Storm, Gale. I Ain’t Down Yet: The Autobiography of My Little Margie, with Bill Libby (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1981).
Chapter Ten: Halibut Woman
Robinson, Jane. Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travellers (Oxford: Oxford University, 1990).
Taylor, Elizabeth. The Far Islands and Other Cold Places: Travel Essays of a Victorian Lady, edited by James Taylor Dunn (St. Paul, MN: Pogo Press, 1997). I drew heavily on Dunn’s introduction, and appreciate his work gathering and presenting the story of his remarkable great aunt in this collection of letters and essays.
Wollstonecraft, Mary, and William Godwin. A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark and Memoirs of the Author of ‘The Rights of Woman’ (London: Penguin, 1987).
Chapter Eleven: Aud the Deep-Minded
Jacobsen, Jørgen-Frantz. Barbara, translated by George Johnston (Norwich, UK: Norvik, 1993).
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1991). For the story of Aud the Deep-Minded.
Laxdæla Saga, translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson (Middlesex, UK: Penguin, 1969).
Marcus, G. J. The Conquest of the North Atlantic (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1980). For a thorough discussion of Norse navigation, hafvilla, and Viking ships.
Schei, Liv Kjørsvik, and Gunnie Moberg. The Faroe Islands (London: John Murray, 1991). For a version of the folktale of Barbara of Sumba, as well as information about Gudrún, the Lady of Húsavík. Other information about Gudrún came from Hanus undir Leitinum.
Chapter Twelve: Caught in the Net
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings (London: Penguin, 1992). For the “Lay of Hymir.”
Davidson, H. R. Ellis. Gods and Myths of the Viking Age (New York: Bell Publishing, 1981). For the story of Ruad and the nine maidens.
Hull, Eleanor. Folklore of the British Isles (London: Methuen, 1928). For the quote from the eighth-century Irish abbot, “I invoke the seven Daughters of the Sea. . .”
Lacy, Terry G. The Ring of Seasons: Iceland—Its Culture and History (Reykjavík: University of Reykjavík, 1998). For a version of the story of Gudríd Símonardóttir. Much of my information came from Steinunn Jóhannesdóttir, whose novel, Gudríd’s Journey, exploring the first half of Gudríd’s life, was published in 2001 in Iceland (Reykjavík: Mal og menning).
Monaghan, Patricia. The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines (St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1997) For details about Ran.
Mowat, Farley. Westviking: The Ancient Norse in Greenland and North America (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965). For the quote from The King’s Mirror on hafgerdingar.
Spencer, William. Algiers in the Age of the Corsairs (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1976). For information about Algiers under Turkish rule and the corsairs.
Sturluson, Snorri. Edda, translated and edited by Anthony Faulkes (London: Everyman, 1987).
Sykes, Egerton, ed. Everyman’s Dictionary of Non-classical Mythology (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1962). For the suggestion that Ran’s nine daughters suggest the presence of a college of priestesses.
Chapter Thirteen: Iceberg Travel
Bard’s Saga, from The Complete Sagas of the Icelanders (Reykjavík: Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, 2000).
Bergmann, Gudrún G. The Mystique of Snæfellsjökull (Olafsvík: Leidarljós, 1999).
Ellis, Peter Berresford. Celtic Women: Women in Celtic Society and Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995). For the story of Muirenn.
Chapter Fourteen: Leif’s Unlucky Sister
Byock, Jesse. Viking Age Iceland (London: Penguin, 2001). For the travels of Gudríd Thorbjarnardóttir and other Icelandic women to Rome.
Clark, Joan. Eiriksdóttir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck (Toronto: Macmillan, 1994). This beautifully written novel is a convincing look at the harsh reality of life in Greenland and Vínland, and a powerfully imagined portrayal of Freydís Eiríksdóttir.
Fitzhugh, William W., and Elisabeth I. Ward, eds. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2000). This book provides the most up-to-date account of the discovery of the site at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and the most current research on Viking sites in North America.
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1991).
Jochens, Jenny. Old Norse Images of Women (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1996).
The Vínland Sagas consist of two sagas, The Greenlanders’ Saga and The Saga of Eirík the Red, translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson (London: Penguin, 1965).
(Recently, the Icelandic historian Helgi Thórlaksson has published research that may prove Glaumbær was not owned by Karlsefni’s family in the eleventh century but that their main estate was Reynisnes.)
