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"Once again, Brown brings Viking history to vivid, unexpected life -- and in the process, turns what we thought we knew about Norse culture on its head. Superb." -- "Magnificent. It captured me from the very first page..." -- "A complex, important, and delightful addition to women's history." -- In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.Brown uses science to link the Birka warrior, whom she names Hervor, to Viking trading towns and to their great trade route east to Byzantium and beyond.