Review: The Viking Woman of Birka by David K Mullaly

Synopsis: Asa was a young woman who avenged a personal assault, was forced to become a warrior and leader during her family’s travels, and ultimately became responsible for defending Birka, one of the great Viking trade centers. This actual Norse woman made her mark during a violent time.

A Viking burial found on the Swedish island of Birka, identified as Bj.581, contained what was recently identified as the remains of a woman warrior and leader. What was found there confirmed that she was female and presented herself as such. Testing also suggested that she traveled a lot when she was young. What we cannot know for sure is how she grew into the role which typically was filled by men in the Norse culture.

This story is a riveting but plausible reconstruction of her life during a turbulent time in European and human history. It provides a realistic context based on our limited knowledge of the period, and creates a sequence of events which could have led to her becoming the extraordinary woman that she surely came to be.

Fans of the fiction of Bernard Cornwell, Robert Low, and James L. Nelson will appreciate this historical novel. Mullaly’s first two novels deal with a later period of Viking history.

Warrior Bj:581

In 2017, a research paper made waves by claiming that the remains of a supposed professional warrior found in a 10th-century grave in Birka, Sweden, could be female. The remains, originally unearthed in the 1880s by archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe, had been long presumed to be those of a male warrior, due to their burial with weapons and other status symbols (a bag of gaming pieces (possibly to represent military command) and two horses, one bridled for riding). In the 1970s, an anatomical analysis of the bones suggested that they belonged to a female, and a 2016 analysis suggested the same thing (see: The Birka Warrior : the material culture of a martial society by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson). 

Credit: Drawing by Þórhallur Þráinsson

Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd

Despite (or in spite of) the intense scrutiny that this discovery was subjected to, genetic analysis in 2017 confirmed the warrior was indeed biologically female. Up until this point, the warrior interpretation was never challenged until the deceased was revealed to be a woman, the researchers noted. However, as one great (fictional) detective was wont to say: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

And in fact, our lady from Birka is not the only known female warrior, as attested by the find of a grave in Solor, Norway (source: Viking Shield Maiden). 

About Birka

In the mid-700’s, a city was born on Björkö in Lake Mälaren named Birka, a location, which is commonly called Sweden’s first town. It is believed that it was the Swedish King who took the initiative to form the city as part of a desire to control the trade in northern Scandinavia, both politically and economically.

The Swedish King himself was living a few kilometers away , at a place called Hovgården on Adelsö. At that time it was the King’s duty to keep order in the city and protect it from being looted. - at the time of our story, this was King Ring, who was in turn succeeded by his sons Eric and Emund. He is also a bit of a shady character in that not much is know about him except from the sparse writings of Adam of Breman.

In its early medieval day, Birka was a thriving city and Sweden’s most important place for trade throughout northern Europe. The city had a perfect location because it was not only centrally located, but also well protected in the Baltic Sea. There is strong archaeological evidence to support the evidence of Birka's importance as a mercantile city. However, after only a few hundred years of existence, the settlement was abandoned. No one knows exactly why Birka, but it is posited that this was based either on political decisions or that Birka lost its strategic and easily accessible location through the land rise - no maritime access, no trade.

The author covers off some fascinating (and well researched) themes throughout the novel, including the focus on trade, for which the Vikings were also noted. In this instance, it is the journey to legendary Micklagard, that large and wealthy city, know today as Constantinople or Istanbul. The journey there was fraught with challenges and danger, which our characters experience. We also have the introduction of another great trading city, that of Dublin or as it would have been known, Dubh Linn the history of which is remarkable in it own telling.

Dubh Linn was - for our purposes - under the control of one Olaf Guthfrithson, who having succeeded his father as King of Dublin in 934,  a few years later allied with Constantine II of Scotland in an attempt to reclaim the Kingdom of Northumbria. The forces of Olaf and Constantine were defeated by the English led by Æthelstan at the legendary Battle of Brunanburh in 937.

What can I say about "The Viking Woman of Birka" by David Mullaly except that I literally could not put it down! It demands to be read in one sitting. Like Lagertha, Asa - the warrior woman of Birka - provides a different and unique look at the role of women in the Viking world, one which challenges the norms of both Viking society and our own. David certainly knows his stuff as his previous books will attest, and this well researched fictional account of the warrior found in Bj:581 certainly does her justice. 

Highly recommended.

Read more here @

Cambridge Journals - Viking warrior women? Reassessing Birka chamber grave Bj.581

Wiley Online Library - A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics