Our contemporary perception of the Vikings is derived from myriad sources. When Richard Wagner’s behemoth opera The Ring Cycle stormed onto the European stage for the first time in 1876, the Viking image underwent a serious revamp.
Wagner crafted his characters as a motley assemblage of cutthroat, hammer-wielding pioneers. Drawing exclusively from the iron protagonists of Norse mythology, this opera is a primal tale that surges and rumbles in poetry with the earth. As a result, The Cycle presents one of the most wildly colourful interpretations of the old myths and was largely responsible for introducing their existence into popular vocabulary. Most importantly for this aesthetic refurbishment — atop the head of the character Hunding — was a helmet audaciously adorned with two horns.
Now, the National Museum of Scotland (NMS)’s Vikings: The Untold Story aims to challenge misconceptions that perpetuate the Viking fable. Opened on 18 January, the exhibition arrives in partnership with the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm and presents over 500 objects, including jewellery, weaponry fragments, precious metals and household objects.
Curator of Early Historic and Viking Archaeology at NMS Martin Goldberg said: “Most will be familiar with popular betrayals of fearsome pillagers with a thirst for battle and those famous horned helmets. Those helmets are a fiction, a cliché with little or no basis in historical fact, and perhaps that reflects the main point that the exhibition makes — we are much less aware of who these people really were, where they came from and how they lived.
“This wonderful selection of material from their Scandinavian homelands will tell a more complex and subtle story, addressing a few myths along the way, not least those helmets.”
The exhibition dedicates a small section to following the retrospective manipulation of the Viking image throughout history: it wasn’t only Wagner that enjoyed meddling with the subject matter.
When Denmark lost territories to Prussia in 1864, a reassessment of Scandinavian identity began in light of their ignominious defeat. Characters from Norse mythology were common in popular vocabulary and became important to Scandinavians because of their portrayal as fearless warriors who relentlessly pursued their foes.
Following this was some kind of confusion between the Norse Gods and their earthly counterparts. Admittedly, there seemed a natural relationship between the two - the Vikings were a society notorious for expansion and exploration. Here, mythological whim was projected onto historical fact.
Narrated through fixture design by Viennese firm Studio Exhibit, the organisation of artefacts at Vikings! is clean, sharp and forensic in appearance. In one corner, hundreds of iron rivets hang silently from transparent fisherman’s wire, forming the reconstructed shell of a burial ship.
In others, solid, white geometric forms tumble across the space, protecting sparks of gold and precious stones within their shells. Elsewhere, curator Gunner Anderson meanders through the exhibition in a black polo neck and blazer: the Vikings have arrived, and this time they are seriously svelte.
This modernist aesthetic is complemented by a masterful integration of the hi-tech into display fixtures. Interactive displays feature giant touch-screen tablets allowing guests to dig up an excavation site, build their own ship and dress a Viking avatar.
“The main idea is to engage the audience by creating a clash between the traditional content and a modern design. You don’t see what you expect to see when you go into a Viking exhibition,” said project director Katty Kauptmann.
However, Studio Exhibit has been careful to avoid completely diminishing the importance of mythology to Viking society. Rather than overwhelming onlookers with dry historical narrative, visitors can sit in a small nook and listen to readings of Norse myths; these were important for Viking society both as a religious tool, but also as a means of drawing the community together.
It also appears that there is a darker side to Viking society, as an information board reveals: in reality, the image of the magnificent Viking is seldom reflected in evidence from the graves.
For example, with the famous Viking raid came an abundance of unfree peoples and resulting slave labour. Along with iron collars, shackles and fetters — in numerous excavation sites — are silver hoards which were commonly a product of a successful slave trade in the east.
Pathology also reveals the anxieties of everyday life for the unfree: commonly found ailments include repetitive strain injury on vertebrae, joints and teeth, as well as parasitic infections, persistent diarrhea and anaemia.
In June 2012, Walt Disney Pictures released their latest animation blockbuster. Entitled Brave, the film was a warm tale of Viking-Pict hybrids marauding around the Highlands and and avoiding sexually ambiguous bears. Two years earlier, Dreamworks produced How to Train Your Dragon, which follows a clan of cheerfully violent Vikings as they tackle a perilous hive of dragons in order to defend their settlement.
The existence of both productions is testament to the fact that, while the Vikings hold a fond place in the heart of modern storytellers, it is a position that lacks historical refinement and fails to utilise the wealth of material evidence that we have in our possession. Vikings: The Untold Story is a cold, daring insight into Viking culture and illustrates the ability of material evidence to tell a compelling tale.
Fuente / Iturria: http://www.journal-online.co.uk/article/9952-deconstructing-the-viking-fable
