Hårby Valkyrie: A 1,200-year-old gold Viking Age woman sporting a sword, shield and ponytail

Features
By published

This tiny figurine may represent a mythical warrior maiden who assisted Odin, the Norse god of war.

Four views of a gold-covered figurine in the shape of a woman. She holds a shield and a sword and wears her hair in a ponytail. There is a small hole behind her neck, perhaps for hanging.
Four views of the Viking Age Hårby Valkyrie figurine that was discovered in Denmark. (Image credit: Museum Odense)
QUICK FACTS

Name: Hårby Valkyrie

What it is: Silver figurine

Where it is from: Village of Hårby, Funen Island, Denmark

When it was made: Around A.D. 800 (Early Viking Age)

This cast silver figurine of a Valkyrie — a mythological maiden who assists Odin, the Norse god of war — is a unique example of Viking Age metalworking that provides clues about the role of armed women during the time period (793 to 1066).

The naturalistic female figure was discovered by metal detectorists in the Danish village of Hårby in 2012 and is currently on display at the National Museum of Denmark.

The tiny female figurine is just 1.3 inches (3.4 centimeters) tall and weighs 0.4 ounces (13.4 grams). Its body is partly hollow, and much of it has been covered with a thin layer of gold. A black metallic alloy called niello has been used to highlight and decorate the object.

Related: Apulian rhyton: A 2,300-year-old Spartan-hound-shaped cup that was likely used at boozy bashes

The female figurine is depicted with her hair gathered up into a ponytail that cascades down her back. She wears a V-neck dress that ends with a pleated skirt, and a pattern of intricate knots runs around the back and sides. Her left arm is protected by a shield, while her right hand clutches a short double-edged sword.

Because the figure is of an armed woman and likely represents a Valkyrie, Mogens Bo Henriksen, archaeology curator at Museum Odense in Denmark, and Peter Vang Petersen, curator of prehistory at the National Museum of Denmark, wrote in a study of the figurine in the periodical Skalk in 2013.

Valkyries were responsible for choosing which soldiers should die on the battlefield. These assistants to the Norse god of war then accompanied the dead warriors to Valhalla, where they served them plenty of alcohol to tide them over until the end of the world, when Odin needed the dead soldiers' support to defeat the giants at Ragnarok.

The decorative style of the figurine suggests it was made around A.D. 800, or the early Viking Age. It was found in a field where archaeologists and detectorists discovered other metal objects, including Arab coins, silver ingots and discarded jewelry. Experts think the area may have been a noble's farm in the Viking Age, complete with a metal craft workshop.

Armed female figures have been found elsewhere in Denmark and in England, but they are typically two-dimensional pendants or brooches. The partly hollow Hårby Valkyrie, however, may have adorned the top of a magical staff, Henriksen and Petersen wrote. According to the Norse sagas, divination women, or völvas, used similar staffs in their rituals. One of the female residents of the farm may once have owned the Hårby Valkyrie and used it as a symbol of power.

But it is also possible that the statue is not a Valkyrie at all but rather a depiction of a real woman. Norse sagas and poems mention that women sometimes took up arms, and the Oseberg Viking ship textiles also depict women carrying swords and holding spears, archaeologist Leszek Gardeła noted in his book "Women and Weapons in the Viking World: Amazons of the North," (Oxbow Books, 2021). In addition, about 30 Viking Age burials across Scandinavia hold the remains of women who were buried with war-grade weapons, such as swords, spearheads and shields — clues that some elite women from this time may have fought as warriors.

Archaeologist Julia Wihlborg suggested that the sword and shield of the Hårby Valkyrie may represent a woman who had manly qualities or who became a man, raising the question of whether female warriors were actually regarded as men in Viking Age society.

However, because most of the armed female figurines have been discovered as isolated finds rather than in houses or graves, experts have yet to solve the puzzle of weapon-wielding women in the Viking Age.

Kristina Killgrove
Kristina Killgrove
Staff writer

Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.