 --> 01:00:21.369 taken by ransom and then married to Odin to end 01:00:21.369 --> 01:00:23.730 the Isaiah veneer war. They've twisted it a little 01:00:23.730 --> 01:00:25.510 bit. There's no Freya, there's just Odin and 01:00:25.510 --> 01:00:29.789 Freya. and Valkyries as well but they don't seem 01:00:29.789 --> 01:00:33.269 to have any connection to her either. But yes, 01:00:33.489 --> 01:00:35.789 so she's been an interesting one to follow and 01:00:35.789 --> 01:00:38.789 of course Freyja's name is still popular in today's 01:00:38.789 --> 01:00:41.989 sculpture. I did want to name my daughter that 01:00:41.989 --> 01:00:44.489 but my husband said no because you like Vikings 01:00:44.489 --> 01:00:48.730 and just no, so. Naomi it is, so a bit of Greek 01:00:48.730 --> 01:00:52.329 -ness instead of Norse -ness. But yes, I just 01:00:52.329 --> 01:00:56.900 think Unfortunately, because Snorri himself wrote 01:00:56.900 --> 01:01:00.500 all these sagas, he was choosing or not choosing 01:01:00.500 --> 01:01:03.599 what to write down and nearly all the books I've 01:01:03.599 --> 01:01:07.360 read, including like these two, they both say 01:01:07.360 --> 01:01:10.320 to some degree that there were probably a lot 01:01:10.320 --> 01:01:14.559 more sagas or legends about the Norse female 01:01:14.559 --> 01:01:17.400 spirits and goddesses or even giantesses, but 01:01:17.400 --> 01:01:20.059 they have been lost because they were not chosen 01:01:20.059 --> 01:01:22.559 to be written down. They were not part of what 01:01:22.440 --> 01:01:26.139 Snorri wanted to present in his Poetic and Prose 01:01:26.139 --> 01:01:30.760 Edda and that kind of thing. So yeah, so she's 01:01:30.760 --> 01:01:34.019 my candidate for a good figure of Norse mythology 01:01:34.019 --> 01:01:35.940 to look for if you're looking for a powerful 01:01:35.940 --> 01:01:40.360 woman. Because she was, I think. Totally. So 01:01:40.360 --> 01:01:43.019 Kim, who is your choice? Can I plug one of my 01:01:43.019 --> 01:01:46.239 books that has Freya and Valkyries in it? It's 01:01:46.239 --> 01:01:49.579 called A Deal with Odin. I love that book. Oh, 01:01:49.599 --> 01:01:54.420 thanks. It's a very short book, so it's quick 01:01:54.420 --> 01:01:59.000 and easy. It's really fun. Freya has a cameo 01:01:59.000 --> 01:02:04.079 in it, and then there's a few valkyries, so yes. 01:02:04.260 --> 01:02:08.579 Oh, oh, and can I push one more thing? Since 01:02:08.579 --> 01:02:13.480 you mentioned Odin, I have a short story in an 01:02:13.480 --> 01:02:16.980 anthology that just came out. It just came out 01:02:16.980 --> 01:02:20.699 in the UK, I don't know when it came out in the 01:02:20.699 --> 01:02:23.159 UK. It's coming out in the US tomorrow. It's 01:02:23.159 --> 01:02:25.320 going to be released tomorrow. Oh, congratulations. 01:02:25.920 --> 01:02:30.039 That's great. Thanks. It's by Flame Tree Publishing. 01:02:30.239 --> 01:02:33.719 And it's an anthology devoted to Odin. And it's 01:02:33.719 --> 01:02:37.360 all stories about Odin. They have some beautiful 01:02:37.360 --> 01:02:41.099 books. And I found this one at Barnes and Noble. 01:02:41.719 --> 01:02:45.210 Oh, my gosh. This is what they're. They are beautiful. 01:02:45.670 --> 01:02:49.150 Wow. So what's the title of the anthology, Kim? 01:02:49.389 --> 01:02:53.170 It's just called Odin. Keep it simple and short. 01:02:53.909 --> 01:02:56.570 I will look it up. I will find the link and it'll 01:02:56.570 --> 01:02:58.510 be down below and I personally will add it to 01:02:58.510 --> 01:03:02.269 my Christmas wish list. I just get my husband 01:03:02.269 --> 01:03:04.429 to buy me more books that he then can't fit anywhere 01:03:04.429 --> 01:03:06.329 because I don't have a library. You have to get 01:03:06.329 --> 01:03:09.449 him to buy you a library to go with it. I wish 01:03:09.449 --> 01:03:11.190 he could buy me a bigger house so I could have 01:03:11.190 --> 01:03:13.530 my own little Becky cave as I keep wanting to 01:03:13.530 --> 01:03:15.670 call it. just have all my Norse books out and 01:03:15.670 --> 01:03:18.590 all my Norse art and just not have curtains or 01:03:18.590 --> 01:03:21.570 a very cramped bookcase as a backdrop. But anyway, 01:03:21.889 --> 01:03:24.650 dear viewers, we do what we can. So here we are. 01:03:26.389 --> 01:03:29.409 So Kim, what's your choice? I do love Freya. 01:03:30.050 --> 01:03:35.710 I decided to, I chose Skathi. Maybe because she's 01:03:35.710 --> 01:03:40.650 not her. goddess. She's a she's a Jotun and who 01:03:40.650 --> 01:03:43.969 married just like Freya was not originally an 01:03:43.969 --> 01:03:49.030 Aesir goddess. Skathi is a Jotun and marries 01:03:49.030 --> 01:03:54.010 into the Aesir gods. So she is often she's usually 01:03:54.010 --> 01:03:57.210 associated with winter. Sometimes she's called 01:03:57.210 --> 01:04:01.429 the snowshoe goddess and she's known for loving 01:04:01.429 --> 01:04:04.590 like the high snowy mountains and she's usually 01:04:04.590 --> 01:04:09.179 depicted on skis and hunting with like a bow 01:04:09.179 --> 01:04:13.260 and arrow. And she loves her mountain home of 01:04:13.260 --> 01:04:16.679 Thrimheim, which means thunder home. So I think 01:04:16.679 --> 01:04:23.059 that's very cool. So, and actually her name means 01:04:23.059 --> 01:04:26.840 scab. So it's the same. So it's very similar 01:04:26.840 --> 01:04:29.619 to our English words. Interesting. Yes. And as 01:04:29.619 --> 01:04:35.869 her name implies, Scathi is no. push over. She's 01:04:35.869 --> 01:04:41.190 pretty fierce. So she is the daughter of Thiazi 01:04:41.190 --> 01:04:44.969 and he was the Jotun who kidnapped the goddess 01:04:44.969 --> 01:04:49.889 Idun and stole the Apples of Immortality. With 01:04:49.889 --> 01:04:57.690 Loki's help. And you mentioned Freya's