Chapter Fifteen: A Woman Without a Boat Is a Prisoner
Lacy, Terry G. The Ring of Seasons: Iceland—Its Culture and History (Reykjavík: University of Reykjavík, 1998). For some details about Thuridúr Formadur.
Magnúsdóttir, Thórunn. Sjósókn sunnlenskra kvenna frá verstödvum í Árnessýslu 1697-1980 [Seafaring Women of South Iceland from 1697-1980] (Reykjavík: MA dissertation, 1984). The portion of the book that deals with how Magnúsdóttir researched her subject was also published in a Danish précis, and delivered as a speech at a meeting of women historians in Oslo in 1983. I summarize her methodology and findings below. Other sections about various women fishers were translated for me from the Icelandic by Daniel Teague, and include some quotes from a book about Thurídur Einarsdóttir by Brynjólf Jónsson, The History of Skipper Thurídur and the Kambur Farm Burglars, published in 1941, and in a revised edition in 1975 (in Icelandic).
For her work on women fishing on the south coast of Iceland, Magnusdóttir went to public records that showed in the district how many boats were registered and what sizes they were (since boats are called by the name of how many oars they have, she could calculate with some certainty). She estimated how many rowers it took to man the boats and then looked at the number of male inhabitants in the district. For instance, in 1795 there were eighty-seven boats, requiring a total crew of 560. At that time the district had 370 men between the ages of twenty and sixty. In 1800 there were sixty boats, requiring 465 rowers, but only 434 available men in the district. In 1852 fifty-two boats required 410 people to row them. There were 476 men.
Magnusdóttir counted all men between the ages of twenty and sixty, but assumed that some percentage of these were sick or disabled at any one time. That means that there was a lack of between several dozen to almost two hundred men to row the fishing boats. Magnusdóttir also found from the records that women outnumbered men in every parish. She notes: “A natural conclusion was that women must have participated in the fishing.” Still, she asks, “Are there dependable sources to show that women worked as fishers? Their stories are rarely recorded, generally only if they are involved in a court case or suffer a tragedy, such as drowning with their shipmates. For instance, Kristine Brandsdóttir, born in 1786, drowned with the whole crew.”
Sigurdardóttir, Anna. Vinna kvenna á islandi í 1100 ár (Working women in Iceland for 1100 years) (Reykjavík: Kvennasögusafn Islands, 1985) Chapter nine. For material on Halldóra Ólafsdóttir and other women fishers of Breidafjord, including many women not cited in my text. Translated for me by Daniel Teague.
Chapter Sixteen: Seawim
Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalia’s Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes, translated by Louis Mackay in cooperation with Gerd Brantenberg (Seattle: Seal Press, 1985).
Fitzhugh, William W., and Elisabeth I. Ward, eds. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2000). For details on the excavation of the Oseberg ship.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983). For details on Frigga.
Chapter Seventeen: Trouser-Beret
The Sami are an indigenous people who form an ethnic
minority in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, and who have occupied the region north of the Arctic Circle for probably around four thousand years, and possibly earlier. With around forty thousand Sami, Norway has the largest population. Until the 1600s the Sami and the few Norwegian settlers lived side by side. More intensive colonization by the Norwegians, especially along the coast, led to assimilation and active suppression. By the end of the 1800s use of the Sami language was restricted, and by 1902 a law was passed forbidding the sale of land to anyone who did not speak Norwegian. Norway, which had been ruled by Denmark since the Middle Ages, became independent in 1814, but was pressured into a political union with Sweden, which did not cease until 1905. One of the side effects of the country’s nationalism was an attempt to culturally eradicate its ancient ethnic minority. Only in the 1960s, with the rise of indigenous peoples’ organizing efforts worldwide, did the Sami begin to assert their rights. In 1988 the Norwegian Parliament adopted a new Article to the Constitution that acknowledged and preserved Sami rights and paved the way for the creation of a Sami Parliament, which opened in 1989.
