Gunnhildr konungamóðir (mother of kings) is one of the most notorious women of medieval Scandinavian literature. A tenth-century queen consort of Norway and Northumbria, she appears in the Icelandic sagas as a formidable political operator associated with sorcery, sexual intrigue and dynastic conflict. Yet the stories told about her are difficult to disentangle from the myths and legends that accumulated around her over the centuries.
Matt’s forthcoming book, Gunnhildr, Mother of Kings, in Scandinavian Cultural Memory, brings together the medieval stories associated with the queen in the first full-length biography of her. Rather than attempting a definitive reconstruction of Gunnhildr’s life from sources written generations after her death, it takes a chronological approach to the traditions that preserve her memory.
The result is both a study of a fascinating woman and an exploration of how medieval Scandinavian writers made sense of the past through stories about its most memorable figures. The book follows Gunnhildr from her youth and marriage to Eiríkr blóðøx (Erik Bloodaxe), through her time as queen consort in Norway and Northumbria, and into her later years as queen mother, when her sons contested royal power in Norway. Along the way, it examines the relationship between historical evidence, folklore and literary invention, and considers how the queen’s reputation developed and endured.
Gunnhildr, Mother of Kings, in Scandinavian Cultural Memory will be published in hardcover and as an open access ebook by Arc Humanities Press in February 2027. Link to come!
Read more about the book on Matt’s academic website.
Categories: Biographies
