As I love the Viking period, I am totally excited about the
Viking exhibit which opens at the British Museum next month. I’ve booked my
ticket and am really looking forward to seeing all the objects. That was even
before my husband brought home the book of the exhibition which combines some
of the latest research and thinking on the Vikings -- Vikings: life and Legend ed. Gareth Williams.
The exhibit is the largest mounted for the past 30 years and will be shown at
the British Museum, the Museum of Berlin and the Danish National Museum. No
word on if it will travel to the US. Among other things, it includes Roskilde 6
which is the largest Viking ship yet recovered. The tale of how the fragments
were conserved was breath-taking. It took 15 years and included 48 months of
vaccum freeze-drying in nine processes and more than 8,000 working hours so
that it can be displayed in a way which makes sense. The conserved wood is
mounted on a specially engineered steel frame so the sheer scale of the ship can
be experienced. It is thought that Roskilde 6 was a royal ship and very
brightly coloured when it was new. This ship was discovered when they were
excavating for a new Viking Ship museum.
One of the more interesting facts from the book was about
how some Vikings (predominantly in the East) not only sported tattoos but also filed their teeth. The mere thought
makes me wince. There are reasons why
the practice died out.
Teeth feature in much of the recent research because
advances in isotype analysis allow archaeologists to discover where someone
grew up. It is possible to tell a bit
more about what was actually happening and looking over large populations of
skulls and skeletons to determine trends in the general population.
One of the big things that has happened is that Russia and
the East have opened up. Under the Soviets, the Viking contribution to Russia
was suppressed as it was all supposed to
be Slavic. The word Russia comes from Rus which is a word meaning from
Scandinavia, primarily Sweden. It is now
clear that the Vikings did play a significant part in the development of Russia
and some of the hordes and other objects are displayed in the exhibit for the
first time in the West.
The other interesting bit that I learnt was about the
current thinking about the Viking religion. Although some of the major gods and
goddesses like Thor, Odin and Loki are familiar names, the actual religion is
hugely opaque. Scholars are currently divided on whether or not the writing of
the Eddas were an attempt to codify (and potentially discredit) the religion or
not. Much of what we know is
contradictory. It is now thought that
the Norse religion might have been much looser and more localised. In other
words, it is not like any of today’s world religions and was much more based on
social behaviour and tradition.
One interesting aspect is the whole concept of hamr and hugr or the Viking concept of the
soul. There was a widespread belief about the ability to shape shift and that
the outer human form or hamr was simply a vessel or shell for carrying the
essence of hugr. They also believed that everyone had a fylgur or a follower
spirit who would appear in dreams to warn of impending danger. They were inherited
in families. Some of these aspects of Viking spirituality can still be found in
Iceland. The conversion to Christianity was at time very violent and very
political.
Anyway, the exhibit looks very exciting. There will be
television programmes etc about the exhibition. You can learn more at the
website but there will a live presentation of the exhibit at cinemas across Britain (no idea about elsewhere) with Micheal Wood narrating on 24 April 2014
Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical
romance in a wide range of time periods, including Viking. Her next novel
Return of the Viking Warrior will be published in May 2014. You can read more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk
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