New research is finding that some women in Viking Age Scandinavia were buried with war-grade weapons. Experts are divided ...

In combat, he says, the battle axes could reach speeds of 110 miles an hour at the point of impact. Photograph by Robert Clark Some Viking warriors valued the treasures they stole for their beauty ...

Image caption, A re-enactment of Viking battle in York. King Alfred was prepared though, having fortified the towns and organised a large army drawn from his own warriors and the male population ...

A battle-ax sliced through his ... never to regroup as a military unit. A Viking chieftain named Halfdann, the putative murderer of Warrior 295, led his warriors north into Northumbria, where ...

This was because "all who fall in battle are his adopted sons. With them he mans Valhalla." Becoming one of the chosen would drive Viking warriors to risk a bloody death for their chief.

They are often depicted as bloodthirsty, unwashed warriors with winged helmets. But that's a poor picture based largely on Viking portrayals in the 19th century, when they featured in European art ...

The showstopper is a Viking warship whose surviving timbers ... might have cramped a warrior’s style in battle). Pedersen says a warrior’s status was often reflected in the quality of his ...

The outcome of the battle secured the English kingdom but also marked a turning point in Viking incursions into England. Thousands of men died, among them two Danish kings and several nobles.

The finds hint at a nuanced picture of Viking society — one where most warriors were men but a person's class and profession had the biggest impact on who went to war. "Women can be as strong ...