falcon 01:04:57.690 --> 01:05:02.369 cloak. Well, Loki uses that to go and rescue 01:05:02.510 --> 01:05:05.369 Edun and get those apples back because without 01:05:05.369 --> 01:05:08.190 their apples of immortality the gods and goddesses 01:05:08.190 --> 01:05:13.349 were all dying. Yep, and so Yahtzee found he 01:05:13.349 --> 01:05:17.869 discovered that Loki had stolen Edun back and 01:05:17.869 --> 01:05:20.230 as he passed over the walls of Asgard the gods 01:05:20.230 --> 01:05:23.949 killed him. So if there's one thing I think we 01:05:23.949 --> 01:05:26.949 all know that if you kill a loved one in the 01:05:26.949 --> 01:05:30.170 Norse world that's not going to go unchallenged 01:05:30.170 --> 01:05:33.849 by their family members. So scathe wanted revenge 01:05:33.849 --> 01:05:38.869 for her father's death so she Put on her helmet 01:05:38.869 --> 01:05:42.489 and coat of mail and taking all her weapons of 01:05:42.489 --> 01:05:47.409 war set out for Asgard to avenge her father No, 01:05:47.829 --> 01:05:50.829 but the gods did not want to spill blood in Asgard 01:05:50.829 --> 01:05:53.349 and I also think they were a little intimidated 01:05:53.349 --> 01:05:58.920 by her And although she was far outnumbered and 01:05:58.920 --> 01:06:01.239 Thor was there and everything, they determined 01:06:01.239 --> 01:06:05.519 to reconcile with her instead. And they offered 01:06:05.519 --> 01:06:09.159 that she could marry one of the gods, but she 01:06:09.159 --> 01:06:12.539 could only choose them by looking at their feet. 01:06:15.079 --> 01:06:17.199 So the male gods all lined up behind a curtain 01:06:17.199 --> 01:06:20.760 with only their feet showing. And since Scottie 01:06:20.760 --> 01:06:24.880 is intelligent, she... chose the one who had 01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:28.300 the cleanest, most attractive feet. Assuming 01:06:28.300 --> 01:06:31.340 that it was the god Baldr who was particularly 01:06:31.340 --> 01:06:37.179 beautiful. But it was not Baldr. You just need 01:06:37.179 --> 01:06:38.880 Scylla Black and then it would have been Norse 01:06:38.880 --> 01:06:41.659 Blondite. It just didn't happen, unfortunately. 01:06:43.800 --> 01:06:51.929 That'd be a funny story. Oh my goodness. Those 01:06:51.929 --> 01:06:56.070 lovely feet belonged to the sea god Myord, who 01:06:56.070 --> 01:07:00.389 was Freya and Freya's father. And I guess maybe 01:07:00.389 --> 01:07:02.530 being a sea god means you have clean feet. You 01:07:02.530 --> 01:07:06.869 must be in the water a lot. All the minerals 01:07:06.869 --> 01:07:12.250 in the water. Yeah. But before she would leave 01:07:12.250 --> 01:07:14.510 Asgard with her new husband, she had one more 01:07:14.510 --> 01:07:17.309 condition for the Aesir. They had to make her 01:07:17.309 --> 01:07:21.920 laugh. Like you obviously know it's coming because 01:07:21.920 --> 01:07:26.980 this is like it's very strange To make scat the 01:07:26.980 --> 01:07:31.559 laugh Loki He fetched a rope and a billy goat 01:07:31.559 --> 01:07:35.539 and already this is kind of bizarre He tied one 01:07:35.539 --> 01:07:38.639 end of the rope to the goats beard and one to 01:07:38.639 --> 01:07:44.639 his own testicles And they proceeded to have 01:07:44.639 --> 01:07:51.670 a tug -of -war and I know. So they tugged and 01:07:51.670 --> 01:07:54.929 they tugged and they were both squealing in pain 01:07:54.929 --> 01:07:59.110 until Loki fell over and fell into Scotty's lap. 01:07:59.809 --> 01:08:03.170 And that made her laugh, which would make me 01:08:03.170 --> 01:08:08.269 laugh too. So anyway, so I guess all was well. 01:08:08.530 --> 01:08:10.369 The conditions were met. She chose her husband 01:08:10.369 --> 01:08:13.199 and they made her laugh. And then Odin threw 01:08:13.199 --> 01:08:16.899 her father's eyes into the sky where they became 01:08:16.899 --> 01:08:19.680 two stars. I kind of like that. I kind of like 01:08:19.680 --> 01:08:21.859 that she was able to look up in the sky and see 01:08:21.859 --> 01:08:27.100 her father's eyes. But unfortunately, it seems 01:08:27.100 --> 01:08:29.840 like I have this a lot. There's no happy ending. 01:08:32.840 --> 01:08:35.859 Scotty and Yord, they didn't have a happy marriage. 01:08:36.109 --> 01:08:40.470 He was a sea god and she was a Jotun of the snow 01:08:40.470 --> 01:08:44.109 and the mountains. But they did, they gave it 01:08:44.109 --> 01:08:49.350 a try. Njord had a hall that was by the sea and 01:08:49.350 --> 01:08:53.770 Skathi had her hall in the mountains. And there 01:08:53.770 --> 01:08:56.449 were wolves at the mountains and seagulls at 01:08:56.449 --> 01:09:00.350 the sea and yeah, lots of issues. But they agreed 01:09:00.350 --> 01:09:04.010 to try something. They would live in Thrimheim 01:09:04.010 --> 01:09:08.310 for nine nights. in Yord's hall for three nights. 01:09:09.069 --> 01:09:11.850 And then after the nine nights were over, Yord 01:09:11.850 --> 01:09:16.789 had had enough of the cold and the snow and the 01:09:16.789 --> 01:09:20.850 wolves howling outside the hall. He said that 01:09:20.850 --> 01:09:23.970 the mountains were hateful to him and the howling 01:09:23.970 --> 01:09:27.710 of wolves sounded ugly. He was more used to the 01:09:27.710 --> 01:09:32.329 song of swans. So he wasn't happy. So then they 01:09:32.329 --> 01:09:37.050 moved to... His hall by the sea and now scotty 01:09:37.050 --> 01:09:40.449 wasn't happy She couldn't sleep because the goals 01:09:40.449 --> 01:09:44.970 were screeching and the sea kept her awake So 01:09:44.970 --> 01:09:49.869 they they couldn't agree on a marital abode So 01:09:49.869 --> 01:09:51.989 they decided they would just live separately 01:09:51.989 --> 01:09:54.829 He would stay in his place by the sea and she'd 01:09:54.829 --> 01:09:57.710 go up