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262 Pages
Viking Heritage and History in Europe
Viking Heritage and History in Europe presents new research and perspectives on the use of the Vikings in public history, especially in relation to museums, re-creation, and re-enactment in a European context.
Taking a critical heritage approach, the volume provides new insights into the re-creation of history, imagining the past, interpretation, ambivalence of authenticity, authority of History, remembrance and memory, medievalism, and public history. Highlighting the complexity of the field of public history today, the fourteen chapters all engage with questions of historical authenticity and authority. The volume also critically examines the public’s reception, engagement with, and interpretation of the Viking Age and the concepts of who these individuals were. Each chapter illuminates an aspect of these themes in relation to museums, leisure activities, politics, tourism, re-enactment, and popular culture — all from the vantage point of Viking cultural heritage.
Viking Heritage and History in Europe is one of the first volumes to examine the use and role of the Vikings within the field of public history, both past and present. The book will be of interest to those engaged in the study of heritage, public history, history, the Vikings, vikingism, medievalism, and media history.
Sara Ellis Nilsson is Researcher of Nordic Medieval History and Director of Studies in History at Linnaeus University, Sweden. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and include cultural heritage, social and cultural history, material culture, hagiography/liturgy, and digital humanities. She is currently the project lead for the Swedish Research Council funded ‘digitization and accessibility of cultural heritage collections’ (DigARV) project, Mapping Lived Religion: Medieval Cults of Saints in Sweden and Finland, and one of the co-leads of the NOS-HS funded Nordic Spatial Humanities initiative. Her research and publications have previously focused on, for instance, the digitization of cultural heritage, medieval lived religion, identity and the construction of sanctity, medieval travel, and the formation of textual networks and communities, as well as how objects and their reconstructions are used by different actors in the creation of narratives about the past, with especial focus on the Viking Age.
Stefan Nyzell is Associate Professor of History at the Department of Society, Culture and Identity, Malm6 University, Sweden. His research interests include medievalism, cultural heritage, public history, police history, and contentious politics. He is currently researching historical re-enactment as a form of history from below, or grassroots public history, in which the past is not only consumed by the participants but also produced and mediated within the domain of public history. His research and publications have previously focused on violent social conflict in modern society.
Contributors
Dr Sara Ellis Nilsson is Researcher of Nordic Medieval History and Director of Studies in History at Linnaeus University, Sweden. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and include cultural heritage, social and cultural history, material culture, hagiography/liturgy, and digital humanities. She is currently the project lead for the Swedish Research Council funded ‘digitisation and accessibility of cultural heritage collections’ (DigARV) project, Mapping Lived Religion: Medieval Cults of Saints in Sweden and Finland, and one of the co-leads of the NOS-HS funded Nordic Spatial Humanities initiative. Her research and publications have previously focused on, for instance, the digitization of cultural heritage, medieval lived religion, identity and the construction of sanctity, medieval travel, and the formation of textual networks and communities, as well as how objects and their reconstructions are used by different actors in the creation of narratives about the past, with especial focus on the Viking Age. (ORCID: 0000-0001-53 19-6818)
Dr Stefan Nyzell is Associate Professor of History at the Department of Society, Culture and Identity, Malm6 University, Sweden. His research interests include medievalism, cultural heritage, public history, police history, and contentious politics. He is currently researching historical re-enactment as a form of history from below, or grassroots public history, in which the past is not only consumed by the participants but also produced and mediated within the domain of public history. His research and publications have previously focused on violent social conflict in modern society. Among his publications are: “A Fight for the Right to get Drunk: The Autumn Fair Riot in Eskilstuna, 1937”, in Ilaria Fevretto & Xabier Itcania (eds.), Protest, Popular Culture and Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Western Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, and, Popular Struggle and Democracy in Scandinavia, 1700 to the Present, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018 (with Flemming Mikkelsen and Knut Kjeldstadli). (ORCID: 0000-0003-4576-9799)
Megan Arnott is a faculty member at Lakehead University, Canada. She is completing her PhD in English Literature from Western Michigan University. She specializes in medieval and pre-modern literatures, medievalisms, and composition, with a particular interest in Norse/Viking literature, historiography, and political texts/politics in literature.
Dr Andrea Freund is an editor, translator, and Relief Lecturer in Northern Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, with a PhD from the Institute for Northern Studies. Her PhD thesis focuses on the runic inscriptions from Orkney, and her current research centers on interdisciplinary approaches to runology with further research interests in the modern reception and uses of runes and the role of runes in identity negotiations from the Viking Age to the modern age.
