Blenda Blenda is the heroine of a Swedish legend ( " Blendasägnen " ) from Småland . Blenda led the rural women of Värend in an attack on a pillaging Danish army and annihilated the invaders . Legend . According to the legend , the events took place in the time of Alle , King of the Geats ( A - S " Ælla " ) , when this king lead the Geat s in an attack against Norway . King Alle had marshalled not only the West Geats , but also the South Geats ( or Riding Geats ) of Småland , and so many men had left for Norway that the region was virtually defenseless . When the Danes learned of Småland ' s precarious situation , they took advantage of it and attacked the defenseless small lands . Blenda was a woman of noble descent in the Konga Hundred and she decided to send the fiery cross to rally all the womenfolk in the hundreds of Konga , Albo , Kinnevald , Norrvidinge and Uppvidinge . The women armies assembled on the Brávellir , which according to Småland ish tradition is located in Värend and not in Östergötland . The women approached the Danes and told them how much they were impressed with the Danish men . They invited the men to a banquet where they were provided with food and drink . After a long evening , the Danish warriors fell asleep and the women killed every single one of them with axes and staffs . When King Alle returned , he bestowed new rights on the women . They acquired equal inheritance with their brothers and husbands , the right always to wear a belt around their waists as a sign of eternal vigilance , the right to beat the drum at weddings , and so forth . The five hundreds were combined into the land of Värend , which means the " defense " , since it was a bulwark for Geatland . Blenda ' s village was called " Värnslanda " and a location near the battle ground was called " Bländinge " . Historicity . The first printed text , where the legend has been connected with the inheritance rights , appeared in Johan Stiernhöök ' s " De iure sueonum et gothorum vetusto " ( 1672 ) . He wrote that the inheritance rights were awarded by King Hakon Ring ( Sigurd Ring ) to the women after the Battle of Brávellir , in which they had shown valour against Harald Wartooth . The legend appears in embellished form in the various pleas made in the 1680s and 1690s in order to defend the equal inheritance and the Church ' s new prohibitions against church drums . The final form probably comes from local historian , Petter Rudebeck ( 1660 – 1710 ) since both the oldest editions of it remind of Rudebeck ' s methodology and language . Petter Rudebeck gathered and wrote down peasant customs , practices , myths and legends of nearly every province of Småland . In 1813 , the legend was rendered in the romantic poem " Blenda " in the first major poem by Erik Johan Stagnelius . If the events did take place under the reign of King Alle , it would have happened about the year 500 , which would make it less surprising , as female soldiers were allowed in Sweden before Christianity . So called Shieldmaiden s , three hundred female soldiers were recorded having served during the great Battle of Bråvalla ( " Slaget vid Bråvalla " ) in 750 . Several attempts have been made to support or discredit the legend ' s historicity . Some authors have proposed that it took place during the battles before the meeting of the three kings Inge I of Sweden , Magnus III of Norway and Eric I of Denmark at Kungahälla in 1101 , or at the time of Sigurd I of Norway ' s attack on Kalmar in 1123 . Sven Lagerbring ( 1707 – 1787 ) proposed that it taken place during King Sweyn III of Denmark ' s attack on Sweden in the 1150s . Olof von Dalin ( 1708 – 1763 ) conjectured that the event had taken place in the 1270s when King Eric V of Denmark attacked Småland . Carl Johan Schlyter ( 1795 – 1888 ) suggested that the legend was invented to explain why the women of Värend had equal share in the inheritance with the men .