No material on Trouser-Beret exists in English. In addition to conversations with Hilgunn Pedersen, I benefited from a section titled “Arbeidsdeling hos samene” (“Division of Labor Among the Sami”) in a volume of local history, Lødingen, Tjeldsund og Tysfjords Historie 1700-1870, volume V: Fra Vidstrakt Prestegjeld til Storkommune, edited by Alf Ragnar Nielssen, authored by Alf Ragnar Nielssen and Hilgunn Pedersen (Lødingen: Tjeldsund og Tysfjord Kommuner, 1994), as well as other genealogical notes about Beret Paulsdatter given to me by Pedersen. Buks-Beret is also known as Boks-Beret, Boksberret, and Bokseberet, depending on dialect. Bukse means trousers in Norwegian.
The following Norwegian sources were helpful: Dundor-Heikka og flere lappers historier by Inga Bjørnson (Oslo: Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag, 1915) and “Det tradisjonelle kjønnsrollemønster i Nord-Norge” by Håvard Dahl Bratrein in Drivandes Kvinnfolk (Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget, 1976). Rundt Norge by Dr. Yngvar Nielsen is the oversize travel book referred to in the chapter (Kristiania: Mallings Bokhandel, 1882). Samekulturen by Ornulv Vorren and Ernst Manker (Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget, 1976) had useful information on the Sea Sami of the Tysfjord.
Brøgger, A. W., and Haakon Shetelig. Viking Ships (Oslo: Dreyer, 1951). For information on Sami boat building. The quote by Nansen on the “women’s boat” is also from this book.
Chapter Eighteen: Statue of a Woman Staring Out to Sea
Druett, Joan. She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). For information on Viking longships and Saxo’s story of Alfhild.
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1991). For the skaldic verse about the admiring widow, taken from a series of verses by Thjódólf Arnórsson that describe King Harald’s navy leaving Trondheim, Norway.
Olaus Magnus. A Description of the Northern Peoples, Volume I, translated by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgens, edited by Peter Foote (Original publication 1555, in Latin; London: Hakluyt Society, 1996). For the story of Alvid.
Saxo Grammaticus. The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, translated by Oliver Elton (London: Norroena Society, 1907). For the story of Alfhild, Rusla, and other female warriors.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Cover
Rockfleet Castle photograph © Suzanne Arnold
Sea photo © Royalty-Free/CORBIS
Frontmatter
Title page, Rockfleet Castle photograph © Suzanne Arnold
Introduction
Page xxi, photograph courtesy of the author
Page xxiii, reprinted from Anne Chambers, Granuaile: The Life and Times of Grace O’Malley, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland)
Chapter One
Page 13, drawing courtesy of Ron Druett © 2000
Chapter Two
Page 22, © Suzanne Arnold
Page 35, reprinted from Anne Chambers, Granuaile: The Life and Times of Grace O’Malley, Wolfhound Press (Dublin, Ireland)
Chapter Three
Page 53, reprinted from Peter Foote, ed., A Description of the Northern Peoples by Olaus Magnus, The Hakluyt Society (London, England)
Chapter Four
Page 59, cover illustration reprinted from Klausmann, Meinzerin, and Kuhn, Women Pirates: and the Politics of the Jolly Roger, Black Rose Books Ltd. (Buffalo, NY)
Page 67, illustration by W. Fraser and S. Sangster; reprinted from Sir Walter Scott, The Pirate, Archibald Constable and Company (Westminster, England)
Chapter Five
Page 77, courtesy of the Scottish Fisheries Museum
Page 84, courtesy of William Smith
Page 87, from the Stromness Museum
Page 89, illustration by John McGhie courtesy of the Scottish Fisheries Museum
Chapter Six
Page 108, illustration from Narrative of the Capture, Sufferings and Miraculous Escape of Mrs. Eliza Fraser, Charles Webb (New York, NY); reprinted from Michael Alexander, Mrs. Fraser on the Fatal Shore, Phoenix Press (London, England)
Page 110, illustration from John Ashton, ed., Modern Street Ballads, Chatto and Windus (London, England); reprinted from Suzanne J. Stark, Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail, Pimlico (London, England)
Chapter Seven
Page 122, drawing by John Duncan, A.R.S.A; reprinted from Donald A. Mackenzie, Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend, Dover Publications, Inc. (Mineola, NY)
Chapter Eight
Page 128, photo courtesy of the author
Page 132, courtesy of the Illustrated London News Picture Library
Page 134, courtesy of the Shetland Museum
