The vikings used women in shield walls to make their numbers seem larger but there’s no actual records showing that women were in any way effective in combat. The few times that women’s bodies where found among the dead men was after the vikings lost badly more of an indication that female warriors suck when used. Nor did their men seem particularly enamored by their liberated women. Where ever the viking settled they quickly switched to patriarchal marriage with the families who didn’t switch were quickly out bred by the families who did switch.
This should be an interesting thread.
The whole shield maiden thing seems to be mostly myth. TV “history” is enamored with it because we have to keep the “new myth” that women can stand toe-to-toe with men is hand-to-hand combat. I guarantee wearing a shirt of mail (maybe!) holding a shield and whacking with a sword in a life or death environment is not the same as going to Cross-Fit! No matter how much modern young women want it to be so or how many times its portrayed as true on TV.
Scots women on the other hand rode in to battle bare breasted with body paint. They cut off heads as trophies