information from the Nordic Museum
 

The Nordic Museum announced today that it will be extending its extraordinary visiting exhibition, “The Vikings Begin,” through Sunday, April 28, two weeks longer than previously scheduled.

“This amazing exhibition of early Viking artifacts has been the most popular exhibition in our Museum’s history, with more than 32,000 visitors in just five months,” said Eric Nelson, Nordic Museum CEO and executive director. “We are delighted to extend this magnificent exhibition another two weeks through April 28, and we hope everyone will take advantage of this opportunity to see these rare artifacts which have never been outside of Scandinavia before.”

“The Vikings Begin” features dozens of early Viking artifacts from Uppsala University in Sweden, which is home to the world’s largest collection of Viking and pre-Viking boat grave finds. The artifacts include Viking helmets, swords and other weapons, jewelry, glass, bowls and more, dating as far back as the 7th century. The exhibition is divided into thematic sections on Viking warfare, maritime trade, a ship burial, Norse gods, the Baltic Sea, and geo-political relationships to other cultures. 

The exhibition is based on recent research, which sheds new light on how early Viking society was organized, the role of women in early Viking society, and the development of Viking maritime innovation that enabled the Vikings to reach faraway lands in both the East and the West.

The Museum also announced three lectures by renowned Viking scholars:

• Saturday,  April 6, 1:00pm – The Search for Olav Tryggvason
  Historian Øystein Morten, Oslo University
  Cost: $10 for members; $15 general admission
  Historian and author Øystein Morten has traveled in the footsteps of Norwegian King Olav Tryggvason, who is depicted in Saga tradition as bringing Christianity to Norway and Iceland, founding the oldest City in Norway, and sending an expedition to the Americas, before disappearing in the Baltic Sea in the year 1000. He takes the old Nordic and foreign sources about Olav and brings them to life, putting them in a whole new context.

• Wednesday, April 10, 7:00pm – Viking Warrior Women: Debating a Swedish Grave & Its Implications
  Neil Price, Distinguished Professor of Archaeology at the University of Uppsala, Sweden
  Cost: $10 for members; $15 general admission
  In September 2017, the announcement that a famous Viking warrior grave was in fact the remains of a woman warrior went viral across the internet. Professor Price leads the 10-year research initiative that reassessed the warrior grave using DNA analysis and other new techniques. This talk presents the discovery and its reanalysis, addresses the controversies and considers our attitudes to gender in the Viking Age.

• Saturday, April 20, 2:00pm – How to Build a Viking Ship
  Thomas Finderup, Danish Boat Builder
  Cost: $10 for members; $15 general admission
  Danish boat builder Thomas Søes Finderup has devoted 18 years to building Viking and medieval ships, imitating the ships from these eras down to the smallest detail using Viking working methods and exact copies of the Vikings' tools. Most recently, Finderup has participated in the reconstruction of the Saga Oseberg, which dates to 830 and is the most spectacular Viking ship ever found. His lecture will focus on the work with the Saga Oseberg and will include a discussion of how the Vikings built their ships and what working methods they used.
   

In addition, the Museum will feature several Viking-themed family events and activities over the final month of “The Vikings Begin” exhibition:

On Thursday, April 4, 6pm, the Museum will hold a fun, kid-appropriate talk with local author Ben Thompson, discussing the Vikings and his book, Guts & Glory: The Vikings. The event will begin at 6pm, in the Nordic Perspectives Gallery, 2nd Floor, Nordic Museum, 2655 NW Market Street, Seattle WA 98107. This event is free to the public.

On Saturday, March 30, Saturday, April 13, and Saturday, April 27, the Museum will host its popular Vikings in the Gallery program, featuring Viking re-enactors in highly-detailed Viking garb mingling with visitors in the Museum’s second-floor Nordic Journeys permanent exhibition. The Vikings in the Gallery program runs from 10am to 1pm on those dates, and is included at no additional cost as part of Museum admission.

For questions about these and any other programs or exhibitions, call the Nordic Museum at (206) 789-5707.