Dr Julia Hakansson is currently a senior lecturer in history, history education, and cultural heritage studies at Malm6 University, Sweden, from which she holds a PhD in History and History Didactics. Her research concentrates on historical narratives, historical cultures, and nationalism. Her focus areas are politics, museums, historical documentaries, and other forms of public history.
Dr Shannon Lewis-Simpson currently researches intersections of cultural heritage protection, human security, and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda for National Defence in Canada and is an Adjunct Professor in Archaeology at Memorial University, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. She has published on aspects of experiential learning, Viking-Age society, Newfoundland history, and how identity is formed and perceived in the past and present.
Dr Ragnhild Ljosland is a lecturer with the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, based in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Her current research interests are in culture and heritage, including Scottish and Scandinavian languages, dialects, runic inscriptions and oral literature, folklore, heritage-based tourism, creative and interactive forms of public history, and public archaeology.
Lysiane Lasausse is a PhD candidate at the University of South-Eastern Norway. Her PhD research focuses on the negative images of Nordic countries in video games and Nordic noir literature and how these images are used and can influence the perceived image of the region. She is also interested in the use of Viking Age history, culture, and folklore in gaming narratives.
Dr Martin Lund is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Department of Society, Culture, and Identity at Malm6 University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in Jewish studies from Lund University. His main research interest is in comics — a field in which he has published widely. He studies comics with a particular focus on cultural memory and reception, religion, identification, and politics. He is also co-editor, with Julia Round, of the book series Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies.
Dr Simon Trafford is Lecturer in Medieval History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UK. He has published extensively on the usage and appropriation of the Vikings in modern popular culture and is also currently researching human immersions in water in the early Middle Ages.
Dr Chris Tuckley is Head of Interpretation & Learning for York Archaeological Trust (YAT), UK. He develops exhibition content for YAT’s attractions and partner venues, oversees their formal learning program and informal learning events, and manages academic and research partnerships. Working in and around the JORVIK Viking Centre since 2004 has given him an interest in public histories of the Viking period, while his PhD research and subsequent postdoctoral fellowships have focused on medieval manuscript culture.
Dr Gudrun D. Whitehead is Assistant Professor of Museology at the University of Iceland. She has focused on the display and uses of subculture, the uncanny and disruptive elements of society — including Vikings, horror, punk, human remains, and unconventional museum displays. She is particularly interested in cultural stereotypes, such as the Vikings and their uses in the heritage industry and society in general.
Howard Williams is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Chester, UK. His research focuses on early medieval Europe, death and memory, and public archaeology. Howard currently edits the academic journal for linear monuments, frontiers, and borderlands research: the Offa's Dyke Journal, and online he vlogs and blogs as ‘Archaeodeath’.
Preface
People never seem to tire of Vikings and the Viking Age. The era persistently appears and re-appears in popular culture, even if the image of ‘the Viking’ has been imbued with a number of different meanings over time and is constantly being renegotiated. Perhaps surprising to some, references to Vikings are indeed found throughout the world. Academics and cultural institutions, as well as re-creation or re-enactment groups and other networks, all have had, and have, a role to play in this continued interest and the development of the era’s significance for the present.
When first putting this book together, we formulated a title with many of the book’s important keywords present: Vikings! A Public History. Museums, Re-creations and Re-enactments. Although perhaps a bit wordy as a title, these concepts, in addition to the period’s place in European cultural heritage, have been central throughout and have informed our work in putting this volume together.
Although a number of scholars have previously raised issues concerning the important aspects of the interpretation, re-creation, reconstruction, and re-enactment of the Viking Age in different media — even connected to topics such as authority, authenticity, immersion, and academic imperative — we noticed there was a gap to fill in terms of a volume dedicated to critical studies of the matter. In particular, it has been important to reflect on how — or if — the Vikings should, in fact, be considered a part of an overarching European cultural heritage. Thus, this volume’s goal is to highlight recent research that has not previously been published, including by early career researchers, and, importantly, to prompt or provoke further research in the field. Indeed, it does not claim to be comprehensive!
The initial idea behind this book was first conceived by Thomas Smaberg, associate professor at Malm6 University, together with Stefan Nyzell. It actually all started in a café in York, UK, very fittingly during the Jorvik Viking Festival, when one of the book series’ editors, Christopher Whitehead, suggested to Thomas and Stefan, over a cup of coffee, the possibility of producing a book based on their shared research interest in Vikings and the Viking Age as European cultural heritage phenomena. This idea later led to Thomas, Stefan, and Sara Ellis Nilsson putting together a first outline of the book that you now hold in your hands. We’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Thomas for his support and input in the initial process.
