Viking Women

Let's travel in time together, a thousand or so years back, and meet Viking women in their hearth-lit world.

How did these medieval viragoes live, love and die? How can we encounter them as flesh-and-blood beings with fears and feelings—not just as names in sagas or runes carved into stone?

In this groundbreaking work, Lisa Hannett lifts the veil on the untold stories of wives and mothers, girls and slaves, widows and witches who sailed, settled, suffered, survived—and thrived—in a society that largely catered to and memorialised men. Hannett presents the everyday experiences of a compelling cast of women, all of whom are resourceful and petty, hopeful and jealous, and as fabulous and flawed as we are today.

'Like some of the Vikings so beautifully evoked within, Lisa Hannett is a rare shapeshifter. Here is a writer whose deep knowledge of the Viking world allows her to fearlessly move between research and creative prose, historical certainty and imagined likelihoods, allowing the reader to become exhilaratingly familiar with its cast of Viking women. Viking Women breathes such life into its subjects they sing. A brilliant book.' -Hannah Kent

'An evocative account of the varied lives of women during the Viking era... The scenes are handled lightly, and Hannett, who has a PhD in medieval Icelandic literature, fills in their everyday lives with fascinating details. It's a pleasure to read.' -Books+Publishing

'This book will appeal to readers who appreciate a guided tour of medieval Icelandic saga literature with a focus on female characters, as well as some of the cultural questions that arise from a modern, feminist take on them. Hannett is a very well-informed guide.' -The Sydney Morning Herald

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