Chapter Ten
Page 166, courtesy of the Pogo Press, Incorporated
Page 168, reprinted from Faroe Isles Review, issue 1, Bókagar∂’ur (Tórshavn, Faroe Isles)
Chapter Twelve
Page 195, engraving by Flameng, 1869; reprinted from Joan Druett, She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY)
Chapter Fourteen
Page 236, courtesy of Gunnar Marel Eggertsson
Page 248, “Gudrídur Thorbjarnardóttir,” Asmundur Sveinsson © Heirs/Myndstef 2004
Chapter Fifteen
Page 265, courtesy of the National Museum of Iceland
Page 270, photo courtesy of the author
Chapter Seventeen
Page 289, photograph by Annie Giæver; reprinted from Bente Foldvik, Jenteliv uten vaskemaskin, Nordlys
Page 298, reprinted from Johannes Shefferus, The History of Lapland, Bokförlaget Rediviva (Stockholm, Sweden)
Chapter Eighteen
Page 303, from Ellms, Pirates Own Book, Boston 1837; reprinted from Joan Druett, She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY)
Page 311, reprinted from Peter Foote, ed., A Description of the Northern Peoples by Olaus Magnus, The Hakluyt Society (London, England)
Page 320, photo courtesy of the author
Epilogue
Page 333, courtesy of the author’s private collection
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MANY OF the stories I went looking for and happened upon as I traveled around the North Atlantic have been kept alive by folklorists, writers, and relatives of seafaring women. I relied heavily on their passion for research and dedication to memory. My greatest thanks, therefore, to all the writers and storytellers I encountered along the way, for the pleasure of their company and for their belief that what women have accomplished matters to us all.
In Ireland, I’m extremely grateful for the help of Anne Chambers, Mary Gavin Hughes, and Jeremy Browne, Lord Altamont, who know and love Clew Bay and who increased my understanding of the pirate queen who once lived there. Many thanks also to Mary McGreal of the Mayo County Tourist Office in Westport, Ireland and to Mary O’Malley of the Granuaile Heritage Centre.
In Scotland, I'd like to thank Ellen Galford and Ellen Kelly for taking
me to Anstruther to the Scottish Fisheries Museum, and Linda Semple for digging up an old copy of The Pirate. In Stromness, Orkney, I was fortunate to meet Gunnie Moberg and Anne Robertson, which led me to the fudge factory and Jim Robertson. A great thank you to Jim Robertson for the tour, the talk, and the fudge. Bryce Wilson, honorary curator of the Stromness Museum, offered useful corrections to the chapter on his wonderful town.
In Shetland I am grateful to Tommy Watt of the Shetland Museum and to Douglas Sinclair of the Lerwick Library, as well as to the incomparable Dorothy Thomson and to Mary Isbister. I thank Jeanne Pratt, author of the “Instructions to Hostesses” for her illuminating notes on shipboard life and work.
Hanus undir Leitinum very kindly took the time to show me around Húsavík in the Faroe Islands and to give me a sense of Gudrún Sjúrdardóttir’s world.
In Iceland I appreciated having two weeks at Gúnnarshus, in the apartment maintained by the Writers’ Union of Iceland, and thank Jónína Michaelsdóttir and Ragnheidur Tryggvadóttir for helping make that possible. Inga Jóna Thórdardóttir, Brynja Benediktsdóttir, Erla Hulda Halldorsdóttir at the University of Reykjavík Library, Gísli Sigurdsson, Gulli and Gudrún Bergmann, Jónas Kristjánsson, and Ellen Ingvadóttir all contributed to my understanding of Icelandic history and women’s roles in seafaring and fishing. Daniel Teague was an able translator of some of this history. Steinunn Jóhannesdóttir’s research on Turkish Gudda sparked my own curiosity, and I thank her for sharing her knowledge with me. I’m very grateful to Thorunn Magnusdóttir, for her scholarship and great generosity, as well as to Gudrún Bergmann for encouragement to do something unexpected.
My conversations with Joan Clark in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Dr. Birgitta Linderoth Wallace in Halifax, Nova Scotia about Freydís Eiríksdóttir helped me to understand some of the many fascinating issues surrounding this historical figure. Scholarship on the Vínland Voyages (and much to do with Vikings in general) is vast and sometimes conflicting, and all mistakes of interpretation are, of course, my own. However, I give particular thanks to Dr. Wallace for her comments on my chapter about Freydís.
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