You're Dead to Me – Viking Women (Radio Edit)

Podcast: You’re Dead to Me (BBC Radio 4)
Date: November 28, 2025
Host: Greg Jenner
Guests: Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (historian, Bath Spa University) & Chloe Petts (comedian)

Overview

This episode of You’re Dead to Me dives beneath the horned-helmet clichés to explore the roles, realities, and remarkable stories of Viking women. Host Greg Jenner is joined by specialist Dr. Eleanor Barraclough and comedian Chloe Petts as they discuss what Viking women’s lives were actually like, challenge popular myths, and examine the evidence for female warriors, matriarchs, and everything in between. The tone, as always, is witty, irreverent, but deeply informed.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Who Were the Vikings? (04:17)

• Historical and Geographic Context: The Viking Age is dated roughly between 793 (Lindisfarne raid) and 1100, spanning Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) and massive expansion across Europe, up to North America and Baghdad.

• Notable Insight: Vikings weren’t isolated; they were prolific travelers, settlers, and traders. Their world changed over time, notably shifting from paganism to Christianity around 1000 AD.

  “They go east down the waterways of what’s now Russia, Ukraine…end up in the Byzantine Empire…even around Baghdad…a really important part of what they are.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (04:17)

2. Female Societal Roles: More Than Pillagers’ Wives (06:21)

• Homefront Contributions: Viking women were fundamental – producing textiles (including sails for ships), managing food, raising children, and running farms in men’s absence.

• Vital Yet Overlooked: Removing women from the equation means “hungry, naked men in a rowing boat.”

• Diversity of Experience: A Viking woman’s life varied greatly depending on her social status—whether enslaved or elite.

  “Take away the women and you’ve got some hungry, naked men in a rowing boat, which is a Channel 4 documentary I would watch.”
  — Greg Jenner (07:34)

3. Girlhood and Upbringing (07:45)

• Work Begins Young: Most girls learned domestic crafts like weaving early, with little time for play. Experiences varied greatly across classes.

  “At the point where…children nowadays might be going out on their skateboards, these girls are probably in there learning how to weave.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (08:48)

• Harsh Realities: Likely prevalence of female infanticide due to a preference for sons; grim but necessary to acknowledge.

4. Marriage, Divorce, and Widow Power (10:05)

• Arranged Marriages: Parents—usually fathers—chose daughters’ husbands, often for social gain.

• Legal Agency: Surprisingly, both men and women could initiate divorce by declaring it with witnesses—more progressive than other medieval societies.

• Status of Widows: Being a widow could grant a woman significant autonomy and status; widowed women sometimes led large household migrations, founded settlements, or established matriarchal communities.

  “Some of the first settlers, the big settlers, are women…once she’s a widow she gathers her family…and sets up this sort of matriarchy.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (11:06)

5. Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Magic (11:46)

• Dangerous Undertaking: Childbirth was perilous; many women and children died.

• Spiritual Protection: Magical runes (“helping runes”) were used for protection in childbirth; rare artifacts hint at complex spiritual practices.

  “There’s an amazing…rune stick…inscription is to the baby…it says, ‘Come out hairless one. The Lord calls you into the light.’”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (13:23)

6. Managing the Household: Beyond the Kitchen (13:26)

• Women oversaw not just immediate families but entire farmstead communities.

• Responsibilities included food storage for harsh winters, textile production, medicine, and sometimes magic (e.g., seidr).

• Women as Healers and Magicians: Noted mentions of women performing healing (e.g., smelling garlic in wounds) and magic; female magicians called vǫlur.

  “There’s a type of…magic called seidr…that women are particularly meant to practice. The old Norse word for a female practitioner…is a vulva.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (14:30)

7. Elite Women and Afterlife (17:38)

• Oseberg Burial: Famous ship burial of two elite women in Norway—contained luxurious grave goods: carved wagons, sacrificed animals, intricate textiles depicting ominous imagery.

