Meara the Mudwoman
In Their Time: The Vikings had their hay day in the 8th century up until the 11th century. It was pretty cold in Scandinavia, so the Vikings, like migrating birds, went somewhere warmer in winter. And since the Vikings were somewhere that wasn’t their home and they didn’t have good manners the Vikings took whatever they wanted, including beautiful women.
Our Weirdo: Meara the Mudwoman lived on the coast of Ireland, and like all the villagers who lived along the coast, she feared Viking attacks. Meara’s village was small and had trouble defending itself from strong winds, let alone a pack of greedy Vikings.
Meara knew the power of fear and she got the idea to cover herself in mud to scare the Vikings away. They thought Meara was some kind of monster and Meara’s village was never sucessfully attacked in her lifetime.
