ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Old Norse Women's Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds

Have you ever heard of poems? They are like stories that people write in a special way using nice words and rhythms. In a long time ago, there were people called Vikings who lived in a place called Scandinavia, which is now mostly Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. These Vikings were really brave warriors who used to travel by boat to different places.

Now, some of these Vikings were really good at making poems, and they were called skalds. They would write poems about adventures and battles that they had been part of. But not all of them were men! Even women could be skalds and write poems about their experiences.

The poems that these women wrote were very special because they talked about things that happened mostly to women, like childbirth or taking care of the home. They also talked about their feelings and experiences, which was not something that people talked about so much back then. Their poems included things like love and loss, and they showed how strong and brave women were.

These women's poems were called Old Norse women's poetry, and it was a way for women to share their voices and experiences with others. Even though they were not always treated equally to men, these female skalds were respected and admired for their talent as poets.