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Now onto today's video: Meet The Fierce Female Warriors of the NEW Netflix Series Vikings:
Valhalla
We all remember the heroic shield maiden, Lagertha of the original Vikings series on
the History Channel and now we have 4 new female characters from viking history to admire
and exclaim over in the new 2022 Netflix Series Sequel To The Vikings called Vikings, Valhalla.
In this video I will introduce you to the new Viking female characters and give a brief
overview of who they were in history, as far as we know.
In later videos, I will dig deeper into the history of each of these women and do my best
to tell you about the lives and adventures of these fabulous, fierce and feisty women
in history.
I'll start with the one who is considered one of the lead characters of the show.
Freydís Eiríksdóttir, played by Swedish actress Frida Gustavsson.
Freydís is a real historical person who was the sister of Leif Erikson (another lead character
in the show) and daughter of Erik the Red.
Erik the Red is believed to be the first person to discover and settle in Greenland while
Leif Erikson is popularly known as the Viking who landed on the shores of North America
long before Christopher Columbus.
In the Netflix series, Freydís is portrayed as an explorer alongside of her brother as
well as a fiercely pagan, fiery and headstrong female warrior.
The storyline emerges where Fraydíss becomes anti-Christian following a traumatic event
involving Christian Vikings.
After this happens, Freydís takes on the leadership of the Old Norse religion while
also going to battle against her fellow countrymen who have adapted Christianity.
There are a couple of somewhat conflicting historical legends about Freydís Eiríksdóttir
which I will cover in the video that I will be doing about this amazing woman, so be sure
to subscribe to my channel and hit the alert bell, so that you will be notified of the
new videos that I post at least twice a week.
Second on our list of new female characters in Vikings, Vahalla is Emma of Normandy played
by Laura Berlin, Queen Emma became the queen of three countries as well as having married
two kings, one after the other.
Emma was first married to English King Æthelred the Unready, the great-great-grandson of King
Alfred the Great (who played a prominent role in Vikings).
After his death, she was married to King Canute who was Viking King of England from 1016,
King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028; which made Emma a thrice queen.
Queen Emma of Normandy was a fierce, strong-willed, and intelligent woman who knew how to survive
in tumultuous times by marrying the Viking King Canute (who was already married but that
didn't stop her).
Just like Ragnar in the original Vikings had two wives, so too Canute.
Her great grandfather was Rollo, the Viking sea Lord, chieftain and the first ruler of
Normandy whom we all met in the original Viking series on the history channel.
Since she married to men in power, Emma of Normandy was savvy enough to use both her
wealth and her marriage connections to influence politics in a way that was not the norm of
women in her time.
More on that later in a future video.
Third on the list is Queen Ælfgifu of Denmark played by Scottish actress Pollyanna
McIntosh.
Queen Ælfgifu afghafu the first wife of king Canute the Great.
She remained married to him even as Emma of Normandy, became his second wife.
She was a shrewd and ambitious woman who had a hand in the political power struggles in
Northern Europe.
As she promotes the interests of her Mercian homeland and strives to assert herself in
Canute's expanding power structure, Queen Ælfgifu formidably employs her charm and
guile as all powerful women did of that era.
In the series, we will see her battle against Emma of Normandy.
Both women have sons and want their son to be the new ruler of England after Canute dies
but that probably won't happen in season one.
Last and fourth is the character by the name of Jarl Haakon played by Swedish actress Caroline
Henderson.
In the show Jarl Haakon is a great warrior, tolerant leader and pagen ruler of Kattegat
but she is, in truth, a fictional character.
The character is said to be loosely inspired by the historical pagan ruler Haakon Sigurdsson,
the de facto ruler of Norway in the 10th century, who was, by the way, a man.
And just as in the HBO original series, the Gilded Age, the writers of Vikings, Valhalla
are choosing to see beyond the lens of the stereotypical image of a period in history
and incorporate a broader range of the people who lived, worked and loved in those times.
According to trustworthy historical evidence, there were a small number of Vikings that
had black or brown skin.
They weren't all white or light-colored skin and had only blonde hair as popular culture
would have us believe.
For centuries, dark-skinned people were either willingly or forcibly transported to Scandinavia
as slaves.
It only makes sense that some assimilated with the Vikings through farming, marriage,
combat, and other cultural elements.
When studying the history of the ancient Scandinavian people, I think it is right as well as important
to learn about the various races of people found in Viking civilization, as well as to
include more depiction of the women who shaped their society and culture.
Let me know what you think about this issue, as well as any other thoughts that you might
have in the comments below.
It seems that we are gathering a fun, interactive community that likes to discuss and contribute
to the knowledge, so let's keep that going!