to the mountains and they never lived together 01:09:57.710 --> 01:10:01.550 again But it actually it seems like a pretty 01:10:03.119 --> 01:10:07.680 Amicable split. Amicable split, especially considering 01:10:07.680 --> 01:10:16.380 how the Norse gods could be. And she did become 01:10:16.380 --> 01:10:18.659 incorporated into the Aesir family, and then 01:10:18.659 --> 01:10:21.079 she treated Njord's children, Freya and Freyr, 01:10:21.180 --> 01:10:26.199 as if they were her own. But then Scathi has 01:10:26.199 --> 01:10:30.750 one more part to play in the mythology. Oh, Johanna 01:10:30.750 --> 01:10:33.189 has that wicked laugh. I'm waiting for this. 01:10:35.510 --> 01:10:36.869 So in the poem, but... We just talked about it 01:10:36.869 --> 01:10:40.649 not too long ago. I know. It's a good... So in 01:10:40.649 --> 01:10:43.310 the Lokasenna, and this is a poem, I think it 01:10:43.310 --> 01:10:47.590 should be subtitled, Loki behaving badly, because 01:10:47.590 --> 01:10:51.750 he killed a servant and he insulted all of the 01:10:51.750 --> 01:10:55.069 gods and goddesses in attendance, including Skapi. 01:10:56.229 --> 01:11:01.689 So they ended up punishing Loki Ultimately not 01:11:01.689 --> 01:11:05.430 after this Eventually, he killed the god Balder 01:11:05.430 --> 01:11:09.550 or he arranged for Baldur's he was responsible 01:11:09.550 --> 01:11:14.689 to kill Balder and then Loki fled and the other 01:11:14.689 --> 01:11:17.689 gods caught up with him and their punishment 01:11:17.689 --> 01:11:21.090 which was pretty gruesome is they bound him with 01:11:21.090 --> 01:11:25.300 the entrails of his own son So that's that's 01:11:25.300 --> 01:11:27.960 much more Norse like than everybody getting along. 01:11:29.239 --> 01:11:33.359 And Scotty is the one who she dangled a serpent 01:11:33.359 --> 01:11:37.640 over Loki's head that drips poison onto his face. 01:11:39.220 --> 01:11:44.260 So she got her revenge for him insulting her. 01:11:44.279 --> 01:11:48.689 I'm sure he Claim she slept with everybody or 01:11:48.689 --> 01:11:51.529 something like oh, yeah that was his go -to Who 01:11:51.529 --> 01:11:54.569 was was basically slut -jamming every woman in 01:11:54.569 --> 01:11:59.670 the hall? so yeah, so Nobody nobody gets away 01:11:59.670 --> 01:12:02.869 with killing her father or insulting him. So 01:12:02.869 --> 01:12:07.630 yeah, so she's pretty she's pretty awesome I 01:12:07.630 --> 01:12:13.960 love her. Yeah, have either of you read and The 01:12:13.960 --> 01:12:17.619 Witch's Heart by Genevieve Cornish. That's on 01:12:17.619 --> 01:12:21.619 my to -be -read list. You'll like the Scarlett 01:12:21.619 --> 01:12:25.659 in that book. She fits the description and the 01:12:25.659 --> 01:12:27.779 imagery in the poetic scenes that you've described 01:12:27.779 --> 01:12:31.399 really, really well. Isn't that one about Angerboda? 01:12:32.420 --> 01:12:35.500 It is, but Scarlett also features in it. That's 01:12:35.500 --> 01:12:38.859 one of her friends, one of Angerboda's girlfriends. 01:12:42.880 --> 01:12:52.920 Yes, that's Scottie. Speaking of Angerboda, I'm 01:12:52.920 --> 01:12:55.359 talking about hell. That's the one I chose, the 01:12:55.359 --> 01:12:58.500 person I chose. She's also a Yoten. She's not 01:12:58.500 --> 01:13:02.699 a goddess. She's mentioned in the prose Edda 01:13:02.699 --> 01:13:08.899 Gylfaginning and the poetic Edda Volusba. as 01:13:08.899 --> 01:13:11.239 well as she's mentioned in passing in quite a 01:13:11.239 --> 01:13:14.399 few poems and sagas, usually as a kenning or 01:13:14.399 --> 01:13:18.659 something. But she was the daughter of two Jotuns, 01:13:19.000 --> 01:13:23.319 Loki and Angerboda. And contrary to popular belief, 01:13:23.920 --> 01:13:27.739 Loki was not a god, he was a Jotun, but he was 01:13:27.739 --> 01:13:30.640 Odin's blood brother. And that's how he got his 01:13:30.640 --> 01:13:40.909 entree into Asgard. And Loki also had And she 01:13:40.909 --> 01:13:45.250 held a little bowl over Loki's head when the 01:13:45.250 --> 01:13:48.609 serpent was dripping poison. To keep the poison 01:13:48.609 --> 01:13:50.750 off of his head. But every now and then she had 01:13:50.750 --> 01:13:55.050 to empty the cup when it got full. And then Loki 01:13:55.050 --> 01:14:00.189 would scream until she came back. Anyway, Angerboda 01:14:00.189 --> 01:14:03.890 was... his wife, his Jotun wife, and she lived 01:14:03.890 --> 01:14:07.310 in Jotunheim, and they had three children. Her 01:14:07.310 --> 01:14:11.109 name, Angerboda, is she who offers sorrow. That's 01:14:11.109 --> 01:14:18.890 what her name means. So their children were Fenrir 01:14:18.890 --> 01:14:23.590 the wolf, Jormungandr, who is the world serpent, 01:14:23.909 --> 01:14:29.100 and their daughter is Hel. So the gods found 01:14:29.100 --> 01:14:33.600 a prophecy that told them that Loki's brood would 01:14:33.600 --> 01:14:37.060 cause great mischief and disaster would arise 01:14:37.060 --> 01:14:41.180 from them. Well, they got a little worried. So 01:14:41.180 --> 01:14:44.359 one day when Angerboda was away, they went into 01:14:44.359 --> 01:14:47.159 her hall in Jotunheim and kidnapped her children 01:14:47.159 --> 01:14:53.630 and took them to Odin. Odin cast. Jörmungandr 01:14:53.630 --> 01:14:55.850 into the sea where he, of course, became the 01:14:55.850 --> 01:15:00.569 world's servant. And they tried to bind Fenrir, 01:15:00.649 --> 01:15:04.289 but it took quite a bit of chewing. They finally 01:15:04.289 --> 01:15:10.210 had the dwarves make a fetter made of the sound 01:15:10.210 --> 01:15:14.510 of a cat walking, the breath of a fish, and the 01:15:14.510 --> 01:15:19.210 hair from a woman's beard. And that finally did 01:15:19.210 --> 01:15:22.800 the trick, although Tyr did lose his hand. Fenrir 