Illustration
Freydis Eiríksdóttir (c. 970-c. 1004 CE) was either a great woman warrior or an evil, conniving murderess depending on which of the two stories about her one reads. She appears in Erik the Red’s Saga (where she is the heroine) and The Saga of the Greenlanders (a villainess). In Erik the Red’s Saga, Freydis, daughter of Erik the Red, accompanies a party to Vinland (Newfoundland, North America), where she picks up a sword from a fallen comrade and defends her party when they are attacked by natives, thus saving them. In The Saga of the Greenlanders she accompanies her husband, his men, and two brothers/business partners to Vinland. She dislikes the brothers and feels they are too presumptuous so she frames them, telling her husband they abused and beat her and that she will divorce him if he does not avenge the insult. Her husband and his men kill the brothers and their party but will not hurt the women so Freydis kills all the women herself with an axe. This image showcases the first story.
License & Copyright
This image was first published on Flickr.
Original image by Luc Van Braekel. Uploaded by Emma Groeneveld, published on 08 January 2019. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
Related Images
Leif Erikson
Leif Erikson Sighting America
Map of the Greenland-Vinland Voyage
Leif Erikson
Njals Saga in the Modruvallabok
Gudrun & Ghost, Laxdale Saga
Cite This Work
APA Style
Braekel, L. V. (2019, January 08). Freydis Eiríksdóttir. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9837/freydis-eiriksdottir/
Chicago Style
Braekel, Luc Van. "Freydis Eiríksdóttir." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified January 08, 2019. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/9837/freydis-eiriksdottir/.
MLA Style
Braekel, Luc Van. "Freydis Eiríksdóttir." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 08 Jan 2019. Web. 22 Feb 2025.