In addition, this volume has been informed by the conference series focussing on questions of public history, public archaeology, re-creation, and reconstruction, held at Malmé University, Sweden. Among these were the conferences Aterskapad vikingatid. Publik arkeologi och vetenskapspedagogik i Skandinavien (The Recreated Viking Age. Public archaeology and scientific pedagogy in Scandinavia, March 2017), and Medievalism, Public History, and Academia: the Re-creation of Early Medieval Europe, c. 400-1000 (September 2018). The discussions and outcomes of these conferences were influential in shaping the focus and aims of this volume.
As with so many other things, the COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on this book project. Right after our book proposal was accepted in 2020, the restrictions and measures implemented to control the spread of COVID-19 meant that most of our lives were disrupted, confining many of us at home; others were affected by furloughs. From closed archives and the many challenges of working from home to illness, all of us were affected somehow, and work on many of the case studies found inside initially had to be postponed. Despite the setbacks and delays, everyone involved pulled through, for which we are grateful, and we’re delighted that the book is finally here!
Finally, we wish to extend our gratitude to all of the authors for their invaluable contributions to this important volume, all of which critically investigate the role of the Vikings in European cultural heritage. In the course of working on this volume, it has become clear to us that the study of vikingisms is growing into a field of research in its own right. We are both looking forward to delving deeper into this exciting area in the future.
Sara and Stefan
Introduction
The Mythopoetic Viking in European Cultural Heritage
Sara Ellis Nilsson and Stefan Nyzell
Vikings and the Viking Age have never been more popular than in the 21st century. Vikings can be found around every corner: in museums, computer games, politics, comics, ancestry claims via DNA tests, and environmental narratives. Their representation is also found throughout Europe and can be considered part of its cultural heritage. The pervasiveness and malleability of the Vikings as an idea mean that they have been used in multiple ways. Therefore, it is an important responsibility for researchers to critically discuss how the Vikings and Viking Age are activated as a key aspect of European cultural heritage in many different contexts. It is also vital to investigate this phenomenon from different perspectives. Consequently, this volume reflects the multidisciplinary nature of Viking studies and includes research in the fields of history, archaeology, museology, and religious and medieval studies. The aim of this volume is to present new research and critical perspectives on the Vikings and Viking Age as a part of a (white) European, and even global, cultural heritage context, especially with regards to public history in museums, re-creation, and re-enactment.!
The concept of cultural heritage, or heritage for short, refers to cultural practices by many different stakeholders within a cultural system, including local communities, indigenous groups, museums, digital audiences, re-enactors, and faith groups, such as neo-Pagans, Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Culture itself can be defined as the practices and systems that have been and are developed through human communication, constructing meaning and identity.? According to William H. Sewell, engaging in cultural practices involves using existing cultural symbols in order to accomplish specific goals.’ Thus, cultural heritage is about constructing, mediating, negotiating, and reconstructing understandings of the past in the present — often in different ways. Thus, ultimately, heritage, with its many variations and uses, is about activating the past to create ways to understand and engage with the present.*
As Rodney Harrison states, heritage, as a cultural practice, is not only concerned with the past in relation to the present but also the present in relation to the future. In the present, some negotiated past is specifically chosen to represent this past in the future.* Furthermore, Laurajane Smith sees heritage as a process involving temporally charged performances “that embod[y] acts of remembrance and commemorating while negotiating and constructing a sense of place, belonging and understanding in the present’”.° In this context, “Vikings” and “Viking Age” are highly malleable cultural constructs that can be activated in a wide range of temporally and spatially charged heritage performances. Even academic research constantly reinterprets these concepts and re-imagines what the Vikings once were.’
Furthermore, heritage, as with all cultural constructs, is also dissonant and contested. On the one hand, it is used in state-sanctioned regulations and by powerful institutions and elites to present a consensus version of history aimed to lessen social tensions in the present. From a societal, trans-societal, or supra-societal perspective, these are often highly influential institutional nodes — media houses, business corporations, religions, and state institutions — to name but a few. Such institutional nodes are powerful cultural actors with the authority and capacity to order cultural systems into something akin to cultural coherence.’ However, cultural heritages, as presented by authorities, are neither unchallengeable nor unchangeable.
Thus, although cultural authorities — for example, national museums and other prominent heritage sites — use cultural heritage to promote a sense of stable values and meanings within a society, sub-cultural groups also challenge and change societal values and meanings; these alternative groups can sometimes be highly successful in such contentious practices.’ Indeed, the cultural symbols of the “Viking” and “Viking Age” can be used by social elites to impose a sense of cohesion and belonging as has occurred in Scandinavia in the past. At the same time, identical cultural symbols can just as readily be used to oppose this sense of cohesion.
