Abstrakt This essay is about how I investigated the valkyries and shieldmaidens gender in Old Norse mythology. The starting point of investigating valkyries, from a gender perspective, lies within that "gender", socially, can be reconstructed from societies ideologies and norms, referring to present time discussions. Further, studies have shown different interpretations of the valkyries in mythology, as many researchers described valkyries as crossborder from the female gender category to the male gender category. In mentioning the valkyries as cross-border, between the social roles of being a man or a woman, the valkyrian is emphasized as one who acts outside the norm of their gender category. But, if the normality norms for the valkyries are the same, then there should be no boundary-crossing. And with this said,and to validate this research importance, my working hypothesis was that valkyries and shieldmaidens fits in to a third gender category, and that the investigation regarding a third gender is quite right considering how society has changed, especially since the third gender category has become a contemporary phenomenon. Therefore, to understand the myths, I first needed to familiarise myself with the properties, attributes and actions.Related to this, I, immersed myself within the mythology to better understand the stemmed creation of the myths. The study regarding valkyriesand shieldmaidens was examined, through an analysis, of the heroic poems within The poetic Edda.

Female warriors from the Viking Age is a subject that has been debated and interpreted in many different ways. The modern view on the binary gender roles is one of the reasons why it has been hard for archaeologists to interpret the female warrior graves. The graves are often interpreted in other ways then that the weapons in the graves would belong to the female individuals. Archaeologists rather explain the graves existence because of other reasons than that the female individuals would have been warriors. The issue of the study is whether the female warrior graves from the Viking Age differ from a female gender role, or if the warrior role possibly could be a part of a female gender? Also, why are there so few female warrior graves? The study will be based around three graves, Bj 581 from Birka in Sweden, Mound 50 from Heath Wood in England and T20248 from Nord-Trøndelag in Norway. The analysis and discussion are based on a gender perspective, new ideas will be added to the discussion based on age, gender roles, gender expression and social status. The results may indicate that female gender rolls might be changeable depending on the female individual’s social status, age and life stage.

The purpose of this thesis is to perform a gender study focusing on Viking Age weapon graves. A female weapon burial, a male weapon burial and a female burial are studied in this thesis. It is necessary first to discuss the meaning of a weapon burial. Thereafter the thesis will discuss if it is possible to find any differences in the gender interpretation of weapon burials belonging to men and females. The weapon graves will also be interpreted in relation to a female burial. The research history is primarily based on Conkey & Spector’s (1984) article regarding archaeological androcentrism. The result of the thesis states that a weapon burial must consist of at least one of following weapons: sword, shield, spear, axe, horse equipment or arrowheads. The results also state that the interpretation of a weapon burial depends on the sexual identity of the buried individual. It is easier to state that the buried individual is a warrior if the individual is assumed to be a male. It is also possible to see differences regarding male and female burials in general where the interpretation of rich female graves is questioned due to the absence of a man in the grave. The graves are still interpreted in traditional gender roles, where the gender roles are based on the grave goods.

Med hjälp av osteologiska och genetiska analyser har flera gravar från vikingatiden som tidigare tolkats tillhöra män nu visat sig tillhöra kvinnor. Det är dock fortsatt kontroversiellt att tolka dessa kvinnor som krigare. Att kvinnorna tillhört den sociala eliten är studenter och forskare i stort överens om men vilken roll de haft i vikingatidens samhälle råder det delade meningar om. Att tolka tidigare samhällen och deras sociala roller utifrån det material som finns tillgängligt idag är komplext vilket blir tydligt i denna uppsats. Vikten av att inte tolka vikingatidens sociala roller utifrån samtidens syn på könsroller, ideal och normer blir också tydligt. / With the help of osteological and genetic analyses, several warriorgraves from the Viking Age that where previously interpreted as belonging to men have been shown belong to women. However, it remains controversial to interpret these women as warriors. That the women belonged to the social elite most students and researchers largely agree on but there are divided opinions about what role they had in the Viking Age society. Interpreting past societies and their social roles based on the material available today is complex, which comes clear in this essay. The importence of not interpreting the social role of the Viking Age based on the contemporary view of gender roles, ideals and norms also becomes clear.