01:15:22.800 --> 01:15:27.100 did his handoff in revenge. And Hel was cast 01:15:27.100 --> 01:15:30.779 into Niflheim, which is behind the third root 01:15:30.779 --> 01:15:35.260 of Yggdrasil. And she was given charge of all 01:15:35.260 --> 01:15:38.859 the dead sent to her, which is namely those who 01:15:38.859 --> 01:15:41.479 do not die in battle, but die of sickness and 01:15:41.479 --> 01:15:45.399 old age. So I'm going to read a little passage, 01:15:45.760 --> 01:15:49.260 a description of Hel and her home. from my book, 01:15:49.380 --> 01:15:51.939 The Queen of Hell, which is wonderful. Thank 01:15:51.939 --> 01:15:56.659 you. Because I did a lot of research to come 01:15:56.659 --> 01:15:59.840 up with this description. So I feel pretty confident 01:15:59.840 --> 01:16:06.000 in it. So Osa and her vulva hide are approaching 01:16:06.000 --> 01:16:09.539 Hell's home because they're trying to save her 01:16:09.539 --> 01:16:12.319 people from a plague. They had covered a lot 01:16:12.319 --> 01:16:15.229 of ground quickly. and now in the distance a 01:16:15.229 --> 01:16:17.789 storm cloud hovered over the roof of a great 01:16:17.789 --> 01:16:21.189 hall, sending sleet down upon the thatched roof. 01:16:22.130 --> 01:16:26.250 El Houdiner, Hell's Hall, said Hyde. As they 01:16:26.250 --> 01:16:29.489 drew near, Osa could see that the cloud sat stationary 01:16:29.489 --> 01:16:32.609 over the hall. They walked into the storm, blinded 01:16:32.609 --> 01:16:35.229 by sleet that stung like needles, struggling 01:16:35.229 --> 01:16:37.789 against a headwind that seemed determined to 01:16:37.789 --> 01:16:40.630 blow them away from their goal. By the time they 01:16:40.630 --> 01:16:42.689 fought their way to the door, they were soaking 01:16:42.689 --> 01:16:47.109 wet and shivering. Osa brushed the sleet from 01:16:47.109 --> 01:16:50.069 her eyes and the door was twice as tall as she 01:16:50.069 --> 01:16:53.210 was. It was made of oak, intricately carved with 01:16:53.210 --> 01:16:57.369 twining beasts whose eyes were red jewels. The 01:16:57.369 --> 01:16:59.489 creatures seemed to writhe and flick their tongues 01:16:59.489 --> 01:17:03.289 at her. Hyde raised her iron staff and pounded 01:17:03.289 --> 01:17:06.109 on the door, sending the beasts scattering through 01:17:06.109 --> 01:17:10.729 the cracks. Nothing happened. Hyde pounded again, 01:17:10.869 --> 01:17:13.890 uttering spells that demanded entrance. They 01:17:13.890 --> 01:17:16.170 seemed to do the trick where the door creaked 01:17:16.170 --> 01:17:19.970 open to reveal a dim interior. In the gloomy 01:17:19.970 --> 01:17:24.090 recesses, something moved. A voice came, faint 01:17:24.090 --> 01:17:28.369 as the groan of a dying man. Who knocks on my 01:17:28.369 --> 01:17:33.010 lady's door? I am the vulva Hyde and with me 01:17:33.010 --> 01:17:36.670 is Osa, Queen of Agder. Osa shivered at the compelling, 01:17:36.670 --> 01:17:39.890 gallder tones in the sorceress's voice. Do not 01:17:39.890 --> 01:17:42.250 hinder us. We have urgent business with your 01:17:42.250 --> 01:17:47.210 lady. My lady sees no one, moaned the voice. 01:17:47.949 --> 01:17:50.109 The wind shrieked at their backs as if trying 01:17:50.109 --> 01:17:53.350 to tear them from the doorway. Let us pass or 01:17:53.350 --> 01:17:57.229 I will curse you, said Hyde. A laugh like a rusty 01:17:57.229 --> 01:18:01.609 hinge emanated from the shadows. I fear no curses. 01:18:01.789 --> 01:18:04.630 Nothing worse could be done to me than to be 01:18:04.630 --> 01:18:08.409 doomed to stay here until Ragnarok. Tides seem 01:18:08.409 --> 01:18:10.750 to grow, her shadow looming in the darkness. 01:18:11.329 --> 01:18:14.109 I have powers of which you do not know. I can 01:18:14.109 --> 01:18:17.310 curse you in ways you have never imagined. Her 01:18:17.310 --> 01:18:20.810 voice resonated into the room. You will let us 01:18:20.810 --> 01:18:25.350 pass. After a long pause, a sigh escaped the 01:18:25.350 --> 01:18:29.270 shadows. Very well, witch. Enter if you dare. 01:18:30.189 --> 01:18:33.350 Osa stepped forward, but Hyde flung out her staff 01:18:33.350 --> 01:18:36.710 and blocked her way. Osa looked down and gasped. 01:18:36.930 --> 01:18:41.210 Beneath her feet younged a vast pit, nearly invisible 01:18:41.210 --> 01:18:44.189 in the gloom. It stretched the width of the entry, 01:18:44.430 --> 01:18:47.609 so deep she could not see the bottom. Beyond 01:18:47.609 --> 01:18:52.489 the pit came a chuckle. Mind the gap. Follow 01:18:52.489 --> 01:18:56.149 Nisa. Follow Nisa's light. I had to put that 01:18:56.149 --> 01:19:04.170 in there. From the underground in London. Follow 01:19:04.170 --> 01:19:09.409 me, said Hyde. Gathering her robes in one hand, 01:19:09.689 --> 01:19:12.829 she sprang across the pit. Osa looked into the 01:19:12.829 --> 01:19:15.850 depths and quailed, but if the sorceress could 01:19:15.850 --> 01:19:18.510 make the jump, so could she. She took a deep 01:19:18.510 --> 01:19:21.390 breath and launched herself into the air. She 01:19:21.390 --> 01:19:24.949 fairly flew across the chasm, landing beside 01:19:24.949 --> 01:19:30.199 the vulva. Come, said Hyde. With dread in her 01:19:30.199 --> 01:19:33.239 heart, Osa turned and followed the sorceress 01:19:33.239 --> 01:19:36.600 into the dim interior. The air was thin and smelled 01:19:36.600 --> 01:19:39.640 of rotting things. The servant who had greeted 01:19:39.640 --> 01:19:43.140 them materialized from the gloom a look of disappointment 01:19:43.140 --> 01:19:46.399 on his face. He was thin as a skeleton and gray 01:19:46.399 --> 01:19:49.640 as the walls. His hair hung in stringy hanks. 01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:52.960 His jowls sagged and he wore a robe of faded 01:19:52.960 --> 01:19:58.069 rags. He carried an iron staff. I am called Ganglati. 