Blood and Magic : A microstudy of associations between Viking Age women and their weapons.

Sammanfattning: This thesis discusses what associations Viking Age women and weapons had according to extant sources and how they can present in the grave material. In order to achieve this, literary sources, iconographic representations, and grave material are studied and compared in order to reach a deeper understanding of these associations and what they look like in the archaeology. The literary and iconographic source materials in this thesis are limited those from within, or shortly after, the Viking Age. The grave material in this thesis is also dated to the Viking Age and consists of weapon graves with osteologically determined inhumed females located in Gerdrup, Kaupang, Aunvoll, Nordre Kjølen, and Birka.