Women Also Set Sail on Viking Voyages

History.Com - Between the eighth and 11th centuries, the Vikings left modern day Norway, Denmark and Sweden on bloody voyages of conquest to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Southern Europe and even North America. Many have long believed that the fearsome Norsemen left their women and children at home in Scandinavia when they took off to settle new lands, but a new study tells a different tale. By tracing the genetic stamp left behind during Viking migrations, scholars in Norway and Sweden have uncovered evidence that Norse women were as well traveled as many of their men.

In a recently published study in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, a team of researchers used mitochondrial DNA evidence to show that Norse women joined their men in the long boat during Viking Age migrations to England, the Shetland and Orkney Islands and Iceland. “It seems to support the view that a significant number of women were involved in the settlement of the smaller isles,” co-author and University of Oslo professor Erika Hagelberg told The Independent, “which overrules the idea that it just involved raping and pillaging by males going out on a rampage.” Read the full article at History.Com