01:19:58.430 --> 01:20:03.050 Follow me. Ganglati means lazy man. Ganglati 01:20:03.050 --> 01:20:05.569 led them through the entryway into another open 01:20:05.569 --> 01:20:08.350 door bound with brass and swarming with carved 01:20:08.350 --> 01:20:10.869 serpents. He struck the door as Hyde had done 01:20:10.869 --> 01:20:14.050 and the beast scattered. Then he pushed the door 01:20:14.050 --> 01:20:18.130 open and stood aside. Within a long fire blazed, 01:20:18.189 --> 01:20:21.489 casting a dull light, but the room was frigid. 01:20:21.770 --> 01:20:25.199 Icy water dripped from the thatch. and snow covered 01:20:25.199 --> 01:20:28.140 the rushes on the floor. If anything, it was 01:20:28.140 --> 01:20:31.880 colder inside than out. The ceiling seemed to 01:20:31.880 --> 01:20:34.939 writhe, and as she stared upwards, Osa saw that 01:20:34.939 --> 01:20:38.039 the roof was thatched with living serpents woven 01:20:38.039 --> 01:20:41.539 together. It was their venom that dripped, hitting 01:20:41.539 --> 01:20:45.619 the frozen floor with a sizzle. The benches lining 01:20:45.619 --> 01:20:49.300 the wall were empty, but the far end of the hall, 01:20:49.539 --> 01:20:53.539 there was a high seat that was occupied. A tall 01:20:53.539 --> 01:20:56.720 woman, richly dressed, sat there. At her feet 01:20:56.720 --> 01:20:59.500 lay an enormous wolf, twice the size of those 01:20:59.500 --> 01:21:01.560 who had chased them through the iron forest. 01:21:02.180 --> 01:21:05.020 He was bound by what appeared to be a silk ribbon 01:21:05.020 --> 01:21:08.680 to a boulder, sunk into the floor as if it had 01:21:08.680 --> 01:21:12.380 been hurled there by a mighty force. Osa sucked 01:21:12.380 --> 01:21:16.739 in her breath, and the wolf eyed them, slathering. 01:21:17.340 --> 01:21:20.159 Beside him sat the most beautiful man Osa had 01:21:20.159 --> 01:21:25.760 ever seen. This is Baldwin. His golden hair shown 01:21:25.760 --> 01:21:29.039 in his smile lit the gloom and from his arms 01:21:29.039 --> 01:21:32.340 hung golden chains. The woman gazed at him in 01:21:32.340 --> 01:21:36.239 adoration. In profile, the woman's face was hidden 01:21:36.239 --> 01:21:39.180 by her long dark hair. She turned her head toward 01:21:39.180 --> 01:21:43.180 them as they entered and Osa gasped. One side 01:21:43.180 --> 01:21:45.500 of her face was young and beautiful, the other 01:21:45.500 --> 01:21:50.100 a rotting corpse. A shade of blue so dark that 01:21:50.100 --> 01:21:53.800 it was almost black. So that's, those are all 01:21:53.800 --> 01:21:57.220 descriptions taken from the sagas and from the 01:21:57.220 --> 01:22:00.779 poems. Beautiful. Thank you very much. That was 01:22:00.779 --> 01:22:03.979 a real treat. It was fun. That was very, that's 01:22:03.979 --> 01:22:06.060 probably the most fun to write of any of the 01:22:06.060 --> 01:22:10.079 things that I've, that I've ever, uh, ever written. 01:22:10.819 --> 01:22:16.420 So, um, hell, uh, in the poem Balder's Dream, 01:22:17.000 --> 01:22:19.699 Odin rides sleep near to hell to find out why 01:22:19.699 --> 01:22:23.539 his son is having these nightmares and he finds 01:22:23.539 --> 01:22:27.520 out that from a vulva who's buried near hell's 01:22:27.520 --> 01:22:30.960 gates that all of hell is preparing to receive 01:22:30.960 --> 01:22:35.340 Balder so he knows his son is going to die and 01:22:35.340 --> 01:22:42.579 Frigg his mother Balder's mother asks every everything 01:22:42.579 --> 01:22:46.939 in the world to swear that they won't harm her 01:22:46.939 --> 01:22:49.560 son and they all do except for the mistletoe 01:22:49.739 --> 01:22:52.880 which is just a little thing and too young to 01:22:52.880 --> 01:23:00.060 swear an oath. So that is what Loki uses to trick 01:23:00.060 --> 01:23:05.020 Baldr's brother into killing him. And I won't 01:23:05.020 --> 01:23:10.300 go into that whole sad story, but Hel gets Baldr. 01:23:12.140 --> 01:23:17.680 And Baldr's other brother rides on Sleipnir to 01:23:17.680 --> 01:23:22.130 beg Hel to give his brother back to the gods. 01:23:22.829 --> 01:23:27.869 And she says, well, I will as long as everything 01:23:27.869 --> 01:23:32.609 living or dead in all the nine worlds swear that 01:23:32.609 --> 01:23:37.909 they would weep for him. And so it goes out and 01:23:37.909 --> 01:23:41.329 everything in all the worlds weeps for Balder 01:23:41.329 --> 01:23:46.409 except one old Jotun woman who says, let hell 01:23:46.409 --> 01:23:50.500 hold what she has. And some think that may be 01:23:50.500 --> 01:23:56.979 Loki. So the prophecy that the Essere gods feared 01:23:56.979 --> 01:24:04.539 does come true and at Ragnarok. And Ragnarok 01:24:04.539 --> 01:24:08.039 plays a major role of leading the armies of hell 01:24:08.039 --> 01:24:13.939 against the Essere. Her brothers take care of 01:24:13.939 --> 01:24:17.939 Odin and Thor. And there is that's the end of 01:24:17.939 --> 01:24:24.359 the world. I think that's, that's also the end 01:24:24.359 --> 01:24:29.340 of hell. They don't really say what happens to 01:24:29.340 --> 01:24:34.380 her. I know, Norman and Thor fight and they kill 01:24:34.380 --> 01:24:37.380 each other basically. Thor kills the World Serpent, 01:24:37.920 --> 01:24:40.819 but the World Serpent has bitten Thor so he's 01:24:40.819 --> 01:24:43.399 poisoned and he goes nine steps and he dies. 01:24:44.539 --> 01:24:51.420 Ben Rear swallows Odin. And Loki sails the ship 01:24:51.420 --> 01:24:56.220 made of fingernails. I can't pronounce it right. 