Queen Asa and the Blue Dress Woman
![Image](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EvJRs3VV5lU/YWcFfCLy89I/AAAAAAAATZo/4dYoJwwjtHI86LG5fdtP4b1vknU6fh0lgCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png)
Listen to this. No, first a photo. This is a Viking ship, the Oseberg ship, which was found in a burial mound in Norway. Inside the ship were two women, two skeletons, almost certainly of exalted status because of the nature of the burial. The year was 834. One woman was 80 years old, arthritic, dressed in a red wool dress, with a twill pattern, wearing a veil of white linen. One woman was in her 50s, wearing a blue wool dress, with a wool veil. Blue dress woman had Morgagni's syndrome, which would have given her a masculine appearance and the ability to grow a beard. No one can say with certainty, but some scholars believe the older woman, whose dress may belie higher social status than the woman in the blue dress, is Queen Asa of the Yngling clan, mother of Halfdan the Black. Others think she was a shaman. The younger woman used a metal toothpick, which was rare and a luxury in the 9th century. Both had diets composed of meat, another luxury when most Vikings made do wi