Vikings and the Viking Age
In this volume, the term “Viking” is used to describe inhabitants of both the Scandinavian homelands and those who travelled to what is known as the Viking diaspora during the Viking Age (circa 790-1060 CE).'° The definition activates the current usage of the term, as explored by Judith Jesch in her work on the Viking diaspora. In her book, Jesch describes three methodologies that all use the term “Viking” and whose definitions of the term overlap to some extent: the etymological, historical, and current usage.'' Depending on the use of the term, who is using it, and where it is being used, it activates different characteristics or definitions. In fact, it is unclear which of the two Old Norse derivatives of Viking, namely vikingr (person) and viking (activity), is primary; indeed, scholars pay less attention to the latter.'? Examining the concrete usage of viking and vikingr in the Viking Age and succeeding centuries demonstrates that the meaning changes over time and that sometimes it is derogatory — when referring to one’s enemies — and sometimes positive — when used as part of a person’s name. Usually, the plural vikingar (vikings) refers to people involved in military activity, not necessarily connected to ships.'? As Jesch argues, all three approaches — etymological, historical, and current — are needed in order to fully engage with the concept as it is used today." In addition, a detailed critical historiography is also required, to which this book contributes.
In his introduction to Vikings Reimagined, Tom Birkett argues that there are several distinct but overlapping definitions of the “Viking” as a concept.'° One of these definitions — of interest to the proposed volume — encompasses a number of perspectives, including modern popular and public uses of the word. This definition makes the “Viking world” into a malleable and highly public entity.
For many, history can be described as a living thing: current events are said to “make history”; new discoveries of documents or artefacts are said to re-write history; and a variety of people are engaged in re-creating and re-constructing events and objects from the past. Indeed, as Raphael Samuel has argued, “history is not a prerogative of the historian . . . . It is, rather a social form of knowledge . . . drawing not only on real-life experience but also on memory and myth, fantasy and desire’’.'° In all of these activities, occasional tensions between different actors often reflect the ambivalence of authenticity and authority within a grand historical narrative. The issue of who is in control of determining historical authenticity has long been the subject of debate. Indeed, the rise of academic authority in terms of claims to expertise has been central to the interpretation of historical processes, events, and individuals ever since history became a university subject in the late 19th century.'’? However, recent debates within history have argued that this view is too narrow.'® For the general public, even the ownership of certain memories or being admitted to communities of remembrance is tangled up in the authority of history and a sense of belonging.'®
As a concept, the Viking Age has cycled from the basis of local identity to national myth to inspiration for the fantastical and back again. It has contributed to the invention of European tradition from the Nordic countries to Britain and Ireland, and even in the Mediterranean — in most of the areas with which Scandinavian Vikings had contact. This spirit of invention is directly related to when, in time and space, historical re-creation has taken place.*° Similarly, it can be argued that the concepts of “the Viking” and “the Viking Age” have been constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed many times, with the result dependent on when and where this was taking place. Examples of the way these concepts have been reconstructed can be found in the 19th century, when interest in researching and performing the Viking Age took the form of pageants and fancy dress, such as the enduring and highly popular Up Helly Aa festival on Shetland. In addition, the reconstruction of the Gokstad ship in the 1890s was one of the responses to the discovery of this Viking Age burial. The reconstructed ship was sailed to Chicago from Norway for the World’s Columbian Exhibition, spreading this image of the Norwegian Vikings’ seafaring prowess — a national symbol.”!
Viking heritage has influenced local and regional identities in different ways, although these are sometimes contradictory and contested — affecting cultural expression from art and theatre to political ideologies. In Scandinavia as well as in other areas, such as Iceland, Orkney, and Northeastern England, it comprises an important part of local origin myths. Thus, the Vikings can be considered cultural influencers with regard to their impact on, for example, the so-called Danelaw in terms of language and place names. In places such as Shetland, Orkney, the Isle of Man, and others, the Viking Age instead creates a sense of belonging and cohesion.”
Vikings are often even seen as a pan-European phenomenon due to their travels to the west from Scandinavia to Britain and Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Iceland, and Greenland; to the east through Russia, the Ukraine, and as far as Baghdad; and to the south to the Mediterranean and North Africa. They are also known as slavers and colonizers who had a detrimental effect in certain areas, such as Sapmi. On the one hand, it is only in the areas in which there is clear evidence of their having settlements which have received the most attention from scholars in terms of being included in the Viking diaspora.** On the other hand, many geographical localities claim a connection to the Vikings from an awakening, public awareness of their particular influence on areas from the Iberian coast to Poland. Among other things, Viking festivals are gaining in popularity in many different parts of Europe.” In these cases, the prevalent portrayal of the Vikings is that of the violent “Other”. Indeed, this view of the Viking as violent and barbarous is predominant in modern popular culture, from advertisements and comics to TV shows, computer games, and re-enactments.”
