Böcker av Nancy Marie Brown

Nancy Marie Brown lays to rest the hoary myth that Viking society was ruled by men and celebrates the dramatic lives of female Viking warriors

A good horse can make its rider "king for a while," according to Icelandic poetry. But finding a good horse requires a keen and practiced eye. One must see beyond the obvious attributes--appearance, color, and size--to discern a horse's true personality and temperament. Nancy Marie Brown puts her eye to the test when she travels to Iceland to find the perfect Icelandic horse she can bring home to her Pennsylvania farm and make her own.She arrives in Iceland shaken by tragedy, uncertain of the language, lacking confidence in her riding skills; but she's determined to make her search a success. She finds inspiration in the country's austere and majestic landscape, which is alive with the ghosts of an adventure-filled past. In the glacier-carved hinterland, she rides a variety of Icelandic horses--some spirited, willful, even heroic; others docile, trusting, or tame. She also meets an assortment of horse owners, who can be as independent as the animals they breed.Evocative, clear-headed, and richly described, this book is for anyone who has at some time in their life searched for something perfect.

In the tradition of Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, Brown lays to rest the hoary myth that Viking society was ruled by men and celebrates the dramatic lives of female Viking warriors"Once again, Brown brings Viking history to vivid, unexpected life-and in the process, turns what we thought we knew about Norse culture on its head. Superb." -Scott Weidensaul, author of New York Times bestselling A World on the Wing"Magnificent. It captured me from the very first page." -Pat Shipman, author of The InvadersIn 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.Nancy Marie Brown uses science to link the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond. She imagines her life intersecting with larger-than-life but real women, including Queen Gunnhild Mother-of-Kings, the Viking leader known as The Red Girl, and Queen Olga of Kyiv. Hervor's short, dramatic life shows that much of what we have taken as truth about women in the Viking Age is based not on data, but on nineteenth-century Victorian biases. Rather than holding the household keys, Viking women in history, law, saga, poetry, and myth carry weapons. These women brag, "As heroes we were widely known-with keen spears we cut blood from bone." In this compelling narrative Brown brings the world of those valkyries and shield-maids to vivid life.