The Slave Who Became a Viking Queen In the Viking world, freedom was not guaranteed. Raids brought gold. They also brought people. Across Scandinavia, archaeology and written sources show that enslaved women were taken from Ireland, Britain, Eastern Europe, and beyond. They were called thralls. They cooked, cleaned, and worked the land. Most never escaped that life. But some did. In several high-status Viking graves, archaeologists have found something unexpected. Women buried with rich jewelry,