Mythopoesis, Memoryscapes, Re-creations, and Uses Today
As part of the “medieval revival” in the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, what Birkett terms the “Viking revival” demonstrates that popular interest in the medieval period has been long-standing.”° Indeed, the academic and public fascination with the Viking Age has (re-)emerged at various points over the course of the intervening centuries, as is also reflected in the burgeoning interest in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. However, as Birkett emphasizes, in the past decade, the intensity and size of this attraction and fascination for the period have seen an almost spectacular increase.*’ The Vikings can also be found in a myriad of new media, with new tropes about the Vikings appearing on a regular basis.
Mythopoesis is, in essence, the creation of myths — deliberate or unintentional — surrounding a specific phenomenon; it is often related to the modification or enhancement of an existing myth in order to better suit the needs of those currently telling the story. Mythopoetic movements, in turn, are recognizable and deliberate attempts to interconnect people or places into an overarching narrative, or narratives, which thus create collective identities, often associated with specific historical groups, practices, or spaces.”* These mythopoetic practices also activate a sense of historic spatiality and are linked to the development of global memoryscapes.
A memoryscape refers to collective memory as well as individual remembrance. In the case of the former, memoryscapes provide meaning for a society or a group and help form cultural cohesion and can even be activated on a global scale. For instance, Marie Bennedahl has developed the concept of local “memorial sites” as belonging to a system of global memoryscapes.” Places connect people in the act of remembering a historical period; in the same process, memorial sites are connected, and a global memoryscape is created. For the Viking world, these historical places are connected via the historical people who visited them, i.e. the Vikings, and by those who now actively remember the people, events, and places — creating a collective memory.*’ It shows that the growing interest in all things “Viking” is clearly not only a European heritage phenomenon but also part of a global cultural memoryscape.
An example of collective memory can be found in the reenactor community, whose cohesion is enabled due to shared memoryscapes.*' The members’ ideas of the past and their view of the Viking Age — re-creating things as they “might have been” — can also be seen as reflecting a need to re-enact a medievalist fantasy. A joint memoryscape is required in order for these individuals to create cohesive meaning from their activities.** The Viking re-enactor community is a global phenomenon, and it provides a good example of how the Vikings act as integral aspects of European cultural heritage.**
National Myths and Identity Creation
Our understanding of the Norse peoples in the Viking Age comes largely from fragmentary contemporary sources such as archaeological excavations, runic material, foreign annals, and archaeological finds, as well as later literature. Knowledge of the literature and mythology of the period is primarily derived from Icelandic manuscripts dating for the most part from the 11th century and later — a post-Viking Age context.*4 A few texts by outside observers are known by name, such as Ibn Fadlan, an Abbasid Muslim. The fragmentary nature of the sources allows for malleable interpretations, often influenced by memories, desires, fantasies, and myths seemingly ingrained in European cultural heritage.
Found in these types of sources, elements of the past have often been used to understand and establish identities, origin stories, and cultural uniqueness — often playing a critical role in the origin myths of emerging nation-states. These national origin myths are sometimes still important to contemporary societies.** As Gérard Bouchard argues, myths function “in contemporary society, as a nexus of meanings that feed identities, memory, and visions of the future”.*° From this perspective, the Viking Age has played an important role in the creation of national myths and origin stories in several European geographical regions, certainly evident in the Nordic countries.
In Scandinavia, the impetus for the creation and prominence of “the Vikings” and the “Viking Age” — especially the heroic, male Viking — is usually seen as being Sweden’s loss of Finland to the Russian Empire in 1809.*’ In the succeeding years, the attempts to understand the kingdom’s past and define its national foundations, as well as create a new national identity, found inspiration in the Viking period.** The Swedish archaeologist Oscar Montelius is usually credited as one of the first to actually carve out a space for the Viking Age within what had previously been termed the “Iron Age” in Scandinavia.*’ In 1872, Montelius mentioned familiar descriptors such as “heroic” age or the “sons of the North” in relation to what he called “the Viking Age”, with the Viking as a freedom-seeking warrior who left home to conquer new territory and establish new kingdoms.*° This view, later propagated through textbooks, promoted this understanding of Scandinavian history to a large proportion of the population.*' The “Viking Age”, as a particularly Scandinavian phenomenon, was adopted in all of the Scandinavian countries, albeit in slightly different ways.
