Too Much Jewelry, Not Enough Vikings

Source: http://www.britishmuseumshop
online.org/exhibition-tickets/
vikings-life-and-legend/invt/mexviking

Vikings are supposed to be exciting. That's how popular culture has displayed them for years, as the hulking men wearing horned helmets, worshipping Thor on the deck on an exquisitely carved war ship. In American history classes, we learn that the Vikings were probably the first people to "discover" North America, and they immediately capture school children's attention more than Christopher Columbus ever can. The Vikings were a vibrant people, but all sense of vibrancy is lost in the British Museum's new exhibition, "Vikings: Life and Legend."

One of many brooches on display
Source: http://omega.reader.travel/
tour.php?c=32&s=98&t=2564

The promotional material for the exhibit certainly makes it seem like the curators take advantage of the interest in Vikings that already exists in our culture. The exhibition's poster features an image of a Viking sword, a replica Viking ship sits in the yard of the Museum, and the promotional video for the exhibit features men decked in armour wielding swords and axes and women with painted faces waving wands in the air (viewable at http://
www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/ vikings.aspx). But all of the excitement the promotional materials develop falls flat when you enter the exhibit. Queuing in lines of hundreds of people trying to cram into small, dark aisle ways between display cases, you pass brooches and jewelry, not swords and armour. Instead of opening with an image that will capture attention, like the sounds of a raid played over head, visitors listen to a male and female voice tell Old Norse legends in Old Norse. While the sound is initially interesting, the fact that visitors can understand what is being said means that the recording quickly becomes background noise, something to fill the air as you're squeezed and jostled by the other visitors. And recording legends in Old Norse seems like a lost opportunity to me. Viking legends feature the tales of intrigue, valour, and the supernatural that color the modern view of these people, so why not read the legends in English and actually let visitors enjoy them? That could have captured attention very easily and made the fact that you have to stand in line for twenty minutes to see a brooch a lot more bearable.

The jaw bone and helmet of a Viking warrior
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/
artanddesign/2014/mar/04/vikings-british-
museum-ship-story

The heart of the exhibit is the reconstructed war ship, Roskilde 6. Taking up the majority of the huge room at the end of the Sainsbury wing, the wood and metal skeleton of a ship offers a breath of fresh air after the stuffy earlier displays. Of course, that could be simply because you can finally emerge into a large room where you're not pressed on all sides by people. But this final, gaping room certainly offers the most interesting artifacts in the exhibit. Beyond the ship, which is interesting to view on all sides as you move through the room, displays include armour, swords, a giant painted replica of a rune stone, and Viking skeletons. A Viking warrior stands in one case, his grin showing the filed down snarl that terrified monks would have seen as he and his fellow warriors rushed into the monastery. Decapitated skeletons from a mass grave also show that the Vikings weren't always successful. And it is in this room that we finally see the first artifacts of the Norse religion. While quotes about Thor and Odin are painted on the walls throughout the exhibit, we don't see actual evidences of them until nearly the end of the exhibit. In the same area, we finally see evidence of the female sorceresses with painted faces, who appeared in the promotional video but didn't appear in the exhibit until you had almost reached the exit. The Norse religion is quickly passed over in the exhibit to reach evidence of the influence of Christianity. Thor's hammer is quickly replaced by a gilded cross and once again, opportunity seems to have been missed. Norse mythology has never been in the public eye like it is right now with the popularity of the Thor movies. This exhibit provided the perfect space to teach about the actual Norse mythology, free from the influence of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, but I guess they just wanted to push you out to the gift shop faster and not tell you anything substantive about the beliefs that dominated Viking life for years before conversion to Christianity.

Overall, it seems that the exhibit's curators didn't want to work with the popular image of the Vikings, instead displaying more brooches than one can count and talking about the intercontinental influences shown in their metal work. The exhibit begins with an explanation that Viking comes from an Old Norse word that means pirate and then proceeds for much of the exhibit to show the Vikings as anything but pirates. I watched numerous kids, and parents, walk through the first rooms with glazed eyes, asking over and over when they would get to the ship. And, to be honest, I felt the same way. If the curators advertised ships, swords, and warriors, the things that actually make Vikings interesting, why bury those objects behind rooms of jewelry? The exhibit was full of missed opportunity, but not enough Vikings.

The Poem in the Museum