01:25:00.680 --> 01:25:07.970 Well, it's interesting because... I'm not going 01:25:07.970 --> 01:25:10.449 to talk about it too much but Genevieve Kornaszczak 01:25:10.449 --> 01:25:13.050 addresses that anomaly of what happens to hell 01:25:13.050 --> 01:25:17.229 at the end of all things in an interesting way 01:25:17.229 --> 01:25:21.970 I think. Because I guess she's a goddess that 01:25:21.970 --> 01:25:24.710 we just know the bare bones and the basics of 01:25:24.710 --> 01:25:28.649 her and of course she's, we know she's described 01:25:28.649 --> 01:25:31.270 as half a corpse but no one knows, kind of like 01:25:31.270 --> 01:25:34.939 anatomic, can't say the word. her anatomy whether 01:25:34.939 --> 01:25:36.699 it's straight down the middle or whether it's 01:25:36.699 --> 01:25:40.619 just at the waist. I've always been curious about 01:25:40.619 --> 01:25:42.619 those who interpret that as meaning at the waist 01:25:42.619 --> 01:25:44.779 or maybe like from her legs or so with that she 01:25:44.779 --> 01:25:47.960 couldn't walk kind of like representing disability. 01:25:49.180 --> 01:25:51.000 Again it's a thing that's always been fascinating 01:25:51.000 --> 01:25:53.520 me about the general hall panting that none of 01:25:53.520 --> 01:25:56.140 them are perfect by any means I mean they all 01:25:56.140 --> 01:25:59.319 need to eat fruit to stay young and of course 01:25:59.319 --> 01:26:02.020 Tia loses her hand there's her mod the blind 01:26:03.269 --> 01:26:08.069 um Odin has one eye so yeah I mean Sif loses 01:26:08.069 --> 01:26:11.649 a hair she needs a wig but that was Loki so can't 01:26:11.649 --> 01:26:15.470 really blame it on natural causes um but yes 01:26:15.470 --> 01:26:19.949 there's just so many um and of course Hel does 01:26:19.949 --> 01:26:22.970 have one companion because isn't there a female 01:26:22.970 --> 01:26:25.909 giantess that guards the gate to prevent the 01:26:25.909 --> 01:26:29.510 the dead going back to the living yeah I thought 01:26:29.510 --> 01:26:31.880 that was interesting not a male I mean, there 01:26:31.880 --> 01:26:34.560 is a dog as well. She just have a dog, I believe, 01:26:34.899 --> 01:26:38.319 somewhere down the hill. That's it. They're all 01:26:38.319 --> 01:26:41.140 I put them all in my story. It's a long journey 01:26:41.140 --> 01:26:46.279 to hell. Very interesting story. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. 01:26:46.560 --> 01:26:49.380 I mean, have either of you read The Monstrous 01:26:49.380 --> 01:26:55.239 Child by Francesca Simon? No. That's an interesting 01:26:55.239 --> 01:26:58.260 book. It's written for children, but I'd definitely 01:26:58.260 --> 01:27:00.899 say more of a teenager type because she herself 01:27:00.899 --> 01:27:04.520 is a teenager. And this whole series of our Holocaust 01:27:04.520 --> 01:27:06.600 conversations started with me having a beautiful 01:27:06.600 --> 01:27:09.399 conversation with her, Francesca Simon and Joanne 01:27:09.399 --> 01:27:12.579 Harrison. Professor Caroline Larrington and it 01:27:12.579 --> 01:27:15.079 was not long after The Monstrous Child had actually 01:27:15.079 --> 01:27:17.680 been transformed into an opera and performed 01:27:17.680 --> 01:27:20.239 in London and reserved great reviews but it's 01:27:20.239 --> 01:27:25.579 all told from Hell's perspective and oh yes it's 01:27:25.579 --> 01:27:29.220 it's fascinating it's an interesting read narratively 01:27:29.220 --> 01:27:32.420 it's not quite diary -esque, but it's all kind 01:27:32.420 --> 01:27:34.300 of like, oh I did this and then I did that and 01:27:34.300 --> 01:27:36.319 I can't believe they've done this to me. And 01:27:36.319 --> 01:27:39.239 you really get a lot of teenage fury coming through 01:27:39.239 --> 01:27:41.779 and in just as I get the words, like how dare 01:27:41.779 --> 01:27:44.619 they put me down here and interesting scenes 01:27:44.619 --> 01:27:47.680 when her father turns up and exploring that dynamic 01:27:47.680 --> 01:27:49.899 of father and daughter relationship because a 01:27:49.899 --> 01:27:52.220 lot of the time those two characters are met 01:27:52.220 --> 01:27:55.039 in all the fiction I've read, it's not been a 01:27:55.039 --> 01:28:00.510 happy father daughter relationship at all. But 01:28:00.510 --> 01:28:03.369 interestingly enough, the Twilight of the Gods 01:28:03.369 --> 01:28:06.609 series on Netflix with the infamous Zack Snyder's 01:28:06.609 --> 01:28:08.449 influence, although we only directed two episodes 01:28:08.449 --> 01:28:12.909 and there's eight. Hell does play a bit more 01:28:12.909 --> 01:28:15.909 of a role and she's definitely more supportive 01:28:15.909 --> 01:28:18.720 of her father and her father is... definitely 01:28:18.720 --> 01:28:22.319 being more of a father figure in the series without 01:28:22.319 --> 01:28:25.739 spoiling too much. It comes out that he's quite 01:28:25.739 --> 01:28:28.300 protective of his daughters and indeed his son 01:28:28.300 --> 01:28:31.020 because of course he knows what's going to happen 01:28:31.020 --> 01:28:33.439 to them as well as Odin and as much as he doesn't 01:28:33.439 --> 01:28:35.619 want to see Odin fight and kill them he doesn't 01:28:35.619 --> 01:28:38.550 want them to fight and kill Odin unless they 01:28:38.550 --> 01:28:40.510 can kill Odin and get away with it kind of thing 01:28:40.510 --> 01:28:44.109 but yes it's it's an interesting angle that I 01:28:44.109 --> 01:28:46.189 never thought I'd see come out regarding Loki 01:28:46.189 --> 01:28:48.670 being kind of either kind of like the anti -hero 01:28:48.670 --> 01:28:51.550 or the kind of the underdog or just the general 01:28:51.550 --> 01:28:53.850 trickster that everyone likes because he's the 01:28:53.850 --> 01:28:57.449 trickster but it was interesting the depiction 01:28:57.449 --> 01:29:00.210 of Hel she also has horns which I'm not quite 01:29:00.210 --> 01:29:02.960 keen on but I'll forgive them their artistic 01:29:02.960 --> 01:29:05.619 license because nearly all interpretations have 01:29:05.619 --> 01:29:08.800 artistic license because we don't have pictures 01:29:08.800 --> 01:29:11.020 of what these gods looked like we just have these 01:29:11.020 --> 01:29:13.140 words which themselves are several hundred years 01:29:13.140 --> 01:29:15.619 old after they were first spoken and that and 01:29:15.619 --> 01:29:18.100 that kind of thing so that that's really interesting 01:29:18.100 --> 01:29:21.600 so we've had like Freya the goddess of enjoying 01:29:21.600 --> 01:29:24.239 life very much because she's always been associated 01:29:24.239 --> 01:29:26.920 with carnal love and sex and lust and sexual 01:29:26.920 --> 01:29:28.739 activity. I mean, she's always accused of having 01:29:28.739 --> 01:29:30.880 affairs with all the gods, but she doesn't really. 