The Viking Age even came to be associated with national romanticism in the Nordic countries and even with Pan-Scandinavianism.* Similarly, in Finland, the Viking Age and an image of the “Finnish Viking” was used among Finns to create a sense of a cohesive identity and history independent from other nationalities, including Sweden; however, Swedish-speaking Finns reacted by creating their own, contrasting version of the “Scandinavian Viking” as supreme.** Thus, the concept of the Viking could be malleable and used as an ideological tool to strengthen the identity of either group. Both Denmark and Norway also experienced similar cultural movements in which the Viking Age played an important role in nationalism in these countries, contributing to the emergence of Nordicism and with an explicit racial dimension. One important impetus in the rise of Norwegian nationalism was the desire to remove itself from the unions with Denmark and Sweden. In this approach to the former kingdom’s history, Viking and early medieval history were seen as important as they described a period when the area was free of Sweden and Denmark and when it was a “seafaring empire” and had control of the islands of Greenland, the Faroes, Orkney, and the Hebrides. In addition, Icelandic culture was presented as having developed from the Norwegian.“ In Denmark, the Viking Age was, and is, seen as the period in which the Danish kingdom was established. For example, the supposed birthplace of the current kingdom, Jelling, was chosen as a Danish World Cultural site to emphasize its importance.*
In general, the Vikings were thought to have embodied characteristics that could be called fundamentally “Scandinavian” as part of a regional identity.*° The aforementioned 1 8th-century Viking revival began with antiquarians showing an interest in the Viking period, with, for example, historical research about Vikings in a glorious, nation-building past and examination of the Icelandic sagas.*’ Indeed, the story of Iceland, as exemplified in the Icelandic National Museum, begins with the arrival of ships full of Scandinavian settlers.“* Moreover, the “Viking Age”, as it was interpreted in 19th and 20th-century art and literature, became an integral part of a mythopoetic movement during this period and an important symbolic ingredient in the creation of national identities. It formed the basis for constructing narratives about the origins of the Scandinavian countries as distinct peoples and nations that are still predominant today. Indeed, even though the Viking Age is perceived as a Nordic phenomenon, the presentation of the Viking in museums and reconstruction contexts has a nationalistic flavour; in general, visitors are presented with the “Danish boat-builder, the Norwegian adventurer, and the Swedish entrepreneur and merchant”.
In Scandinavia, some attempted to remove the Viking Age from its European medieval context and instead emphasized contrasts between the “Catholic” Middle Ages and the Scandinavian Viking Age. The Middle Ages were considered to have been saturated by foreign European influence, which oppressed and suppressed the “prevailing Scandinavian Norse culture” with its elected kingship and freedom. Instead, feudalism, aristocrats, and unfree peasants — with their foreign languages, cultures, and religion — threatened the local religious and cultural systems in place. The formation of Scandinavian national identities, together with a regional Scandinavian identity, connected the Viking Age to the Protestant context — skipping the so-called “Catholic period”.*” In fact, the idea of Sweden being built on an ideology as particularly free with self-governance was attractive to the academic and cultural elite on the other side of the Atlantic and was part of the cultural baggage brought by Swedish immigrants to the United States. As part of this national Romantic movement, a number of intellectuals and authors formed Gotiska forbundet (the Gothic League) in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1811, focusing on Scandinavia’s Viking past in their publications.*! Similar intellectual groups were also formed in both Denmark and Norway, such as Oldsakskommission in Denmark, which worked to found the “Old Norse” Museum (Oldnordisk Museum), which opened in 1819.7
In contrast, other areas that were also considered within the Viking sphere of influence did not engage with the Scandinavian invasions and settlement in the same way. For instance, in England, the Vikings were somewhat of a footnote in some areas, while in the Northeast of England, they were seen as having played a more significant role in the development of the area. They were attractive in terms of their links to exploration and conquest.*? Moreover, Vikings were even used as one of the examples in a more general “Romanticism of the North” by intellectuals and novelists such as Sir Walter Scott.4
Similarly, in Germany, the Vikings were also used to connect to an ancient, glorious Germanic past in order to create the foundations of a national identity.°> In fact, the Viking Age has been and is used to foster nationalism in a number of European countries, for example, Russia, Ukraine, and even Poland. Spain — in terms of fighting off Viking attacks — and France — i.e. the establishment of Normandy — both also promote their connections to the Vikings as part of a diasporic identity. Even in North and South America, Vikings are considered to be “theirs” and are part of the colonial, cultural baggage brought by immigrants to those continents. In particular, in the USA, the Vikings represent a pioneer mindset promoted by many as particularly “American”.*° Furthermore, stories about the Vikings arriving in North America, Vinland, are used to legitimize claims by northern, protestant, white Europeans that “they” arrived on and started the colonization of the American continent first, before Christopher Columbus.*’ Indeed, today, the use of the Viking Age and Viking imagery in nationalism is used to promote white supremacy on a global scale.*
A Public History of the Vikings
As Faye Sayer states, public history can be defined as “the practice of history in the public domain” — a definition that can also include public archaeology.’ Public history — especially with regard to museums, re-creation, and re-enactment in a European cultural heritage context — concerns the wider practices of history in contemporary society, taking place outside the (often) rather narrow borders of academic history. Consequently, a public historian/archaeologist is someone who “engage[s] in the practice of communicating the past to the public”. Actors within the domain of public history range widely from professional historians or archaeologists to professional history practitioners to amateur historians. At the same time, the main aim of (all) public history/archaeology actors is to make the past relevant, accessible, and engaging to as many people as possible in the present.*' Many of these public historians who engage with Viking history are trained in academic forms of history or archaeology, with the rationale to “facilitate open access of history to the public”.