  “One of the most sumptuous burials…it’s, there’s nothing like it…wagons all beautifully carved…buckets…sacrificed horses…incredible tapestry…trees are full of hanging bodies.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (18:47)

8. Women as Settlers and Explorers (17:05)

• Women actively migrated and braved dangerous sea journeys to settle new lands (e.g., Iceland, Greenland). Inscriptions confirm women died during these voyages.
• They were integral to the Viking ethos of expansion.

9. Olga of Kyiv: Queen of Vengeance (19:32)

• Saga of Bloody Revenge: Olga, a Norse princess and later a saint, engineered elaborate revenge against her husband’s murderers—burying ambassadors alive, burning men to death in saunas, and torching settlements—then converted and was canonized.

  “So the first lot, yeah. She basically buries the ambassadors alive…then [lures] nobleman…sauna…sets fire to him…burns the whole settlement to the ground…then she converts to Christianity and is made a saint.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (21:06–21:46)

10. Women Warriors – Myth or Fact? (22:05)

• The Birka Burial: A 10th-century grave in Sweden, long assumed male due to warrior accoutrements, was confirmed in 2017 via DNA as female. This opens up questions:

  • Did women fight? Was this a symbolic burial? Was gender expression more fluid?
  • The absence of battle injuries complicates the interpretation but fascinates historians.

• Media portrayals (e.g., shield maidens) may project modern desires for strong female characters, but the evidence is tantalizingly ambiguous.

  “They look at the DNA and there’s—it’s female DNA…that doesn’t mean that she was a practicing warrior…there’s all sorts of possibilities…”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (22:33)

  “Question marks are exciting.”
  — Greg Jenner (23:47)

11. History, Nuance, and Stereotypes (24:05; 25:23)

• Both patriarchy and feminism play a role in modern readings—some want to see women as sword-wielding badasses, others prefer nuanced realities.

• Dr. Barraclough emphasizes meeting these historical women on their own terms—not caricaturing them solely as “apeing male role models.”

  “Their lives are so much more nuanced and multidimensional, more varied than these cartoon stereotypes…and so for me, that is my nuance window—that women themselves are nuanced.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (26:23)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On stripping women from Viking society:
  “Take away the women and you’ve got some hungry naked men in a rowing boat.”
  — Greg Jenner (07:34)

• On the hard realities of childhood:
  “At the point where…children nowadays might be going out on their skateboards, these girls are probably in there learning how to weave.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (08:48)

• On the afterlife and elite status:
  “You see the trees [on the funeral tapestry] are full of hanging bodies.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (19:01)

• On Olga of Kyiv’s notorious retribution:
  “She basically buries the ambassadors alive…blocks [others] in the sauna…sets fire…burns the whole settlement to the ground…then she converts to Christianity and is made a saint.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (21:06–21:46)

• On the reinterpretation of archaeological evidence:
  “They look at the DNA…and it’s female DNA…Question marks are exciting.”
  — Greg Jenner (22:33; 23:47)

• The Nuance Window takeaway:
  “When we look back in history and these hyper masculine periods of history from our perspectives, it’s even more important—meet [women] on their own terms.”
  — Dr. Eleanor Barraclough (26:23)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Historical overview and geography: 04:17–05:43
• Viking women’s roles and essential contributions: 06:21–07:45
• Girlhood and realities of female upbringing: 07:45–09:20
• Marriage, divorce, and widowhood: 10:05–11:46
• Childbirth and magical practices: 11:46–13:26
• Household management and medicine: 13:26–15:14
• Weaving, women’s quarters, and myth: 15:14–16:54
• Elite female burials (Oseberg): 17:38–18:49
• Women as settlers and travelers: 17:05–17:38
• Olga of Kyiv’s story: 19:32–21:46
• Women warriors and the Birka burial: 22:05–23:55
• Discussing nuance and modern readings: 24:05–26:23
• Nuance Window (Dr. Barraclough): 25:23–27:09

Final Thought

The episode expertly balances myth-busting humor with thoughtful historical analysis, reminding listeners that Viking women were as complex, multifaceted, and vital as any men of their age—and deserving of stories told on their own terms.