Kirsten Ruffoni

Viking Age Queens: the Example of Oseberg Kirsten Ruffoni

The Oseberg burial has been studied extensively and many scholars have argued that it is the richest female burial in Europe and that, therefore, it must be much more than the burial of a secular ruler. The women buried in the mound must have occupied a social position of the highest importance, probably being sorceresses, priestesses or demigoddesses. Througout my thesis I have compared Oseberg to many other Iron Age and Viking Age burials. I have also looked at the legal rights of women in Scandinavia and on the Continent. From the gathered evidence I have argued that the Osberg burial is not unparalleled in richness and that it is not impossible for a woman to have been a powerful ruler in the early Viking Age. I have strengthened my argument with literary evidence for historical female figures who ruled kingdoms alone for periods of their lifetime.