Nancy Marie brown — Blog

And suddenly winter ends and spring begins. I welcome the sun and the warmth and the new blooms 🌻

August Wrap Up

What a wonderful week of reading August has been! I don’t usually read this many books in a month but when I have to get some read for NetGalley or for work, it really ups the number. Even better, I enjoyed every book I read this month. It was a mixed bag of fantasy, retellings, sci-fi and non-fiction and I think that helped keep me reading.

The first book I finished in August was Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Red Rising is a book that I have had on my shelf for yours (actually, the whole original trilogy has been on my shelf for years), and I am kicking myself that I didn’t pick it up sooner! Darrow is a sixteen-year-old Helldriver of his mining colony of Mars. As a Red, Darrow is of the lowest caste in his society which is not only colour coded, but has expanded throughout space to live on the Moon, Venus, Mercury and Mars. When Darrow and his wife (they marry young and die young in the mines of Mars) stumble upon a secret, Darrow’s life alters completely and he is sent on a mission to infiltrate the highest of their society, the Golds. It’s a brilliant sci-fi novel, and the way I’ve been describing it is, think the Roman Empire on Mars but throw in The Hunger Games. Brilliantly written and so unique, this book surprised me and was my favourite read of the month! The whole incorporation of Ancient Roman values, customs and social hierarchy reimagined in a science fiction landscape blew my mind.

★★★★☆ (I was provided this ARC for a review from St. Martin’s Press)

My second read was The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown. This was such a great read because not only was it really well written, but it was a mix of archaeological and literary evidence and historical fiction. For hundreds of years, a particular burial found in Birka has been called the ultimate Viking warrior burial due to its placement close to the Warriors Hall, and large stone left atop it and the grave goods deposited with the body. However, in 2017, DNA testing on the body in burial Bj581 declared that this ultimate Viking warrior is actually a woman, and it sent shockwaves through the Viking scholars. How could it possibly be a woman when everyone knows Viking warriors were men? In Nancy’s book, she battles against the misogyny and bias prevalent in Viking studies since the Victorian Age, when they changed the history of the Vikings to emulate their social beliefs, that is, they put the Viking women in the household where they thought they belonged. Nancy’s book delves into the ample archaeological and literary record for female Vikings and Valkyries, and sheds light onto the many Viking warrior women in history that have been forgotten, using the body of burial Bj581 (who she names Hervor) as a basis for her book. I would recommend this read to anyone looking to learn about the Viking Age, and anyone who likes disrupting the patriarchy. If this sounds like something you want to read, then be sure to keep your eyes out for my interview with Nancy Marie Brown, coming to World History Encyclopedia very soon!

★★★★☆ (I was provided with this ARC for a review from Netgalley)

Book number three was another non-fiction (I know, two non-fiction reads in a row!? How unlike me!) Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome by LJ Trafford travels through the intricate and somewhat scandalous history of sex in Ancient Rome from the perfect virtuous man and the ideal chaste woman, to how to find a woman and who you are and are not meant to be seen fondling in the forum. This whistlestop tour of sexuality in Rome is an incredibly entertaining read, and Trafford uses colloquial language and brilliant case studies from Ancient Rome as examples of the debauchery taking place 2,000 years ago. Not to mention, Trafford takes it upon herself to tell us all about the sexual exploits of the most well-known figures from Ancient Rome, and she does all this with ample evidence (both textual and archaeological). In short, Trafford answers everything you have ever wanted (and really not wanted) to know about sex and sexuality in Ancient Rome! So, if you’re a lover of Ancient Rome, or you want to read about all of the scandalous things the rulers of this great empire got up to in their spare time, then this is the book for you! I adored it, and I think it was the quickest I have ever read a non-fiction book.

The fourth book I read this month was the YA Fantasy These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan. I read this book and annotated it for a book swap with Lumé and I ended up really enjoying it. The best way I can describe it is A Court of Thorns and Roses, crossed with Twilight crossed The Mortal Instruments crossed with the Bachelor which I know sounds insane but it was a really enjoyable read. Abriella and her sister Jaslyn are mortals who pretty much live as slaves to her cousins after the death of their mother, and the only light in Brie’s life is her sister and the hottie Sebastian who is training under the Mage who lives next door. When Jas is sold to the Unseelie King, Brie has to head into the land of the Fae to try and get her back. Prince Ronan of the Seelie Court is looking for a mortal bride, so the only way to get to her sister is to pretend to be interested in being Prince Ronan’s wife. She ends up in the middle of an Unseelie band of misfits who have their own agenda and reasons for helping Brie, not to mention their attractive Fae leader Finn. Stuck between the Seelie and Unseelie courts with a power she doesn’t really understand, Brie must stay alive and steel her heart against what needs to be done to save her sister. Out of this book, you’re going to get an easy, enjoyable read with a love triangle, magic, beasts, rival fae courts and a bit of fae politics in the middle of all that. I wouldn’t say it’s anything entirely unique but it’s definitely an enjoyable read!

