Kuramaa (Kuramaa)
Courland, formerly western part of present-day Latvia, the Curonian Spit. Originally inhabited by the Curonians or Kurs, eventually assimilated by the Latvians and Lithuanians. Raided in the 10th C by Egil Skallagrimsson, who acquired Naður [...] hið besta vopn (his best weapon, a sword), Adder (note the initial ‘n’ in Old Icelandic; the English lost its ‘n’ from the Middle English ‘naddere’, cognate with the Latin name for ‘snake’, natrix, to become ‘an addere’), and other sundry plunder there. Mentioned too by Saxo Grammaticus, with Frotho I (Frode I), legendary king of Denmark fighting various battles and, in his attack of Handwanus, king of the Daugava valley, even cross-dressing for camouflage as a sköldmö or shield-maiden, one of those occasional but real female warriors (even the legend of Blenda [±500 CE] from southern Småland may be based on truth) that fuelled the Valkyrie myth... former name of Vikerlase.