Sayer identifies three distinct approaches to public history projects: 1) research top-down, 2) institutional top-down, and 3) grassroots, bottom-up.% The first two types of projects refer to professionally initiated public history projects, such as an oral history project among living history groups undertaken by a professional historian, assisting in an archaeological excavation or with fieldwork, or a Viking market organized by a museum curator on the site of a Viking Age settlement. The third type refers instead to projects initiated by non-professional public historians, for instance, a local historical society producing an exhibition about the Viking Age in their local area or a re-enactment group interpreting and performing a scene from one of the Icelandic sagas or reconstructing archaeological finds. Thus, when history is being used — that is, produced, mediated, and consumed — it is often not done so by professional historians or archaeologists but by the many public actors engaging with the past in the domain of public history.“ Therefore, it is critically important to study not only the professionals steeped in academic discourse but also the non-professionals and their diverse practices of history in the public domain.
As Vikings and the Viking Age are a part of many European national myths as well as the global cultural memoryscape, it is not without significance that the early 21st century is seeing another Viking revival. As stated, it seems that Vikings are everywhere in contemporary culture, fiction, TV series, comics, computer games, museum exhibitions, and re-enactments.® Neither is it trivial when ideological uses, often on the far right, connect with this revival. In this volume, the authors activate all three public history approaches proposed by Sayer using a multidisciplinary perspective, although not always explicitly.
Recently, a number of public history and/or archaeology projects have been initiated that engage with Viking heritage in Europe. Interestingly, some of these are research and/or institutional top-down public history projects but with a large amount of bottom-up interplay. One of these was The World-Tree Project: An Interactive Digital Archive for the Teaching and Study of Vikings.®’ In this ambitious and highly useful project, both scholars and re-enactors created a digital archive to assist in the teaching and study of Norse cultures. The resource was intended to be used by scholars as well as the general public. The project applied what they term “community collection”, a form of crowdsourcing or “citizen science”, to provide access to digital material at museums and create a repository for living history events. This type of public history project, one that is fully involved with collecting, communicating, and curating digital historical content, is a great example of current public history engagement. The researchers behind this project also investigated how knowledge exchange and heritage engagement within Old-Norse Icelandic and Viking Studies work. Although the webpage is still active and the digital collection can still be used, the project is finished. This fact raises questions about the long-term efficacy of these sorts of short-term projects in raising public awareness for a constantly changing field.
Another example of a public history project related to the construction of cultural heritage aimed at producing a sense of belonging and cohesion is Follow the Vikings: Language, Literature and Art, part of the Destination Viking Association. This project, which concluded in 2019, attempted to make what they termed “Viking heritage” accessible to a global audience. They aimed to attract public interest in museums and other sites that focus on “the Viking story ... and legacy”. However, the project did not seem to be interested in intercultural encounters, for example, with the local peoples of Greenland and Vinland.® Yet, this way of viewing the Vikings as an isolated group existing in their own bubble is unfortunately not something unique to this project.”” Alongside the development and definition of the “Viking Cultural Route”, with accompanying interactive map and product development, there was also an interest in encouraging awareness of the Viking world at large and outside of the Destination Viking Association. The Destination Viking Association itself provides a network and platform for projects with a focus on Viking and Nordic heritage.
