With the help of HM Queen Margrethe, ‘The Viking Sorceress’ exhibition has opened at The National Museum of Denmark. Showcasing women in the Viking Age, this exhibition will likely be one of the highlights for medievalists this summer.
Created with the help of Royal Danish Theatre, this exhibition combines medieval artifacts with interactive displays as it focuses on the story of the Vǫlva, a female Viking sorceress. The Vǫlva was both a female cult leader and a recurring mythological figure. Although most people think about the men and their raids when they think about the Viking Age, the Vǫlva was the one who possessed powers so great that even the god of kings, Odin himself, needed help and advice from women of her kind.
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“We are used to thinking about what the Vikings were – but rarely about who they were, or what they thought,” says Rane Willerslev, Director of The National Museum of Denmark. “In this exhibition, we seek to reflect how the Vikings attempted to understand their place in the world – helped by the Vǫlva. In doing so, we hope to attain an understanding of the fact that other people from other periods of time do not experience the world in the same way as we do. This is a decisive insight in terms of navigating the world as modern people of today.”
Photo by Roberto Fortuna / National Museum of Denmark
The exhibition opens with a journey, where Odin meets the Vǫlva, who tells the god and the visitors the story about Ragnarok. It then features hundreds of medieval items, which include a metal staff from a Viking Age grave, a 10th-century crucifix, and a brooch depicting the Fenris Wolf.
With the help of HM Queen Margrethe, ‘The Viking Sorceress’ exhibition has opened at The National Museum of Denmark. Showcasing women in the Viking Age, this exhibition will likely be one of the highlights for medievalists this summer.
Created with the help of Royal Danish Theatre, this exhibition combines medieval artifacts with interactive displays as it focuses on the story of the Vǫlva, a female Viking sorceress. The Vǫlva was both a female cult leader and a recurring mythological figure. Although most people think about the men and their raids when they think about the Viking Age, the Vǫlva was the one who possessed powers so great that even the god of kings, Odin himself, needed help and advice from women of her kind.
“We are used to thinking about what the Vikings were – but rarely about who they were, or what they thought,” says Rane Willerslev, Director of The National Museum of Denmark. “In this exhibition, we seek to reflect how the Vikings attempted to understand their place in the world – helped by the Vǫlva. In doing so, we hope to attain an understanding of the fact that other people from other periods of time do not experience the world in the same way as we do. This is a decisive insight in terms of navigating the world as modern people of today.”
The exhibition opens with a journey, where Odin meets the Vǫlva, who tells the god and the visitors the story about Ragnarok. It then features hundreds of medieval items, which include a metal staff from a Viking Age grave, a 10th-century crucifix, and a brooch depicting the Fenris Wolf.
‘The Viking Sorceress’ exhibition opened today (June 27th) – to learn more, please visit the museum website.
Top Image: Photo by Roberto Fortuna / National Museum of Denmark.
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