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ONE TO DO ON YOUR OWN
Vikings at The British Museum
On 4 March 2014
Vikings
will be the first of a
series of blockbuster exhibitions to be held in the
British Museum’s brand new exhibition hall – part
of a £135 million complex over nine floors that will
also provide research, testing, conservation and
storage space.
The Viking exhibition is currently on show at the
National Museum in Copenhagen so we know what
to expect and it isn’t the feeble attempts over the
past few years to convince us that the Vikings were
a cuddly sort of folk keen to get on with a peaceful
farming life. This Vikings exhibition makes clear
that they were really the fearsome warriors fond of
killing and pillaging. Hagar really was horrible.
The exhibition includes the largest Viking ship ever
discovered – at a smidge over 120 feet it’s even
bigger than Henry VIII’s Mary Rose that was built
500 years later. Made from oak felled in Oslo in
1025 AD the long boat would have held 100 men
and it might have belonged to none other than King
Cnut. It might just be me but the boat looks like
half a dozen planks and the rest done with mirrors
so I wouldn’t put all of my eggs (Viking word) in
that basket. Other objects featured include pieces of
amber and jewellery incorporating Byzantine coins
and a pair of gold brooches created in the shape
of tiny animals. An inscribed silver collar from
Norway suggests that they came to Frisia to
‘exchange war garments from them’ but it is
suggested that collars were used for slavery. Iron
slave collars from Dublin show that the Vikings
sought more than gold and silver. There are also
very recent finds including the only known 3D
Viking representative of a Valkyrie that was only
unearthed in December 2012.
The exhibition, which is the largest of its kind in 20
years, also explores the idea of Vikings as merce-
naries, travelling to Byzantium and Jerusalem and
includes artifacts from collections across Europe.
Tickets aren’t on offer yet for the exhibition which
opens on 4 March 2014 and is expected to run for
six months. Expect to pay between £12.50-
£15.00pp for groups. This is something that you
could do on your own although if you’d like us to
do it and pair it up with gallery tours to make a day
of it we can do that.