A new study has offered a glimpse of the stark reality of pregnancy in the Viking Age , via an analysis of art and literature from the period.

The analysis is based on multidisciplinary evidence and the examination of words and stories used to depict pregnancy in later Old Norse sources.

This evidence depicts pregnant women as being adorned with martial gear, ready for combat. A surviving singular Viking Age figurine convincingly displays a pregnant body wearing a martial helmet.

The artefact, which was found in a 10th century, Swedish burial for a woman, buried with a rich and varied artefacts assemblage as well as animals, is the only known depiction of pregnancy from the Viking Age.

Newborns, meanwhile, appear to have been born into a harsh world. Burial evidence linked to potenti

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