Photo Credit: Geoff Lakeman
I’m a Canadian writer who specializes in writing about the distant past. My work often takes me to out of the way places and leads to memorable encounters with both the living and the dead–subjects that inspire my writing.
I’ve written for National Geographic, Scientific American, Archaeology, and many other leading magazines over the course of my career. My work has been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. In addition, I have written five non-fiction books that explore the past in diverse ways. The latest, entitled The Northwomen: Stories from the Other Half of the Viking World, was published by National Geographic Books. It came out in September 2024.
Currently, I’m working on my first novel.
The Northwomen
The remarkable feats of the Vikings have long captured the imaginations of writers and filmmakers. In sleek sailing ships, the Northmen traveled far and wide in the medieval world, spreading terror, sacking cities, conquering kingdoms, and exploring as far west as North America. But our view of these legendary seafarers and warriors is steeped in testosterone. What about the Northwomen? All but ignored by contemporary European writers, these shadowy figures were thought to play little part in the great events of the Viking Age. In The Northwomen, Heather Pringle turns those assumptions on their head, drawing on the latest archaeological research and historical findings to reveal Viking women as they really were.
Heather Pringle 