01:29:31.279 --> 01:29:33.539 She has a husband, but she kind of like weeps 01:29:33.539 --> 01:29:36.220 for him because he always goes off without her. 01:29:36.600 --> 01:29:38.479 I can't remember his name. She did sleep with 01:29:38.479 --> 01:29:40.739 all the dwarves. His name is Odd. She did do 01:29:40.739 --> 01:29:42.880 the dwarves. That's it. She did do the dwarves. 01:29:43.300 --> 01:29:45.659 But she got her sing -a -man for it. She got 01:29:45.659 --> 01:29:53.270 something out of it, yeah. But yeah, it's interesting. 01:29:53.470 --> 01:29:57.090 And of course, so we've had Freya, Hell, and 01:29:57.090 --> 01:30:00.270 then we've had, oh my gosh, my memory. Where 01:30:00.270 --> 01:30:02.810 is it going tonight? Skathy. Skathy, sorry, I 01:30:02.810 --> 01:30:05.909 apologize. I've forgotten things both of you 01:30:05.909 --> 01:30:08.609 said, and I am genuine in listening. I do apologize. 01:30:09.949 --> 01:30:12.550 But it's kind of late where you are. It is. I 01:30:12.550 --> 01:30:14.350 mean, that's very kind of you to blame it on 01:30:14.350 --> 01:30:16.390 the time, but my memory is scattered most of 01:30:16.390 --> 01:30:19.710 the time. My husband would attest to that. I'm 01:30:19.710 --> 01:30:21.329 often speaking to him and he'll go, can you say 01:30:21.329 --> 01:30:23.489 that again a bit in English? Because I literally 01:30:23.489 --> 01:30:29.630 cannot speak English. But I generally just get 01:30:29.630 --> 01:30:33.529 too excited about all these things. But yes, 01:30:33.609 --> 01:30:36.149 all the books and I definitely will be reading 01:30:36.149 --> 01:30:38.029 both of your books hopefully come Christmas. 01:30:38.310 --> 01:30:40.350 I know I've definitely got Kim's books on my 01:30:40.350 --> 01:30:42.869 Kindle, I just need to get yours, Johanna's. 01:30:43.210 --> 01:30:46.109 And then I'm set, I just need time to read. Time 01:30:46.109 --> 01:30:49.340 to read and to review. But is there anything 01:30:49.340 --> 01:30:52.079 else you'd like to discuss or talk about or let 01:30:52.079 --> 01:30:54.979 viewers and readers know about women, whether 01:30:54.979 --> 01:30:57.119 it's in the Viking history or the mythology, 01:30:57.739 --> 01:31:01.079 or even kind of what brought you to, well, we 01:31:01.079 --> 01:31:02.359 understand that, you know, Hannah, you wrote 01:31:02.359 --> 01:31:05.100 about Queen Aysa because she's such a remarkable 01:31:05.100 --> 01:31:07.800 woman and so very little is known about her and 01:31:07.800 --> 01:31:09.979 she needs more of a high profile, which is truly 01:31:09.979 --> 01:31:11.739 justified. But what brought you to writing about 01:31:11.739 --> 01:31:14.829 your female protagonist, Kim? if you don't mind 01:31:14.829 --> 01:31:20.289 me asking. Um I was more drawn to, well one I 01:31:20.289 --> 01:31:23.670 was interested in that concept of a peace weaver 01:31:23.670 --> 01:31:28.489 of a woman who was married for peace and so I 01:31:28.489 --> 01:31:33.609 did that but I was also I wanted to explore uh 01:31:33.609 --> 01:31:37.300 like another side of these Viking warriors. So 01:31:37.300 --> 01:31:41.439 my male main character loves his family, loves 01:31:41.439 --> 01:31:45.859 his children and stuff, so he can compartmentalize 01:31:45.859 --> 01:31:48.079 his life. So he can be a vicious warrior on one 01:31:48.079 --> 01:31:50.699 hand and be a loving father on the other. Anyway, 01:31:50.939 --> 01:31:53.920 I just kind of wanted another view of that too, 01:31:54.000 --> 01:31:57.449 of masculinity. And yeah, I was just really fascinated 01:31:57.449 --> 01:32:00.010 with the idea of the peace weaver and the peacemaker 01:32:00.010 --> 01:32:03.569 and how that would work and the ties between 01:32:03.569 --> 01:32:05.810 family and what would make somebody choose to 01:32:05.810 --> 01:32:10.390 do that, those kinds of things. Very interesting. 01:32:10.569 --> 01:32:12.890 Well, I look forward to reading it once I get 01:32:12.890 --> 01:32:14.909 hold of my Kindle and sit down and can read. 01:32:16.069 --> 01:32:18.550 Now, in terms of your own podcast, Your Maiden, 01:32:18.609 --> 01:32:20.750 Women of the North's World, what interesting 01:32:20.750 --> 01:32:23.930 topics have you got coming up that listeners 01:32:23.930 --> 01:32:25.850 and readers of this episode may look forward 01:32:25.850 --> 01:32:28.010 to when they click over and join your podcast? 01:32:28.869 --> 01:32:34.710 So let's see, this is November in December. It's 01:32:34.710 --> 01:32:36.789 Octavia, right? It's Octavia Randolph, the author 01:32:36.789 --> 01:32:40.890 Octavia Randolph. She wrote The Circle of Cairdwen. 