My final read for the month was The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. This short novel is a retelling of The Odyssey from the point of view of Penelope (the wife of Odysseus) and the twelve maids who are hung in book 22. The story is told by Penelope who is dead, and in Asphodel in the modern-day. She retells her life from her childhood and her parents, to her marriage and the 20 lonely years while Odysseus was fighting in the Trojan War and making his long way home. Interjected into her tale is commentary by the twelve maids, who acted like a tragic theatre chorus. Their sections were written in many different forms like poetry, amock trial and an essay. It was a fascinating read, and Atwood has written it in such a way that there are so many layers to unravel. Penelope isn’t the subservient wife like she was in life, and she aims criticism as Odysseus, Telemachus and Helen primarily (although I didn’t much care for the way she talked about her cousin). My thoughts on this book are very conflicting, and chatting to some lovely people over on my Instagram about the choices Atwood made in this retelling proved just how nuanced and layered it is. Although it doesn’t add much to the overall story of Penelope, it is an interesting take on her character, as she reflects over two thousand years after her death.

September Hopefuls

August was a bit of an anomaly for me, I am a slow reader and I often only read on the weekends. I can’t see myself reading five books again this month, but these are the books I hope to either finish, or at least make a good dent in. First is Egyptian Mythology: A Traveler's Guide from Aswan to Alexandria: A Traveler's Guide from Aswan to Alexandria by Garry Shaw. This is non-fiction and I am really enjoying it. I’m about three chapters in and I really hope I can finish it this month. Next, I’d like to finish Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb which I neglected this month. I’m about halfway through so I can definitely see myself finishing it this month! I have reinstated my audible subscription (yay!) because I was really missing audiobooks, and what I was so excited to see available was A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair. I know I’ll finish it this month, because those books are SO addictive! I think I might try and pick up The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows as part of @crestfallenpages book club! I also have a non-fiction sitting on my NetGalley shelf The Greeks: A Global History by Roderick Beaton which I should really read, so maybe I’ll get cracking on that one too this month. Who knows! So many books, so little time. What are you most excited to read this month? Let me know in the comments!

★★★★☆ I was provided this ARC for a review from St. Martin’s Press. You can find my interview with Nancy on Youtube, and a reduced transcription of it on World History Encyclopedia!

What’s the book about?

The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown is, at its core, working to dispel the myth that Viking women stayed at home whilst the Viking men raided and traded. In 2017, DNA tests revealed that the body buried in grave Bj581 outside the Swedish town of Birka between 913 and 980 wasn’t the body of a male Viking warrior as initially assumed, but that of a female in her thirties or forties. Buried with the body was numerous weapons including an axe blade, spearheads a two-edges sword, a sax knife and a short bladed knife as well as a set of game pieces, a whetstone, traders weights, a comb, a bronze bowl and two horses (among other things). The assemblage of this burial initially caused assumption that the body was of a male, and specifically a warrior, but since we now know that it’s a woman buried with this warriors assemblage, Nancy has taken it upon herself to write a book highlighting what feels like all the times women proved their worth in the Viking Age, and the times their strength, cunning and ruthlessness was assumed as myth.

Thoughts on the book

It is obvious that this book was extensively researched. Nancy utilises sagas, poems and epics of the Vikings in conjunction with archaeological and historical evidence to question the way in which females from the Viking Age have been viewed for centuries. Rather than simply providing the evidence that women from the Viking Age have been sorely misremembered thanks to the act of sexing graves by metal, the reflection of Victorian sensibilities of the nineteenth century placed on the Viking Age and the tendency for Icelandic writers of the 12th and 13th centuries (I’m looking at you Snorri Sturluson) to mythologise and generalise the female warriors as valkyries, Nancy merges fiction and solid evidence which captures the readers interest. In order to humanise the skeleton found in Birka, Nancy names the body from Bj581 Hervor, which translates to something like Aware of Battle, after the warrior woman from the old Norse poem Hervor’s Song. Nancy begins each chapter with a fictionalised story, a bit of what Hervor from burial Bj581’s life could have been like, based upon the historical, textual and archaeological evidence provided throughout the book. Nancy not only provides the evidence for warrior women, but then imagines just how a Viking woman could have lived during the time of Bj581’s life. I found it incredibly fascinating and enjoyable to read how the physical evidence may have been interacted with during the Viking Age, in addition to these imagined sections being a breath of fresh air amidst a detailed and well researched book. One thing that annoyed me through this book was when ‘an archaeologist states,’ or an ‘expert historian says…’ I’d LOVE to know which one.

Not only does Nancy debunk common beliefs that Viking women were buried with keys which signified their role as housewives, (whereas men were buried with weapons which signified their roles as warriors, raiders and traders), she exposes the bias placed onto the sagas, poems and written sources we have of the Viking Age which were all written a few hundred years after the fact. These biases come from both the values of Victorian society and Christianity, where women were confined to the home. These strict gender lines, as shown through the extensive historical and archaeological evidence provided by Nancy, simply were not there during the Viking Age. Looking at Viking women’s graves alone shows how weapons were more commonplace than keys. I loved the incorporation of other female warriors which we know of from poems as saga’s, as well as historical Viking queens detailed in concurrence with archaeological evidence found throughout the Viking world. Going into detail about clothing, textiles, trade, architecture, boats, social hierarchies, Norse legends, historical and mythological figures and everything in between, no stone is left unturned in this detailed look at the importance of women, their roles and their importance in the Viking world. If you’re interested in relearning everything you think you know about women, queens and female warriors in the Viking Age, then you should definitely pick this book up.