When people think of medieval Scandinavia, they usually think of a cold northern region inhabited by a warrior people who spent all their time sailing in Viking warships and plundering a each other or go to war with their neighbors. Although our archaeological evidence from this period may be quite sparse, many cite Scandinavian pagan religions as evidence of this warrior society, as men were encouraged to fight to be chosen by the gods to live in Valhalla, the pagan world. equivalent, vaguely equivalent, of heaven. However, this only applies to the men in the society, and no society can continue if it is composed only of men. Were women as concerned about the war as their male counterparts? Recent research on Scandinavian women suggests that they were a much more powerful force in medieval Scandinavia than the previously voiceless bystanders they were believed to be. Due to the high rates of infanticide, particularly female infanticide, the role of women in the creation of the kingdom's currency, and even the pagan religion that so many cite as evidence of a male-centered warfare society, give us evidence of the many women who they were able to achieve both social and familial power in Scandinavia. Female infanticide was a common practice throughout the medieval world, and while this is evidence of misogyny, it also empowers those women who manage to reach adulthood. The commonality of infanticide created a scarcity of women in Scandinavia and allowed these women to cross both social and economic ranks. Women were also the primary weavers of home-spun cloth, which before the use of fish in the 14th century, was the common currency of the Scandinavian kingdom. This......half of the paper......niversity Press, 1990.Dahmus, Joseph. Seven medieval queens. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, INC., 1972. Damsholt, Nanna. "The Role of Icelandic Women in Sagas and Homemade Cloth Production." Scandinavian Journal of History 9, no. 2 (1984): 75-90.Hill, Mary. Margaret of Denmark. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1898.Jochens, Jenny. Women in ancient Norse society. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995. Sawyer, Birgit and Peter. Medieval Scandinavia: from conversion to reformation, circa 800-1500. The Nordic series. vol. 17. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. Translated by Jesse L. Byock. Penguin Books, 2005.Sturluson, Snorri. The Saga of King Harald: Harald Hardradi of Norway. Translated by Magnusson, Magnus and Palsson, Hermann. England: Penguin Books, 1966.