If you've watched even one episode of Vikings on The History Channel, you surely have checked out the shieldmaidens fighting side-by-side with the men in battle -- the most famous shieldmaiden being Lagertha, played by Canadian actress Katherine Winnick on the show. But is this depiction of Viking women warriors accurate... or were they, in fact, something more? 

In Norse mythology, the shieldmaidens were extolled in such classic stories as the Hervarar saga (which was the source of inspiration for Middle Earth in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga) and the Gesta Danorum (a patriotic Danish folklore tale which is considered the pre-eminent origin story of Denmark; it also tells the story of early Estonia and Latvia). Shieldmaidens were also common in Goth (East German), Cimbri (Northern Italy), and Marcomanni (a proto-Germanic tribe that originated in what is now France) folklore. 

These myths, though, have some origin in fact: shieldmaidens were not only common on the Viking battlefield, they did a lot more than just carry the shields. Many of the shieldmaidens, in fact, were skilled in both archery and swordsmanship. Leif Ericson's half-sister Freydis, in fact, was such a brazen shieldmaiden that she fought, while pregnant, with a sword and shield in hand... and no armor for protection. 

The goddess Brunhilde (who is, reportedly, the mother of Princess Aslaug -- played by Australian actress Alyssa Southerland on the show), a shieldmaiden herself, was said to protect the shieldmaidens in battle.

Lagertha, as a shieldmaiden, makes her first appearance in the Gesta Danorum: Lagertha's career as a warrior began when Fro, king of Sweden, invaded Norway and killed the Norwegian king Siward. Fro put the women of the dead king's family into a brothel for public humiliation. Hearing of this, Ragnar Lothbrook came with an army to avenge his grandfather Siward. Many of the women Fro had ordered abused dressed themselves in men's clothing and fought on Ragnar's side. Chief among them, and key to Ragnar's victory, was Lagertha.