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Some two decades ago, Stavanger Museum in Norway launched an exhibition on Den sterke kvinnen, 'The Powerful Woman' , which presented an explicitly female prehistory of Scandinavia from the Bronze Age to the Viking period. In the galleries and accompanying publication (Lundström & Adolfsson 1995, 5) the message was clear, set out in the introduction formatted as a poem: 'This is the story of the powerful woman | and her journey through history, | from the earliest times | till Christianity takes hold. | From equality to subjection'. While criticized by some as overly reductionist (e.g. Svenska Dagbladet 6-11.4.97), this

Although the ninth‐century Viking Great Army has been subject to intensive historical and archaeological study, it remains an enigmatic entity. This article explores the evidence for the Great Army in England through the consideration of archaeological materials in addition to the organizational structures underpinning the formation of Viking ‘armies’. In light of this, I argue that the Great Army is better considered as a mobile society or polity rather than an armed force. Viewing the Great Army in this way influences not only the interpretation of evidence recovered in the field, but also our understanding of the Scandinavian settlement of northern and eastern England during the late ninth century.