01:32:41.949 --> 01:32:45.659 Oh, not heard, heard of her. and that's up to 01:32:45.659 --> 01:32:50.399 12 books i believe that's wow wow and we just 01:32:50.399 --> 01:32:54.140 recently in october we had an interview with 01:32:54.140 --> 01:32:58.000 the archaeologist maryann moan and we had a really 01:32:58.000 --> 01:33:01.579 interesting discussion about gender archaeology 01:33:01.579 --> 01:33:05.899 and we even had a little bit about the victorians 01:33:05.899 --> 01:33:11.079 and how they influenced a lot of archaeology 01:33:11.079 --> 01:33:16.899 yeah so And also just how so many things have 01:33:16.899 --> 01:33:20.020 over the centuries have been interpreted to leave 01:33:20.020 --> 01:33:23.779 women out. And now archeology is starting to 01:33:23.779 --> 01:33:26.500 put women back in the picture. And they're finding 01:33:26.500 --> 01:33:29.819 ways to do that. So that made it very, very interesting. 01:33:31.060 --> 01:33:36.939 That was the October 2024 episode. And then we 01:33:36.939 --> 01:33:40.739 have Nancy Marie Brown coming, right? Yep. Oh, 01:33:41.060 --> 01:33:43.300 I think I'm halfway through her book. I've read 01:33:43.300 --> 01:33:45.060 almost all her books. I found out there's one 01:33:45.060 --> 01:33:47.340 book of hers I haven't read yet. The first one 01:33:47.340 --> 01:33:50.220 about the horse, but otherwise I've read all 01:33:50.220 --> 01:33:52.659 her books, so very interesting. I've read several 01:33:52.659 --> 01:33:56.380 of them. Yeah. Yes. Would you mind just showcasing 01:33:56.380 --> 01:33:58.939 her wonderful book, Johanna? Mine's hidden a 01:33:58.939 --> 01:34:00.319 room away, but I know you've got to. This is 01:34:00.319 --> 01:34:03.500 definitely my favorite one right here. The real 01:34:03.500 --> 01:34:07.760 Valkyrie. But she's written, she started out, 01:34:08.350 --> 01:34:11.770 What really caught my interest was The Far Traveler, 01:34:11.909 --> 01:34:16.569 which is about another real woman, Gudrid, who 01:34:16.569 --> 01:34:19.869 also sailed to Greenland and she sailed to America, 01:34:20.010 --> 01:34:24.270 along with Frasier. And we've done some episodes 01:34:24.270 --> 01:34:27.770 on her too. So that was one of her earlier books. 01:34:27.829 --> 01:34:30.050 That's the first book I read of hers. And then 01:34:30.050 --> 01:34:31.970 I - Yeah, me too. All her other books, because 01:34:31.970 --> 01:34:36.119 she's a very good writer as well. That's one 01:34:36.119 --> 01:34:38.420 thing I've liked about her book, The Real Valkyrie, 01:34:38.460 --> 01:34:40.760 The Secret History of Shieldmaidens and Maury 01:34:40.760 --> 01:34:44.500 Women. It's got a nice narrative aspect to it 01:34:44.500 --> 01:34:46.579 which helps those who aren't used to reading 01:34:46.579 --> 01:34:49.619 on fiction kind of get immersed and then they 01:34:49.619 --> 01:34:51.899 see the facts behind what they're seeing. It's 01:34:51.899 --> 01:34:55.380 what drew me really well into... Queen Emma and 01:34:55.380 --> 01:34:57.680 the Vikings by Harriet O 'Brien about Emma of 01:34:57.680 --> 01:35:00.060 Normandy that kind of painted a beautiful picture 01:35:00.060 --> 01:35:02.220 of kind of like a teenage girl on a boat sailing 01:35:02.220 --> 01:35:04.439 to England to marry a man she never met who's 01:35:04.439 --> 01:35:06.979 older than her dad and I thought oh my gosh that's 01:35:06.979 --> 01:35:10.039 a tragic and yet it happened and yet she did 01:35:10.039 --> 01:35:16.279 remarkably well out of it. So yes, I'll put the 01:35:16.279 --> 01:35:18.340 link and the title to any of the books that you'd 01:35:18.340 --> 01:35:20.640 like to recommend and of course I will definitely 01:35:20.640 --> 01:35:23.520 say Views and listeners, go check out these ladies 01:35:23.520 --> 01:35:25.340 wonderful podcasts, Chill Maiden, Women of the 01:35:25.340 --> 01:35:27.939 North's World. Start from episode one, go all 01:35:27.939 --> 01:35:30.000 the way to the latest one. They cover so many 01:35:30.000 --> 01:35:32.060 topics. I don't know how you guys find the time 01:35:32.060 --> 01:35:34.720 to research and then record it all. I'm just 01:35:34.720 --> 01:35:36.739 about to find time to squeeze in my little rants 01:35:36.739 --> 01:35:39.979 of fandom and craziness. And I'm so glad that 01:35:39.979 --> 01:35:43.000 you both wanted and are happy to be part of my 01:35:43.000 --> 01:35:46.810 joyride on YouTube. just talking about NOS stuff 01:35:46.810 --> 01:35:49.829 because I have no expertise. I'm just a crazy 01:35:49.829 --> 01:35:54.510 consumer basically. Well, it's fun. Thank you 01:35:54.510 --> 01:35:57.130 for having us. That's great. Yes. Thank you. 01:35:57.189 --> 01:35:59.029 It's been really wonderful talking to you both. 01:35:59.170 --> 01:36:02.149 So thank you both again. Check out their podcast, 01:36:02.470 --> 01:36:04.750 everyone. The books will be down in the links 01:36:04.750 --> 01:36:08.329 below. And hopefully we will see you again for 01:36:08.329 --> 01:36:12.729 episode 10, which is set to record in December. 01:36:13.020 --> 01:36:17.000 and I have an interesting and exciting fantasy 01:36:17.000 --> 01:36:20.199 author joining called Fyldeholde Colt. She wrote 01:36:20.199 --> 01:36:23.720 the Hanged God trilogy and the first one is called 01:36:23.720 --> 01:36:26.500 Northern Wrath. It's with a bit of history but 01:36:26.500 --> 01:36:29.220 definitely a big dose of what I call Norse fantasy, 01:36:29.439 --> 01:36:31.100 which is mythology and magic and everything in 01:36:31.100 --> 01:36:34.819 between. and she's got some interesting female 01:36:34.819 --> 01:36:37.220 characters going on including giants as well 01:36:37.220 --> 01:36:40.140 as shield maidens because she allows all the 01:36:40.140 --> 01:36:42.899 women in her universe to be equal warriors as 01:36:42.899 --> 01:36:46.079 long as the men and yes that's become hopefully 01:36:46.079 --> 01:36:48.520 it'll debut in december so i do hope dear viewers 01:36:48.520 --> 01:36:50.140 and listeners you will join me again then for 01:36:50.140 --> 01:36:52.659 another episode of Valhalla conversations please 01:36:52.659 --> 01:36:55.659 hit subscribe below thank you very much