About the Volume
This volume brings together scholars who engage with the juxtaposition of academic history and public history, which both can include re-enacted or reconstructed history. They examine the volume’s overarching thematic focus on the Viking and Viking Age as European cultural heritage; many of them utilize a critical heritage approach, engaging with the use of the past and examining questions of authenticity and authority. The volume also explores the public’s reception, engagement with, and interpretation of this facet of public history, that is, the Vikings and the Viking Age as a whole. The book’s three sections and final chapter engage with how and why Viking heritage is connected to local, regional, and national identities, culture, and politics throughout Northern Europe. The authors analyze the ways in which Viking heritage connects and divides. They engage with questions about how the Viking Age is perceived, re-imagined, and used by groups throughout Europe and elsewhere. Many of the chapters deal with how meaning is constructed, how identities are connected to Viking heritage, and how these change over time, as well as the possibility of all of these identities existing simultaneously connected to myth-building throughout Europe and beyond.
The first section focuses on Viking Tourism, Re-enactment, and Subcultures. These chapters analyze how Viking heritage is activated in tourism, re-enactment, and popular culture. For instance, Megan Arnott, in her chapter “The Tourist Gaze and Viking Heritage Spaces”, discusses how the tourist gaze and cultural heritage sites connected to the Vikings are influenced by a long history of crosscultural contact between and within Europe and North America. Similarly examining tourist activities while also delving into subcultures, Ragnhild Ljosland, in her chapter “Viking Hiking and Other Time Travel”, considers new forms of immersive experiences in the intersection between adventure tourism, slow tourism, living history, and live-action role-play as a local — Viking-centric — cultural heritage. In a further look into the history of re-enactment and associated subcultures, in “Vikings in Historical Pageants and Public Events”, Chris Tuckley considers how the Vikings have been portrayed publicly in the past century. Moving the perspective forward in time, Stefan Nyzell examines the tension and interaction between top-down and bottom-up re-enactment perspectives in his chapter “Viking Re-enactment”.
The second section focuses on Stereotypes, Masculinities, and Popular Culture. These contributions explore the malleability and pervasiveness of the various portrayals of the Vikings outside of and within traditional cultural heritage contexts. First, Shannon Lewis-Simpson, in her chapter “Towards Inclusive Interpretations”, analyzes current understandings of the Vikings and proposes future directions towards breaking free of long-established Viking stereotypes. In his chapter “Alcohol Consumption, Masculinity and the Modern Vikings”, Simon Trafford analyzes why the Vikings and alcohol have become so intertwined in the modern imagination. The image of the “Viking” is something that Martin Lund also analyzes in his chapter “Viking and Old Norse Memoryscapes in Comics”, alongside gender representation and whiteness in comics. With a similar focus on popular culture, Lysiane Lasausse investigates the cultural representation of the “Viking” north in video games in her chapter “Vikings and Gaming”.
The third section focuses on Museums, Heritage, and Politics, in which the activation of the Vikings and Viking Age in the more traditional arenas of museums and national politics are in focus. In her chapter “Reconstructing Viking Ships in European Cultural Heritage Institutions”, Sara Ellis Nilsson investigates the role of material culture in the communication and mediation of the past in Viking museums and experience centres. Also focusing on materiality in Viking-museum contexts and in an Icelandic political context, Gudrun D. Whitehead’s chapter “Uncanny Encounters: Iceland’s Vikings at the Saga Museum” explores the museum as a learning environment, examining its value as a multisensory performative space for mediation. Likewise with a political dimension but in the public sphere, Andrea Freund's chapter “Runes and Racism” examines aspects of public acceptance of runes and their use as symbols in the late-20th and early 21st-century. Finally, in her chapter “Political Uses of the Viking Age”, Julia Hakansson investigates the political dimension of public history in the creation and upholding of national identities in present-day Scandinavia.
In the final chapter, “Towards Public Research”, Howard Williams places the volume into a larger context by examining current trends in Viking research and mediation while challenging the connection between Viking and European cultural heritage. In doing so, he stresses the importance of academic research that critically examines the ways in which the Vikings and the Viking Age are used in academic and popular culture, with a case study focussing on festivals. As Williams states, this area of research deserves its own field in order to study what he calls vikingism and public engagement with the field. He argues that the volume’s contributions build a firm foundation for future studies in the field of Viking public research.
Together, these chapters contextualize, problematize, and even challenge the idea of Vikings and the Viking Age as a phenomenon of European cultural heritage. The continued popularity of the “Vikings” as a so-called export from Europe, with assumptions of their European nature, necessitates continued engagement with these issues, ensuring that research is current with the latest developments and challenges arising in other sectors. With this volume providing a basis for future, well-informed discussion, it is hoped that others will also engage with these issues and contribute to an ongoing, informed discourse in this field.
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