I went to my birth town Copenhagen this weekend and the main purpose was to see the Viking exhibition at the National Museum. If you follow this blog, you probably already know that I`m fairly interested *cough* in Vikings and seeing this exhibition was high on my list of things I wanted to do.
And they didn`t forget that Vikings were women too!
Vikings who couldn`t afford swords, carried axes
The exhibition wasn`t large but it was very well put together. They`d managed to gather quite a lot of artifacts and they`d also managed to make it interesting for both children and adults – Scandinavians and tourists.
Pic spam
Since most of you probably can`t make it to Copenhagen, I tried to take as many pictures as possible and I hope you`ll enjoy them. They`re taken with my cell phone so the quality could be better (note to self: bring real camera next time) but I hope you can still make out the greatness of this exhibition:
Rune Stone
Gesta Cnutonis Regis. The book of Knut`s regency. From around 1042 or a little later
Figurine and Thor`s hammers
Silver cup with the figure of a woman. From Lejre, Denmark around 900s.
Beads with a cross. From Kaupang, Norway sometime in 900s.
Pictures of the three cruzifictions on Golgata. From early 900.
A model to pour silver into so they could make crosses and Thor`s hammers – proof that the two religions lived very well side by side!
The non-Christian Vikings referred to Jesus as White Christ because white was the color of cowards and they saw him as cowardly for not fighting his fate more. This is from Åby, Jutland about 1100.
I actually have a copy of a broche that looks very much like this one
Silver from the outside of a drinking “horn”
The gold necklace weighs more than 2 kilos!
The gold necklace weighed more than two kilos!
Fancy a new belt buckle – one that might kill you if you make the wrong move…
A wealthy couple, their clothes and their trunk of valuables
The chain mail was HEAVY!
Small players for a Viking game
Bow and arrow
Thyra Dane`s blog rules!
At the end of the exhibition one could make an “inscription” into a rune stone. I, of course, wrote this: “Thyra Dane`s blog rules”. Because it does, right? 😉
Thank you so much for sharing this! It was so awesome to see all the artifacts. I hope to one day make my way to that side of the world but I’m afraid it will be awhile.
You`re welcome. I just wish the pictures were better!
I did get the catalog from the exhibition – 250 pages of pictures of all the artifacts. It`s a great catalog and they might ship it across the world if you`re interested. They had it in both English and Danish 🙂
Love the pictures! I’m hoping to visit Denmark with a girl friend in two years and I would love to go see an exhibit like that! Thank you for sharing!!!
Thank you!
Unfortunately this exhibition will be taken down in November. They`ll still show some Viking artifacts but in this exhibition they`ve gathered artifacts from several museums and collections. What you will be able to see in two years is the Viking ship museum in Roskilde. It`s beautiful and only a short train ride outside Copenhagen 🙂
I hope you have fun in Denmark!
Very impressive. I liked the clothing. Very colorful. Actually I liked all of it. You must have been very happy to see this.
“Gesta Cnutonis Regis. The book of Knut`s regency. From around 1042 or a little later” I’m curious about that. Do you know what it says? What language is it written in?
I was thrilled. I went to see it with Maria (Mama_Lovis on Twitter) on Friday and then again with my family on Sunday. I just had to see it again.
I loved the clothing as well and there`s probably still drool on the glass there from my admiring it. They also had a film of a Viking man putting on clothes. All the layers – wow!
I was curious too because I actually hadn`t heard about it before and I thought I`d hunted down most of the written sources. It was apparently written to Queen Emma who was married to first King Ethered and then Knut/Knud (Canute) the Great and was a praise of her. It`s also mentioned under the name Emmae Reginae and is part of the Courtenay handwritings. I assume it`s in Latin because of it`s name but it doesn`t say and, though I found a book with large pictures of the text, I can`t tell. The handwriting may be beautiful but it`s entirely impossible (for me) to read.
How many layers do they wear? His shoes are colorful also. Could the clothing be for a special occasion? Or since they were wealthy they could wear them all the time.
Of course your blog rules. How else would I get to see all this. BTW when you wrote that, is it the same as the other http://thyra10.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/write-your-name-in-runes/
Did it change over the years?
I suppose they wore a different number of layers depending on the season – and this guy was going to war so he was probably also wearing layers for protection. He wore three layers of undershirts, an overshirt and the chainmail *gasping for breath*.
Colors were a determiner. The more colors – the richer they were since colors were expensive. Thralls and poor people wore whitish colors. I`m sure the clothes here were fine clothes for rich people as it was clad with fur and had very rich embroideries. I`m not sure how often they wore clothes like this but the Vikings sure liked to show off their riches (check out the 2 kilo gold necklace!) so my guess would be that they wore it whenever they met people from other villages or other people they wanted to impress.
No, this was made from a rune generator at the exhibition. It showed different kinds of runes (there are a couple of different “alphabets”) and made it look as if the runes were carved into a rock. Pretty neat!
Thank you so much for sharing, Thyra! I love learning about history, it’s wonderful you can show me something I would have otherwise never had the chance to see. <3
Thank you!
Well, I was so excited I just HAD to share 😉
So many wonderful pictures. And fabulous that you were allowed to take photos of these precious treasures. The Viking artifacts are so fascinating. I had not heard about the White Christ before. The rune stone looks similar to the one in Jelling. Thanks for posting this.
Thank you!
Yes, I had to ask to be sure because usually you`re not allowed to take photos. But as long as one didn`t use flash, photos were fine. I just wish I`d brought a real camera.
I learned the name White Christ (hvidekrist/kvitekrist) when I was a kid. I think it was some Viking children`s show or something like that. I always imagined it was because Jesus wore a white “toga” in most pictures and it wasn`t until I was an adult I realized that calling someone “white” was a huge insult for the Vikings.