THE SCENE: According to Olaus Magnus, the Archbishop of Uppsala, women were as good – or better – as men when it came to hunting on skis.
THE TEXT: Here I shall have to add an account of how, on curved broad planks or smooth-sliding boards bound to their feet, they glide at lightning speed over the valleys, the snows, and peaks of the mountains, and swoop on the wild animals which they are out to hunt with their bows and arrows. Here you may see a woman, her hair loose, aiming arrows. Nor is it any wonder, because those who live under the celestial Pole find in the huge compass of their forests such rich abundance of game that the men alone would not suffice to hunt them down if their womenfolk did not race to their sides. Therefore the women join the chase with the same swiftness as the men, perhaps even greater. But it is the man who shares out of the quarry and points out what is to be roasted on the spit. He distributes it with dependable generosity, saying what shall be given to his household and what to his neighbors.
– Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Oalus Magnus, 16th Century AD
